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Border poster

Movies that feel likeBorder (2018)

When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.

If you loved Border, the closest films we have are Holy Spider (2022), The Master and Margarita (2024) and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010). All three share Border's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Black Souls (2014).

🍅 97% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Ali Abbasidreamlikecontemplativegritty
5 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Kino Film Collection · History Vault

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See it on the Mood Map

If Border hit the spot, these will too

Holy Spider poster
Holy Spider
2022 · dir. Ali Abbasi
🍅 82%★ 7.3thriller · drama · crime

The same hand behind both of them: Ali Abbasi

The difference: Trades the dream logic of Border for an angle of its own

A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.

The Master and Margarita poster
The Master and Margarita
2024 · dir. Michael Lockshin
★ 7.1fantasy · drama

Dreamlike and contemplative in the same breath

The difference: Takes it somewhere less gritty than Border does

A struggling writer in 1930s Soviet Moscow finds his life transformed when a mysterious professor arrives with his bizarre entourage, including a wisecracking trickster, a deadly assassin, a vampire maid, and a giant talking black cat, turning the city upside down while exposing the hypocrisy of those in power.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives poster
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
2010 · dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
🍅 90%★ 6.7drama · fantasy

Dreamlike fantasy, and it commits to that

Suffering from a kidney disease and sure of his death, Uncle Boonmee assembles his relatives in the countryside. He reminisces about his past lives and plans to visit a place before dying.

The Green Mile poster
The Green Mile
1999 · dir. Frank Darabont
🍅 78%★ 8.6fantasy · drama · crime

One thread runs through both: supernatural

A supernatural tale set on death row in a Southern prison, where gentle giant John Coffey possesses the mysterious power to heal people's ailments. When the cell block's head guard, Paul Edgecomb, recognizes Coffey's miraculous gift, he tries desperately to help stave off the condemned man's execution.

After Life poster
After Life
1999 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 88%★ 7.6fantasy · drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.

7 Prisoners poster
7 Prisoners
2021 · dir. Alexandre Moratto
🍅 98%★ 7.1drama · crimeNetflix

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

An impoverished teen seeking to escape the clutches of a human trafficker must weigh living up to his moral code against his struggle to survive.

Black Souls poster
Black Souls
2014 · dir. Francesco Munzi
🍅 89%★ 6.8crime · drama

Both lean on grit more than on drama

A former narcotics smuggler, now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son.

A Touch of Sin poster
A Touch of Sin
2013 · dir. Jia Zhangke
🍅 95%★ 7.1crime · drama

Crime built on stillness, twice over

Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.

Loving Pablo poster
Loving Pablo
2017 · dir. Fernando León de Aranoa
🍅 33%★ 6.4crime · drama

Gritty fantasy in both cases

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

The film chronicles the rise and fall of the world's most feared drug lord Pablo Escobar and his volatile love affair with Colombia's most famous journalist Virginia Vallejo throughout a reign of terror that tore a country apart.

R poster
R
2010 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 91%★ 7.1crime · drama

Drama approached the same way

Imprisoned for violent assault, Rune is placed in the hardcore ward, where his survival depends on quickly learning the prison's parallel world of rules, honor, and obligations.

Leviathan poster
Leviathan
2014 · dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
🍅 97%★ 7.6drama · crime

Both working the same crime territory

In a Russian coastal town, Kolya is forced to fight the corrupt mayor when he is told that his house will be demolished. He recruits a lawyer friend to help, but the man's arrival brings further misfortune for Kolya and his family.

The Tree of Life poster
The Tree of Life
2011 · dir. Terrence Malick
🍅 86%★ 6.8drama · fantasy

Both lean on dream logic more than on fantasy

The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

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The best-reviewed films that share Border’s defining feeling.