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Decalogue I poster

Movies that feel likeDecalogue I (1989)

Krzysztof, a semantics professor and computer hobbyist, is raising his young son, Paweł, to look to science for answers, while Irena, Paweł’s aunt, lives a life rooted in faith. Over the course of one day, both adults are forced to question their belief systems.

If you loved Decalogue I, the closest films we have are Blind Chance (1987), A Short Film About Killing (1988) and Through the Olive Trees (1994). All three share Decalogue I's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Cane Toads: An Unnatural History (1988).

★ 8.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Krzysztof Kieślowskicontemplative
9 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel · MGM Plus

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See it on the Mood Map

If Decalogue I hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: Decalogue II (1989)

Blind Chance poster
Blind Chance
1987 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 73%★ 7.7drama

Krzysztof Kieślowski working the same nerve twice

Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.

A Short Film About Killing poster
A Short Film About Killing
1988 · dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski
🍅 91%★ 7.9crime · drama

Krzysztof Kieślowski directing both, with the same fingerprints on each

The difference: Leans harder into crime than Decalogue I does

Jacek climbs into the taxi driven by Waldemar, tells him to drive to a remote location, then brutally strangles him, seemingly without motive.

Through the Olive Trees poster
Through the Olive Trees
1994 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 89%★ 7.7drama

Contemplative drama in both cases

When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.

Isle of Flowers poster
Isle of Flowers
1989 · dir. Jorge Furtado
★ 8.5documentary

Both lean on stillness more than on tv movie

A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. But it doesn’t end there: Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear.

The Whales of August poster
The Whales of August
1987 · dir. Lindsay Anderson
🍅 64%★ 7.1drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine.

The Trip to Bountiful poster
The Trip to Bountiful
1985 · dir. Peter Masterson
🍅 100%★ 7.4dramaPrime Video

Both working the same drama territory

Carrie Watts is living the twilight of her life trapped in an apartment in 1940s Houston, Texas with a controlling daughter-in-law and a hen-pecked son. Her fondest wish – just once before she dies – is to revisit Bountiful, the small Texas town of her youth which she still refers to as "home."

The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On poster
🍅 100%★ 8.2documentary

Contemporaries, and it shows

Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old veteran of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, sets out to conduct interviews with survivors and relatives to find the truth behind atrocities committed by Japanese military, in particular the unexplained killing of two Japanese privates in his unit.

Cane Toads: An Unnatural History poster
Cane Toads: An Unnatural History
1988 · dir. Mark Lewis
🍅 88%★ 7.6documentary

Products of the same few years

A documentary detailing the spread of Hawaiian sugar-cane toads through Australia in a botched effort to introduce them as counter pests.

Brainstorm poster
Brainstorm
2001 · dir. Laís Bodanzky
★ 7.7drama

Drama in the same key

Neto is a middle class teenager living a normal life. After his father finds a marijuana cigarette on his pocket, he is sent to a mental institution, where he gets to know a completely absurd and inhumane reality in which people are devoured by a corrupt and cruel system.

Streetwise poster
Streetwise
1984 · dir. Martin Bell
🍅 92%★ 8.2documentary

Same era, same wavelength

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.

Ulee's Gold poster
Ulee's Gold
1997 · dir. Victor Nuñez
🍅 94%★ 7drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

Third-generation Florida beekeeper Ulee Jackson may have gotten out of Vietnam alive, but he left a part of himself behind. Now he methodically tends his bees, carefully provides for his two grandchildren and keeps his emotions at bay. But when a long-buried secret threatens Ulee's business and family, he is forced to break through his emotional walls and confront the terror of his wounded spirit.

Powaqqatsi poster
Powaqqatsi
1988 · dir. Godfrey Reggio
🍅 56%★ 7.2documentary

A 1980s answer to the same itch

An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.

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