Movies like Silence (1971)
The best movies like Silence (1971) are Silence (2016), Vision - From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009) and The Crucible (1996). If Silence hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedHarakiri (1962)8.5/10 from 1,322 votes
- NewestThe Last Duel (2021)Released 2021
- In JapaneseHarakiri (1962)Also in Japanese
Silence (2016)
In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVision - From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)
Hildegard von Bingen was truly a woman ahead of her time. A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12th-century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
The Crucible (1996)
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe New World (2005)
A drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mission (1986)
When a Spanish Jesuit goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region, a slave hunter is converted and joins his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portuguese aggressors.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Robe (1991)
Missionary Father LaForgue travels to the New World in hopes of converting Algonquin Indians to Catholicism. Accepted, though warily, by the Indians, LaForgue travels with the Indians using his strict Catholic rules and ideals to try and impose his religion.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWitchfinder General (1968)
England, 1645. The cruel civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians that is ravaging the country causes an era of chaos and legal arbitrariness that allows unscrupulous men to profit by exploiting the absurd superstitions of the peasants; like Matthew Hopkins, a monster disguised as a man who wanders from town to town offering his services as a witch hunter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarakiri (1962)
Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Gospel According to St. Matthew (1965)
Along a rocky, barren coastline, Jesus begins teaching, primarily using parables. He attracts disciples; he's stern, brusque, and demanding. His parables often take on the powers that be, so he and his teachings come to the attention of the Pharisees, the chief priests, and elders. They conspire to have him arrested, beaten, tried, and crucified, just as he prophesied to his followers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDay of Wrath (1943)
In a Danish village in the early 1600s, a young woman named Anne, whose mother was thought to be a witch, develops sympathy toward an old woman, Marte, who is accused of witchcraft. The intervention of Anne's older but kindly husband, Pastor Absalon saved her mother -- but now, urged on by his overbearing mother, he refuses to help Marte. When Absalon's son returns home and is attracted to Anne, it's a matter of time before her family destiny catches up with her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAndrei Rublev (1966)
An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHimiko (1974)
A reimagination of the myth of Himiko, focused on her divine role as a sun goddess's oracle and her forbidden love for her half-brother Takehiko, which threatens her power and the kingdom's stability.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
The Name of the Rose (1986)
14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarketa Lazarová (1967)
Mikolás and his brother Adam end up with a young German hostage of noble blood during a robbery. While their clan prepares for the wrath of the German king, Mikolás is sent to pressure his neighbor Lazar into a defense pact. Persuasion fails and he abducts Lazar's daughter Marketa on the eve of her initiation as a nun in an act of vengeance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Man for All Seasons (1966)
A depiction of the conflict between King Henry VIII of England and his Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who refuses to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church in England.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Valley of the Bees (1968)
Cast out by his father, young Ondrej joins the Order of the Teutonic Knights, where he is raised by strict monk Armin. After years of hardship, Ondrej escapes from the Order when he is wrongly punished, and sets out for his former home. Arriving to discover his father to be dead, Ondrej now not only assumes control of his father's properties, but seeks to marry his former stepmother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKundun (1997)
From childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrancis of Assisi (1961)
In 13th century Italy, Francis Bernardone, the son of an Assisi merchant, renounces a promising army career in favor of a monastic life and starts his own religious order, sanctioned by the Pope.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & drama
The Book of Fish (2021)
When the scholar Jeong Yak-jeon is exiled to Heuksando Island during the Catholic Persecution of 1801, he decides to write a fish-based encyclopaedia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHumanity and Paper Balloons (1937)
In a slum in Edo Japan, a ronin hopes that his deceased father's former master will hire him while a disgraced hairdresser attempts to regain his pride by kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy pawnbroker, who is set to be married.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRan (1985)
Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
A classic of the silent age, this film tells the story of the doomed but ultimately canonized 15th-century teenage warrior. On trial for claiming she'd spoken to God, Jeanne d'Arc is subjected to inhumane treatment and scare tactics at the hands of church court officials. Initially bullied into changing her story, Jeanne eventually opts for what she sees as the truth. Her punishment, a famously brutal execution, earns her perpetual martyrdom.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSaint Rita (2004)
Cascia, 14th century, Rita Liotti falls in love, gets married and has two children. Her dream of love is soon hindered by a masculine and violent society, that Rita faces with peace and forgiveness. When she loses her husband and her children, she understands she has a mission: pursuing her path of peace, that will lead her to take the vows, and then to become Saint. Rita is a Saint of these days, who lived in a very violent age and was so brave to break free from the vengeance chain, through a deep, sincere and christian forgiveness. She is a particular Saint, talking to everybody’s hearts, as she was everything. She was a daugher, a wife, a mother and a nun, she experienced every sort of life, and in all her different lives she was a living model of christian life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & drama
Throne of Blood (1957)
Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Countess (2009)
Kingdom of Hungary, 17th century. As she gets older, powerful Countess Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614), blinded by the passion that she feels for a younger man, succumbs to the mad delusion that blood will keep her young and beautiful forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLuther (2003)
During the early 16th century, idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Duel (2021)
King Charles VI declares that Knight Jean de Carrouges settle his dispute with his squire, Jacques Le Gris, by challenging him to a duel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
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 & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Silence?
The closest matches to Silence are Silence (2016), Vision - From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009) and The Crucible (1996). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Silence?
People who watched Silence most often go on to Silence (2016), Vision - From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009) and The Crucible (1996).
What is the highest-rated movie like Silence?
Harakiri (1962), rated 8.5/10 by 1,322 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Silence?
The Last Duel (2021) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Silence?
Yes: Harakiri (1962), Himiko (1974) and Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937).
How are movies similar to Silence chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Silence, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.