Empire Magazine (UK)
June 2002
By Anna Smith

Details: 18/124 mins/May 3
Director: Milcho Manchevski
Cast: Joseph Fiennes, David Wenham, Adrian Lester, Rosemary Murphy
Rated with two stars

Am ambitious attempt at a spiritual Western, Dust jumps between past and present as a dying woman relates the exploits of he ancestors. The tension (in theory) lies in the fact that she is stringing out her tale to keep the attention of a robber who's trying to find out where she keeps her gold coins. Joseph Fiennes and David Wenham both deliver as the gun-toting brothers involved in the Macedonian revolution, but the film's obsession with the subjectivity of the storytelling detracts from our involvement with their fate. Shame, because the strong supporting performances and cinematography do their best to pull use in. As for the contempory narrative, things become increasingly confused by lofty conceptual ambitions. Interesting viewing, but nowhere near as entertaining as it should be.