Movies like Illumination (1973)
The best movies like Illumination (1973) are Decalogue I (1989), Decalogue II (1989) and Blind Chance (1987). If Illumination hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDecalogue I (1989)8.1/10 from 277 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
Decalogue I (1989)
Krzysztof, a semantics professor and computer hobbyist, is raising his young son, Paweł, to look to science for answers, while Irena, Paweł’s aunt, lives a life rooted in faith. Over the course of one day, both adults are forced to question their belief systems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDecalogue II (1989)
Dorota Geller, a married woman, faces a dilemma involving her sick husband's prognosis. Her husband's doctor, who believes in God, sweared about it in vain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlind Chance (1987)
Witek runs after a train. Three variations follow on how such a seemingly banal incident could influence the rest of Witek's life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCamera Buff (1979)
Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFanny Lye Deliver'd (2019)
On an isolated English farm in 1657, Fanny lives a quiet life with her oppressive husband John and their young son. One day their life is rocked with the arrival of young couple Thomas and Rebecca who claim to have been robbed and need a place to stay. But are these strangers really who they say they are?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLockdown (2000)
Avery (Jones) returns to college as a competitive swimmer after getting his life back on track. But his life takes another unexpected turn when he and his two friends (Bonds, Casseus) are wrongly accused of murder and end up in prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLullaby (2014)
Estranged from his family, Jonathan (Hedlund) discovers his father has decided to take himself off life support in forty-eight hours’ time. During this intensely condensed period, a lifetime of drama plays out. Robert (Jenkins) fights a zero sum game to reclaim all that his illness stole from his family. A debate rages on patients’ rights and what it truly means to be free. Jonathan reconciles with his father, reconnects with his mother (Archer), sister (Brown-Findlay), and his love (Adams) and reclaims his voice through two unlikely catalysts – a young, wise-beyond-her-years patient (Barden) and a no-nonsense nurse (Hudson). Through this intensely life affirming prism, an unexpected and powerful journey of love, laughter, and forgiveness unfolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnthinkable (2010)
The government gets wind of a plot to destroy America involving a trio of nuclear weapons for which the whereabouts are unknown. It's up to a seasoned interrogator and an FBI agent to find out exactly where the nukes are.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Corruptor (1999)
Danny is a young cop partnered with Nick, a seasoned but ethically tainted veteran. As the two try to stop a gang war in Chinatown, Danny relies on Nick but grows increasingly uncomfortable with the way Nick gets things done.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDon't Make Me Go (2022)
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCheaters (2000)
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRise of the Footsoldier 3 (2017)
In the late 1980s, Pat Tate journeys from peddling pills in Marbella to his time in prison, where he solidifies his power before his release to reclaim his turf.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)
The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's care.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers (1990)
Two feuding brothers of differing political views, one a policeman, the other a martial artist, join forces to avenge the death of their father, a retired agent who was brutally murdered by the mafia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glorias (2020)
An equal rights crusader, journalist and activist: Gloria Steinem embodies these and more. From her role in the revolutionary women's rights movement to her travels throughout the U.S. and around the world, Steinem has made an everlasting mark on modern history. A nontraditional chronicle of a trailblazing life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisConvict (2014)
Set in the dark and old Parramatta prison built by the original convicts our lead character Ray a war veteran finds himself serving 18 months for manslaughter after defending his fiance. He soon realizes that the prison boss has it in for him and does everything possible to break Ray even going after his fiance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath Wish 3 (1985)
Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey arrives back in New York City and is forcibly recruited by a crooked police chief to fight street crime caused by a large gang terrorizing the neighborhoods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Believer (2001)
A hardcore US racist skinhead who, because of his intelligence, leads a gang dedicated to fighting the enemy: the supposed American-Jewish conspiracy for domination. However, he's hiding a secret: he's Jewish-born, a brilliant scholar whose questioning of the tenets of his faith has left him angry and confused, turning against those who he thinks have a tragic history of their own making.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Valachi Papers (1972)
When Joe Valachi has a price put on his head by Don Vito Genovese, he must take desperate steps to protect himself while in prison. An unsuccessful attempt to slit his throat puts him over the edge to break the sacred code of silence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlindfire (2020)
A police officer who while responding to a violent hostage call, kills the African American suspect only to later learn of his innocence. Sensing this was a set-up, and facing repercussions, he must track down the person responsible while examining his own accountability and the ingrained racism which brought him to this point.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAddicted (2014)
A gallerist risks her family and flourishing career when she enters into an affair with a talented painter and slowly loses control of her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Blue Angel (1930)
Prim professor Immanuel Rath finds some of his students ogling racy photos of cabaret performer Lola Lola and visits a local club, The Blue Angel, in an attempt to catch them there. Seeing Lola perform, the teacher is filled with lust, eventually resigning his position at the school to marry the young woman. However, his marriage to a coquette -- whose job is to entice men -- proves to be more difficult than Rath imagined.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOver the Hill (1931)
In their farm house in a New York village, Ma Shelby prepares breakfast for her four children, Isaac, Tommy, Johnny and Susan, and then awakens them. The racket the boys make as they play and fight awakens their father, who spanks the eldest, Isaac. When a visitor chides Pa for not working, Ma sticks up for her husband, saying that he has a weak back and that he is waiting for a promised government job.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Alguien mató algo (1999)
In this silent style short, filmed in black and white with intertitles instead of spoken dialog, a precocious little girl surrounded by Tv violence and bloody church images of Catholicism, yearns to stay alive forever, as a vampire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Men in Her Life (1931)
A wealthy ex-bootlegger comes to the rescue of a formerly rich society girl after her gold-digging fiancé leaves her stranded when he finds out she's broke. The bootlegger proposes a deal: he will settle her debts if she teaches him how to be "a gentleman".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Immaculate (2013)
A man lives isolated in his grandmother's country-house in an attempt to recover from a tragic event involving his family. His lonely and silent days are spent with an unnameable hope.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Illumination?
The closest matches to Illumination are Decalogue I (1989), Decalogue II (1989) and Blind Chance (1987). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Illumination?
People who watched Illumination most often go on to Decalogue I (1989), Decalogue II (1989) and Blind Chance (1987).
What is the highest-rated movie like Illumination?
Decalogue I (1989), rated 8.1/10 by 277 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Illumination?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Illumination chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Illumination, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.