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Nanook of the North poster

Movies that feel likeNanook of the North (1922)

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.

If you loved Nanook of the North, the closest films we have are The Last Laugh (1924), Man with a Movie Camera (1929) and Drunken Angel (1948). All three share Nanook of the North's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997).

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Robert Flahertycontemplative
7 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel · OVID

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If Nanook of the North hit the spot, these will too

The Last Laugh poster
The Last Laugh
1924 · dir. F. W. Murnau
🍅 100%★ 8drama

Common ground: silent film

An aging doorman, after being fired from his prestigious job at a luxurious hotel, is forced to face the scorn of his friends, neighbours and society.

Man with a Movie Camera poster
Man with a Movie Camera
1929 · dir. Dziga Vertov
🍅 98%★ 8.3documentary

The same preoccupation in both: silent film

A cameraman wanders around with a camera slung over his shoulder, documenting urban life with dazzling inventiveness.

Drunken Angel poster
Drunken Angel
1948 · dir. Akira Kurosawa
🍅 94%★ 7.6drama

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

The difference: 26 years apart, and the 1940s show

In postwar Tokyo, a blunt, alcohol-soaked doctor diagnoses a swaggering young yakuza with tuberculosis, forging an uneasy bond that’s tested when the gangster’s ruthless former boss returns and drags him back toward the swampy underworld he can’t escape.

How Green Was My Valley poster
How Green Was My Valley
1941 · dir. John Ford
🍅 93%★ 7.7drama

Both lean on stillness more than on documentary

Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.

Hamlet poster
Hamlet
1948 · dir. Laurence Olivier
🍅 96%★ 7.5dramaMax

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, Sir Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet continues to be the most compelling version of Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy. Olivier is at his most inspired—both as director and as the melancholy Dane himself—as he breathes new life into the words of one of the world’s greatest dramatists.

The Overnighters poster
The Overnighters
2014 · dir. Jesse Moss
🍅 97%★ 7.4drama · documentary

The same documentary instincts

Desperate, broken men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor's decision to help them has extraordinary and unexpected consequences.

The Right of Youth
1911 · dir. August Blom
★ 6.6drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

Court huntsman, Søtoft, is courting his daughter Else’s lady-in-waiting, Miss Engelke. That’s why it’s a bit of a punch in the stomach when, late one evening, he discovers his son Ove in close contact with her. Chamberlain von Plessen, who had been gossiping to Søtoft and is himself spying on the young couple, is going to set fire to the room they’re in. The hurt Søtoft wants to leave the young couple to their cruel fate – that is until he discovers that it’s not Engelke, but his daughter Else, who is trapped in the flames with her brother. (Stumfilm.dk)

Nostalgia for the Light poster
Nostalgia for the Light
2010 · dir. Patricio Guzmán
🍅 100%★ 7.6documentary

Documentary of the same temperament

In Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet's regime.

Dogtown and Z-Boys poster
Dogtown and Z-Boys
2002 · dir. Stacy Peralta
🍅 92%★ 7.6documentary

Both know what they want from documentary

This award-winning, thrilling story is about a group of discarded kids who revolutionized skateboarding and shaped the attitude and culture of modern day extreme sports. Featuring old skool skating footage, exclusive interviews and a blistering rock soundtrack, DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS captures the rise of the Zephyr skateboarding team from Venice's Dogtown, a tough "locals only" beach with a legacy of outlaw surfing.

Salesman poster
Salesman
1969 · dir. David Maysles
🍅 100%★ 7.6documentaryMax

Both play documentary straight

This documentary from Albert and David Maysles follows the bitter rivalry of four door-to-door salesmen working for the Mid-American Bible Company: Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker and Raymond "The Bull" Martos. Times are tough for this hard-living quartet, who spend their days traveling through small-town America, trying their best to peddle gold-leaf Bibles to an apathetic crowd of lower-middle-class housewives and elderly couples.

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

Both are documentary through and through

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

Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary poster
Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary
1997 · dir. S.R. Bindler
🍅 84%★ 7.6documentary

Documentary in the same key

Filmmaker S.R. Bindler profiles Texas contestants trying to win a truck by keeping one hand on it longer than everyone else.

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The best-reviewed films that share Nanook of the North’s defining feeling.