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The Master and Margarita poster

Movies that feel likeThe Master and Margarita (2024)

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.

If you loved The Master and Margarita, the closest films we have are Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), After Life (1999) and The Tree of Life (2011). All three share The Master and Margarita's dreamlike and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is A Chinese Ghost Story (1987).

7 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Amazon Prime Video · Criterion Channel

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If The Master and Margarita hit the spot, these will too

Looking for the series itself? Also in this series: The Master (2012)

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

Both land dream logic and stillness at once

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.

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

Both lean on dream logic more than on fantasy

The difference: Made in the 1990s, in a different era of the craft

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.

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

Drama built on stillness, twice over

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.

Finding Neverland poster
Finding Neverland
2004 · dir. Marc Forster
🍅 83%★ 7.6drama · fantasyRent or buy

Dreamlike fantasy in both cases

During a writing slump, playwright J.M. Barrie meets a widow and her four children, all young boys—who soon become an important part of Barrie’s life and the inspiration that lead him to create his masterpiece. Peter Pan.

Border poster
Border
2018 · dir. Ali Abbasi
🍅 97%★ 7fantasy · drama · crime

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Leans harder into crime than The Master and Margarita does

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.

I Am Dragon poster
I Am Dragon
2015 · dir. Indar Dzhendubaev
★ 6.8fantasy · romancePrime Video

Both are fantasy through and through

The difference: Easier on the stillness than The Master and Margarita

In the midst of the wedding princess Miroslava is kidnapped by a dragon and carried away into his castle on the remote island. Mira left everything behind in the past - family, friends and groom. Now the only things she had were a stone cage and a mysterious young man named Arman ... but who is he and what is he doing on that island? Miroslava will know the truth too late: loving a dragon will reveal the bitter truth - love is scary.

Upon the Magic Roads poster
Upon the Magic Roads
2021 · dir. Oleg Pogodin
★ 5.7adventure · fantasy

Both play fantasy straight

The difference: Takes it somewhere less contemplative than The Master and Margarita does

Romantic John the Fool and his friend Foal set out on a series of unpredictable adventures in different magical worlds. The two buddies will have to outsmart an evil tyrant king, catch the firebird, and find John’s true love.

Russian Ark poster
Russian Ark
2002 · dir. Aleksandr Sokurov
🍅 89%★ 7.2drama · fantasy · history

The same drama instincts

A ghost and a French marquis wander through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, encountering scenes from many different periods of its history.

A Writer's Odyssey poster
A Writer's Odyssey
2021 · dir. Lu Yang
🍅 93%★ 6.2fantasy · action · adventure

The drama is handled with the same confidence

Lu Kongwen is the author of a fantasy novel series following a heroic teenager, also named Kongwen, on a quest to end the tyrannical rule of Lord Redmane, under the guidance of a Black Armor. But through a strange twist of fate, the fantasy world of the novel begins to impact life in the real world, leading Guan Ning to accept a mission from Tu Ling to kill the author.

Tokyo Story poster
Tokyo Story
1953 · dir. Yasujirō Ozu
🍅 100%★ 8.1dramaMax

Drama approached the same way

The elderly Shukishi and his wife, Tomi, take the long journey from their small seaside village to visit their adult children in Tokyo. Their elder son, Koichi, a doctor, and their daughter, Shige, a hairdresser, don't have much time to spend with their aged parents, and so it falls to Noriko, the widow of their younger son who was killed in the war, to keep her in-laws company.

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya poster
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya
2013 · dir. Isao Takahata
🍅 100%★ 8animation · drama · fantasyMax

Fantasy in the same key

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

A Chinese Ghost Story poster
A Chinese Ghost Story
1987 · dir. Tony Ching Siu-Tung
🍅 70%★ 7.3fantasy · actionPrime Video

Fantasy of the same temperament

A naïve young tax collector for the imperial government winds up spending the night in a haunted temple. There he falls in love with a beautiful woman who, unfortunately, is dead. With the aid of a powerful Daoist Swordsman, he must defeat undead hordes, overcome a sinister Tree Demoness, and descend to the pits of hell, to fight for the spirit he loves.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Master and Margarita’s defining feeling.