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Movies that feel like The White Ribbon (2009)

If you loved The White Ribbon, the closest films we have are The Return (2003), Innocence (2005) and Winter's Bone (2010). All three share The White Ribbon's contemplative and twisty feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 6 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Hulu, MUBI and ARROW and others, checked against today's data.

An aged tailor recalls his life as the schoolteacher of a small village in Northern Germany that was struck by a series of strange events in the year leading up to WWI.

🍅 85% Rotten Tomatoes7.8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Michael Hanekecontemplativetwisty

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If The White Ribbon hit the spot, these will too

The Return poster
The Return
2003 · dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
7.9drama · mystery

Contemplative and twisty in the same breath

Two young brothers in contemporary Russia are reunited with a father they know only from an old photograph after his sudden return from a long absence. With their mother’s reluctant consent, they set out on a remote trip that quickly becomes an uneasy test of authority, trust, and masculinity. As the journey moves deeper into the wilderness, the fragile bonds between father and sons are pushed to their limits.

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Innocence poster
Innocence
2005 · dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović
🍅 71%6.8drama · mystery

Drama with a pulse of stillness, in both cases

At a peculiar all-girls academy, new arrivals, including Iris, are delivered in coffins. Guided by enigmatic teachers, the students dance through enchanted woods by day, while the night unveils sinister lessons that blur innocence and awakening.

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Winter's Bone poster
Winter's Bone
2010 · dir. Debra Granik
🍅 94%7.1drama · mystery

Both lean on twists more than on mystery

After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.

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12 poster
12
2007 · dir. Nikita Mikhalkov
🍅 76%7.5crime · drama · mystery

Contemplative drama in both cases

The difference: Sits closer to crime than The White Ribbon does

A loose remake of “12 Angry Men”, “12” is set in contemporary Moscow where 12 very different men must unanimously decide the fate of a young Chechen accused of murdering his step-father, a Russian army officer. Consigned to a makeshift jury room in a school gymnasium, one by one each man takes center stage to confront, connect, and confess while the accused awaits a verdict and revisits his heartbreaking journey through war in flashbacks.

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Joint Security Area poster
Joint Security Area
2000 · dir. Park Chan-wook
🍅 88%7.7drama · thriller · mystery

Mystery built on twists, twice over

The difference: Leans harder into thriller than The White Ribbon does

Two North Korean soldiers are killed in the border area between North and South Korea, prompting an investigation by a neutral body. The sergeant is the shooter, but the lead investigator, a Swiss-Korean woman, receives differing accounts from the two sides.

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Mother poster
Mother
2009 · dir. Bong Joon Ho
🍅 96%7.7crime · drama · mystery

Both working the same drama territory

A mother lives quietly with her son. One day, a girl is brutally killed, and the boy is charged with the murder. Now, it's his mother's mission to prove him innocent.

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Brick poster
Brick
2006 · dir. Rian Johnson
🍅 79%7.1drama · mystery · crime

Both play mystery straight

A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend.

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Rojo poster
Rojo
2018 · dir. Benjamín Naishtat
🍅 96%6.3drama · mystery · thriller

The drama is handled with the same confidence

A small town in an Argentinian province, 1975. The life of Claudio, a successful lawyer, gets complicated when he has a stupid quarrel with a stranger in a crowded restaurant.

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The Secret in Their Eyes poster
The Secret in Their Eyes
2009 · dir. Juan José Campanella
🍅 89%8.2mystery · thriller · drama

Cut from the same mystery cloth

Hoping to put to rest years of unease concerning a past case, retired criminal investigator Benjamín begins writing a novel based on the unsolved mystery of a newlywed’s rape and murder. With the help of a former colleague, judge Irene, he attempts to make sense of the past.

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The Third Murder poster
The Third Murder
2017 · dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
🍅 87%6.7drama · mystery · crime

Drama of the same temperament

A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy poster
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
2011 · dir. Tomas Alfredson
🍅 84%7drama · thriller · mystery

The same mystery instincts

George Smiley, the aging master spy of the Cold War and once heir apparent to Control, is brought back out of retirement to flush out a top level mole within the Circus. Smiley must travel back through his life and murky workings of the Circus to unravel the net spun by his nemesis Karla 'The Sandman' of the KGB and reveal the identity of the mole before he disappears.

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Marjorie Prime poster
Marjorie Prime
2017 · dir. Michael Almereyda
🍅 89%6.3drama · mystery · science fiction

Both are drama through and through

A service which creates holographic projections of late family members allows an elderly woman to spend time with a younger version of her deceased husband.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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