"The Guidebook" is a rough and sweeping author▓s guide to the city of modern Kiev. At the same time Shapiro▓s original film includes moments of history of soviet Judaism, pictures of total destruction during WWII and many others. There is a lot of impressive chronicle shown in a very dramatic, nervous way of cutting. A strong and confident manner of shooting is combined with a drastic manner of image processing. The language in the movie sounds very much like slang in Kira Muratova▓s works, but it is more rude, more harsh in a specific Kiev way. The movie consists of novels that in a way remind us of "Coffee and cigarettes" by Jim Jarmusch (speaking of the atmosphere). The actors are the real Kiev subcultural "party" characters who star under their own names. All discussions in the movie go around well-known things and places (a novel about clubbing one about housing market a novel about different tourist attractions for those who are in town for the first time a talk of how to get a taxi or how much it would cost to rent an apartment, and so on). Of course, there▓s an introduction and a conclusion - Shapiro▓s trade mark autobiographical philosophical monologues (about untimely decease of a narrative who tells the story). All in all - this is an unusual and conceptual work!
Anton Mazurov, Arthouse.ru

We can feel director▓s love to ▒his object▓ in every frame. The fact that the film about the capital of Ukraine, awakened from everyday dream, will be shown in the context of new European cinema [in Forum Berlinale] is very symbolical.
Cinema

Shapiro lives beyond good and evil - on his own side.
Kievskie Vedomosti

The picture is full of a unique atmosphere of not always pleasant but recognizable reality of our time. And what ever views appear in ▒Putevoditel▓ - right up to disgusting - the author▓s message is surely humane: it is our City - as it is, and we, its citizens, are also so as we are. ⌠My City, you▓re Saint...■ - such is a refrain of ⌠Putevoditel▓s■ soundtrack. We can nothing to add to it.
Zerkalo Nedeli