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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 Writer's Odyssey (2021).

8 of 12 streaming nowHBO Max · Criterion Channel · Kino Film Collection

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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.

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

The same fantasy instincts

The difference: Sits closer to history than The Master and Margarita does

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

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

Both are drama through and through

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.

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

The fantasy 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.

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

Drama 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.

Wild Strawberries poster
Wild Strawberries
1957 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 94%★ 8.1dramaMax

Both working the same drama territory

Crotchety retired doctor Isak Borg travels from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, with his pregnant and unhappy daughter-in-law, Marianne, in order to receive an honorary degree from his alma mater. Along the way, they encounter a series of hitchhikers, each of whom causes the elderly doctor to muse upon the pleasures and failures of his own life. These include the vivacious young Sara, a dead ringer for the doctor's own first love.

The Seventh Seal poster
The Seventh Seal
1957 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 93%★ 8.1fantasy · dramaMax

Fantasy approached the same way

When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.

Persona poster
Persona
1966 · dir. Ingmar Bergman
🍅 91%★ 8dramaMax

Drama of the same temperament

A young nurse, Alma, is put in charge of Elisabeth Vogler: an actress who is seemingly healthy in all respects, but will not talk. As they spend time together, Alma speaks to Elisabeth constantly, never receiving any answer.

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