 Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" rated it 4/5 stars and wrote, "This enthralling documentary reveals the extraordinary upheavals at the Bolshoi Ballet as the tip of Russia’s rage iceberg".Brian Siebert of "The New York Times" called it "more attractive than illuminating", as it is "surprisingly short on drama" considering the subject matter.Laura Bleiberg of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote, "These twin tracts of darkness and light, the sordid and the sublime, quite effectively submerge the viewer into a closed world."