critics consensus

No Place on Earth is a haunting and well-researched -- if occasionally uneven -- account of human endurance in Nazi Germany. Read critic reviews

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No Place on Earth Photos

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Movie Info

In 1993, spelunker Christopher Nicola finds the cave in which a group of Ukrainian Jews spent more than 500 days hiding from Nazis during World War II.

Rating:

PG-13 (Brief Violent Images|Thematic Elements)
Genre:

documentary
Original Language:

English
Director:

Janet Tobias
Producer:

Susan Barnett, Paul Laikin, Rafael Marmor
Writer:

Janet Tobias, Paul Laikin
Release Date (Theaters):

Apr 5, 2013 limited
Release Date (Streaming):

Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA):

$199.7K
Runtime:

1h 24m

Cast & Crew

Janet Tobias
Director

Janet Tobias
Screenwriter

Paul Laikin
Screenwriter

David McKillop
Executive Producer

Timm Oberwelland
Executive Producer

J. Flint Davis
Executive Producer

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for No Place on Earth

All Critics (40) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (8)

This film, while hardly being a masterpiece of cinema, has more than its share of gripping moments and emotional revelations.

September 26, 2017 | Full Review…

Jordan Hoffman
Times of Israel
None of my formal quibbles is meant to make light of this heroic story. Indeed, some chronicle is better than no chronicle, but the past exists only in the retelling; how history is written is as important as the story itself.

May 3, 2013 | Rating: 2.5/5 | Full Review…

Leah Churner
Austin Chronicle
"No Place on Earth" is at its most moving when showing us, in close-up, the still-haunted faces of the cave dwellers, many of whom tell their stories to director Janet Tobias' camera.

May 2, 2013 | Rating: 2.5/4

Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times
[A] fascinating but frustrating documentary ...

May 2, 2013 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

Peter Keough
Boston Globe
The film is not without its flaws, but the story it tells is both terrifying and inspiring.

May 2, 2013 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Kerry Lengel
Arizona Republic
The producer's hand is heavy in No Place on Earth, but it ultimately can't sink the inspiring tale of endurance.

April 26, 2013 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Elizabeth Horkley
Philadelphia Inquirer
While there's not much that sets No Place on Earth above a well constructed program one would see on the History Channel, it's a compelling tale from a horrific period of time.

August 9, 2019 | Full Review…

Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
Janet Tobias has expertly crafted this tale of Jewish families in the western Ukraine fighting for their lives by ferreting underground and living for nearly a year and a half in dark, damp caves in the countryside.

March 13, 2014 | Rating: 4.5/5 | Full Review…

James Wegg
JWR
This is the remarkable story of a few of Holocaust survivors who lived over 500 days in caves, coming out into the light only when the German army had been driven from the Ukraine.

January 1, 2014 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Robert Roten
Laramie Movie Scope
It plays out as a unique real-life adventure Holocaust story, that touches the heart strings.

November 27, 2013 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
This is a nearly forgotten chapter of Holocaust history brought back to life by this documentary.

November 13, 2013 | Rating: 7/10 | Full Review…

Mark R. Leeper
Mark Leeper's Reviews
A powerful true-life story gets a rather pedestrian treatment in this compelling documentary.

June 12, 2013 | Full Review…

Todd Jorgenson
Cinemalogue