"Bursts of fury mark the storyline of this film, other moments too, as striking and bright, although more rare. There are moments when tenderness shines softly, infused with nostalgia. A woman’s hand caresses a man’s hair. A man, the most bitter of the lot, scorched by life, recounts his happy childhood in a public garden while a little girl plays not far from him. Instances when peacefulness is suspended, but listening to his story who can foretell what future awaits her? These ruptures in the tone of a film crafted like an outline in its denunciation of a ruthless society but peopled with beings made of flesh and blood, say all too well that Zeki Demirkubuz knows where he wants to go, from his first film. His very brief note in the press kit about his quest for “meaning to life” is therefore not surprising: “When you give such meaning to life, the fact of making films becomes an ethical problem. Obviously, there is no space for such comportments in this day and age. Cinema, defined as chiefly a commercial activity, linked to numbers of spectators, forces films to turn to the rest of the world and to please a majority.” Émile Breton. L’Humanité. July 14, 1999

"For Demirkubuz there is much more to this story, not the least being the solitary wanderings of Yusuf, later joined by Cilem as they pursue her absent parents. At one point Yusuf and Cilem pass a poster of Charlie Chaplin and his ward from The Kid, and Yusuf pauses to look at it, pointing our attention to it as well. This invocation of Chaplin is more than a wry homage; it defines the aspiration of the film we are watching." Robert A. Haller, Five Films of Zeki Demirkubuz, 2003

"...the film resists time and becomes a locus that is enriched with Destiny. We keep revisiting this locus: the locus of love, belonging, suffering, and an impossible desire that tears apart the preconceived, predestined pattern of life. Through the cracks of reality, Innocence beckons a quest for truth where truth can only be found in love." Ovgu Gokce, Mental Minefields: The Dark Tales of Zeki Demirkubuz, 2007