[4] The film explores and follows the protests and violence in Kyiv's Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) which lead to the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych.

"[10] In his review for Variety, Jay Weissberg wrote that "In contrast with most documentaries made in the wake of an historic event, "Maidan" will last beyond the current Ukrainian upheaval to stand as compelling witness and a model response to a seminal moment too fresh to be fully processed.

"[12] Michael Atkinson of The Village Voice called it "Easily the most rigorous, vital, and powerful movie of 2014, Sergei Loznitsa's Maidan may be a perfect Bazinian cinema-machine - reality is captured, crystallized, honored for its organic complexity, and delivered unpoisoned by exposition or emphasis.

You register Maidan just as you do the well-known paintings of horror from, say, the Spanish Civil War and the French Revolution: Not an interpretation, but an artwork capturing the truth of a historic moment.

"[16] Oleg Ivanov of Slant Magazine gave the film three out of four stars, writing that "[i]t puts the viewer inside Maidan, allowing them to draw their own conclusions about the ideas and agendas espoused by the movement's leaders and participants.