Movies like The Salt of the Earth (2014)
The best movies like The Salt of the Earth (2014) are Occupied City (2023), Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020) and Rivers and Tides (2001). If The Salt of the Earth hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBaraka (1992)8.2/10 from 735 votes
- NewestWhispers in the Woods (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchOur Body (2023)Also in French
Occupied City (2023)
The past collides with the present in this excavation of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam: a journey from World War II to recent years of pandemic and protest and a provocative, life-affirming reflection on memory, time and what's to come.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020)
This remarkable journey across our planet and universe explores how meteorites, shooting stars, and deep impacts have awoken our wonder about other realms—and make us rethink our destinies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRivers and Tides (2001)
Portrait of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist whose specialty is ephemeral sculptures made from elements of nature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBaraka (1992)
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCitizenfour (2014)
In June 2013, Laura Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with Edward Snowden. She brought her camera with her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLife in a Day (2011)
A documentary shot by filmmakers all over the world that serves as a time capsule to show future generations what it was like to be alive on the 24th of July, 2010.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOur Body (2023)
In a Parisian public hospital, Claire Simon questions what it means to live in women’s bodies, filming their diversity, singularity and their beauty in all stages throughout life. Unique stories of desires, fears and struggles unfold, including the one of the filmmaker herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Lovely Month of May (1963)
Candid interviews of ordinary people on the meaning of happiness, an often amorphous and inarticulable notion that evokes more basic and fundamentally egalitarian ideals of self-betterment, prosperity, tolerance, economic opportunity, and freedom.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHome (2009)
In 200,000 years of existence, man has upset the balance on which the Earth had lived for 4 billion years. Global warming, resource depletion, species extinction: man has endangered his own home. But it is too late to be pessimistic: humanity has barely ten years left to reverse the trend, become aware of its excessive exploitation of the Earth's riches, and change its consumption pattern.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gleaners and I (2000)
Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoneyland (2019)
When nomadic beekeepers break Honeyland’s basic rule (take half of the honey, but leave half to the bees), the last female beehunter in Europe must save the bees and restore natural balance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWaste Land (2010)
An uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters who live and work in the garbage quoting Machiavelli and showing us how to recycle ourselves.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cove (2009)
The Cove tells the amazing true story of how an elite team of individuals, films makers and free divers embarked on a covert mission to penetrate the hidden cove in Japan, shining light on a dark and deadly secret. The shocking discoveries were only the tip of the iceberg.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKoyaanisqatsi (1983)
Takes us to locations all around the US and shows us the heavy toll that modern technology is having on humans and the earth. The visual tone poem contains neither dialogue nor a vocalized narration: its tone is set by the juxtaposition of images and the exceptional music by Philip Glass.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisKedi (2017)
A profile of Istanbul and its unique people, seen through the eyes of the most mysterious and beloved animal humans have ever known, the Cat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhispers in the Woods (2025)
In the heart of the tranquil Vosges forests, where lynxes, bears and deer roam freely, Vincent Munier accompanies his father on his expeditions. He not only seeks to capture the visual wonders of this forest kingdom, but also aims to make its sounds audible. Every whisper of the forest is a reminder of the knowledge of nature that his father once imbued in him – knowledge that Vincent now passes on to his own son. Vincent Munier combines breathtaking footage of nature and its sounds to create a fairytale-like cinematic experience that slows time down.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Last Journey (2024)
Renowned Swedish TV-duo Filip and Fredrik embark on a trip to France, aiming to rekindle the zest for life of Filip's father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Space in Between: Marina Abramović and Brazil (2016)
Marina Abramović travels through Brazil, in search of personal healing and artistic inspiration, experiencing sacred rituals and revealing her creative process. The route is comprised of poignant encounters with healers and sages from the Brazilian countryside, exploring the limits between art and spirituality. This external trip triggers in Marina a profound introspective journey through memories, pain and past experiences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Faces Places (2017)
Director Agnès Varda and photographer/muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAquarela (2018)
From massive waves to melting ice, filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky travels around the world to capture stunning images of the beauty and raw power of water.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Ansel Adams (2002)
The timeless photographs of Ansel Adams have made him one of the most recognized and admired names in art. This intimate look at the man and his work details his position as a staunch environmentalist and how his art reflected his strong worldview. David Ogden Stiers narrates this profile produced for the PBS series "American Experience," which was directed by Emmy-winning documentarian Ric Burns.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Heart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPina (2011)
Pina is a feature-length dance film in 3D with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, featuring the unique and inspiring art of the great German choreographer, who died in the summer of 2009.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGretchen Road Movie (2010)
In 2008, Gretchen divided her twerking between the stage and the podium. The singer and dancer – also known as the "Booty Queen" – traveled through villages in the northeast of Brazil, making a living as an artist in local circuses and making noise in her campaign for mayor of Itamaracá Island, in Pernambuco. From circus to circus, the film records the performer's experiences to face her political opponents and her new audience, the electorate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Finding Vivian Maier (2014)
Vivian Maier's photos were seemingly destined for obscurity, lost among the clutter of the countless objects she'd collected throughout her life. Instead these images have shaken the world of street photography and irrevocably changed the life of the man who brought them to the public eye. This film brings to life the interesting turns and travails of the improbable saga of John Maloof's discovery of Vivian Maier, unravelling this mysterious tale through her documentary films, photographs, odd collections and personal accounts from the people that knew her. What started as a blog to show her work quickly became a viral sensation in the photography world. Photos destined for the trash heap now line gallery exhibitions, a forthcoming book and this documentary film.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisExit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSamsara (2011)
Filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, and shot on seventy-millimetre film, Samsara transports us to the varied worlds of sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial complexes, and natural wonders.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGrizzly Man (2005)
Follows the story of "Grizzly Man" Timothy Treadwell and what the thirteen summers in a National Park in Alaska were like in his attempt to protect the grizzly bears. The film is full of unique images and a look into the spirit of a man who sacrificed himself for nature.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFire at Sea (2016)
Capturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2019)
When Bruce Chatwin was dying of AIDS, his friend Werner Herzog made a final visit. As a parting gift, Chatwin gave him his rucksack. Thirty years later, Herzog sets out on his own journey, inspired by Chatwin’s passion for the nomadic life, uncovering stories of lost tribes, wanderers and dreamers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Salt of the Earth?
The closest matches to The Salt of the Earth are Occupied City (2023), Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020) and Rivers and Tides (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Salt of the Earth?
People who watched The Salt of the Earth most often go on to Occupied City (2023), Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds (2020) and Rivers and Tides (2001).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Salt of the Earth?
Baraka (1992), rated 8.2/10 by 735 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Salt of the Earth?
Whispers in the Woods (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Salt of the Earth?
Yes: Our Body (2023), The Lovely Month of May (1963) and Home (2009).
How are movies similar to The Salt of the Earth chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Salt of the Earth, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.