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Black Souls poster

Movies that feel likeBlack Souls (2014)

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.

If you loved Black Souls, the closest films we have are R (2010), My Name Ain't Johnny (2008) and A Touch of Sin (2013). All three share Black Souls' gritty and contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Into the Abyss (2011).

🍅 89% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Francesco Munzigrittycontemplative
7 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · Kino Film Collection · Film Movement Plus

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See it on the Mood Map

If Black Souls hit the spot, these will too

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

Gritty and contemplative in the same breath

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.

My Name Ain't Johnny poster
My Name Ain't Johnny
2008 · dir. Mauro Lima
★ 7.2crime · drama

Crime with a pulse of grit, in both cases

The true story of João Guilherme Estrella ("Johnny"), a young middle-class bon vivant who became a big-time cocaine dealer in Rio de Janeiro in the early 1990s.

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

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

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.

Frozen River poster
Frozen River
2008 · dir. Courtney Hunt
🍅 88%★ 7.1drama · crime

Gritty crime in both cases

A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.

Green Fish poster
Green Fish
1997 · dir. Lee Chang-dong
★ 7drama · crime

Drama built on stillness, twice over

Returning home and finding his town drastically changed, a former soldier falls in with gangsters.

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

Both working the same crime territory

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.

Into the Abyss poster
Into the Abyss
2011 · dir. Werner Herzog
🍅 92%★ 7.3documentary · crime

Crime in the same key

The difference: Sits closer to documentary than Black Souls does

We do not know when and how we will die. Death Row inmates do. Werner Herzog embarks on a dialogue with Death Row inmates, asks questions about life and death and looks deep into these individuals, their stories, their crimes.

The Fool poster
The Fool
2014 · dir. Yury Bykov
🍅 93%★ 7.9drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.

TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay - Away from Keyboard poster
★ 7.4documentary · crimeRent or buy

The same crime instincts

TPB AFK is a documentary about three computer addicts who redefined the world of media distribution with their hobby homepage The Pirate Bay. How did Tiamo, a beer crazy hardware fanatic, Brokep a tree hugging eco activist and Anakata – a paranoid hacker libertarian – get the White House to threaten the Swedish government with trade sanctions? TPB AFK explores what Hollywood’s most hated pirates go through on a personal level.

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

Drama approached the same way

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.

Amanda Knox poster
Amanda Knox
2016 · dir. Rod Blackhurst
🍅 82%★ 6.9documentary · crimeNetflix

Cut from the same crime cloth

This gripping, atmospheric documentary recounts the infamous trial, conviction and eventual acquittal of Seattle native Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of a British exchange student in Italy.

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

Both know what they want from drama

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.

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The best-reviewed films that share Black Souls’ defining feeling.