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Movies that feel like Carandiru (2003)

If you loved Carandiru, the closest films we have are Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl (2011), Evil (2003) and Brainstorm (2001). All three share Carandiru's contemplative feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Netflix, HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video and others, checked against today's data.

When a doctor decides to carry out an AIDS prevention program inside Latin America’s largest prison: the Casa de Detenção de São Paulo – Carandiru, he meets the future victims of one of the darkest days in Brazilian history.

🍅 68% Rotten Tomatoes7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Héctor Babencocontemplative

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If Carandiru hit the spot, these will too

Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl poster
Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl
2011 · dir. Marcus Baldini
6.2drama

One thread runs through both: sao paulo, brazil

Rachel is a girl, adopted by an upper middle class family, who rebelled at 17 and left her family and studies at a traditional college in Sao Paulo to become a sexy call girl. Shortly after starting work, she decided to write a blog about her experiences. Since some clients thought she looked like a surfer she adopted the name "Surfistinha" which means little surfer girl.

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Evil poster
Evil
2003 · dir. Mikael Håfström
🍅 68%7.7drama

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

Stockholm, in the 1950s. Erik is expelled from the local school for getting into one brawl too many. To protect Erik from his violent stepfather’s reaction to his expulsion, Erik's mother arranges for Erik to spend a year at Stjärnsberg Boarding School, the only school willing to accept him. This is Erik's last chance to graduate to Upper School and he promises his mother, for his and her sake, to do all he can to stay out of trouble.

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Brainstorm poster
Brainstorm
2001 · dir. Laís Bodanzky
7.7drama

Drama built on stillness, twice over

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.

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You Can Count on Me poster
You Can Count on Me
2000 · dir. Kenneth Lonergan
🍅 95%7.5drama

Both lean on stillness more than on drama

The difference: Reviewed even better

A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.

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The Son's Room poster
The Son's Room
2001 · dir. Nanni Moretti
🍅 85%7.3drama

Drama of the same temperament

A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba diving accident.

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Main Hoon Na poster
Main Hoon Na
2004 · dir. Farah Khan
7.1drama

Drama in the same key

An army major goes undercover as a college student. His mission is both professional and personal: to protect his general's daughter from a radical militant, and to find his estranged half-brother.

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Manderlay poster
Manderlay
2005 · dir. Lars von Trier
🍅 50%7.2drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

In 1933, a young woman and her father discover an Alabama plantation whose inhabitants live as if slavery had never been abolished. Feeling a sense of duty to those behind the heavy gates, she stays to liberate the people and see them through their first harvest. With four of her father's colleagues and a lawyer, she faces the daunting task of resurrecting the place known as Manderlay.

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Chak De! India poster
Chak De! India
2007 · dir. Shimit Amin
🍅 90%8.1drama

Drama approached the same way

A team of rag-tag girls with their own agenda form Team India competing for international fame in field hockey. Their coach, the ex-men's Indian National team captain, returns from a life of shame after being unjustly accused of match fixing in his last match. Can he give the girls the motivation required to win, while dealing with the shadows of his own past?

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About Elly poster
About Elly
2009 · dir. Asghar Farhadi
🍅 99%7.9drama

Both working the same drama territory

The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.

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Summer Hours poster
Summer Hours
2008 · dir. Olivier Assayas
🍅 94%7.1drama

Both play drama straight

After the death of a septuagenarian woman, her three children deliberate over what to do with her estate.

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Taste of Cherry poster
Taste of Cherry
1997 · dir. Abbas Kiarostami
🍅 82%7.7drama

The same drama instincts

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

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

Both know what they want from drama

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.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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