Boyd van Hoeij of
The Hollywood Reporter found the early parts of the film, before Winkler reaches Afghanistan, to be messy and too light on facts. He also found the mixed technique problematic: "While this approach shows off the versatility of Damian in different media and visually suggests something of the protagonist's agitation and anarchic streak, this choice works against the film because the narrative itself is also restless and somewhat haphazard, at least for the film's first half." Hoeij wrote that Winkler's "emotional journey or journeys are never quite made tangible". The film received a Special Jury Mention at the 2015
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Damian envisions the film as the second part in a trilogy about heroism, after
Crulic: The Path to Beyond from 2011. In 2015, he obtained the prize ANIMAFICX section of the 53rd International Festival of Gijon. In 2016, the film won Grand Prix - Best Feature Film award at the 26th edition of
Animafest Zagreb - World Festival of Animated Film Zagreb, and the
Eurimages Audentia Award at the
International Istanbul Film Festival. ==References==