Best movies like Woman in the Dunes

Similar in 88%

The Wall (2012)

Plot Summary:

A woman inexplicably finds herself cut off from all human contact when an invisible, unyielding wall suddenly surrounds the countryside. Accompanied by her loyal dog Lynx, she becomes immersed in a world untouched by civilization and ruled by the laws of nature.

Similar in 75%

A Snake of June (2002)

Plot Summary:

Set in an anonymous Japanese metropolis, the film tells the tale of shy career woman, Rinko and Shigehiko, her hygiene-obsessed, workaholic husband. The couple explore their sexuality in a number of ways, causing their lives to be disrupted.

Similar in 76%

The Passion of Anna (1969)

Plot Summary:

Andreas, a man struggling with the recent demise of his marriage and his own emotional isolation, befriends a married couple also in the midst of psychological turmoil. In turn he meets Anna, who is grieving the recent deaths of her husband and son. She appears zealous in her faith and steadfast in her search for truth, but gradually her delusions surface. Andreas and Anna pursue a love affair, but he is unable to overcome his feelings of deep humiliation and remains disconnected. Meanwhile, the island community is victimized by an unknown person committing acts of animal cruelty.

Similar in 84%

The Servant (1963)

Plot Summary:

A decadent London aristocrat hires a man-servant to attend to his needs. However, the balance of power starts to shift.

Similar in 81%

Europa (1991)

Plot Summary:

An American, Leopold Kessler, goes to post-war Germany in 1945 to work as a railroad conductor for the Zentropa Rail Line instead of going into the Army because he feels its a more valuable thing to do for the state of the world. He meets Katharina Hartmann, the daughter of the railroad owner and they fall in love.

Similar in 79%

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Plot Summary:

The guests at an upper-class dinner party find themselves unable to leave. The Exterminating Angel is a 1962 surrealist film, written and directed by Luis Buñuel, starring Silvia Pinal. Sharply satirical and allegorical, the film contains a view of human nature suggesting "mankind harbors savage instincts and unspeakable secrets". It is considered one of the best 1,000 films by The New York Times.

Similar in 78%

Bullet Ballet (1998)

Plot Summary:

After his girlfriend commits suicide, a man (Shinya Tsukamoto) becomes embroiled in gang warfare attempting to obtain a gun in hopes to kill himself.

Similar in 78%

The Face of Another (1966)

Plot Summary:

A businessman with a disfigured face obtains a lifelike mask from his doctor, but the mask starts altering his personality.

Similar in 88%

Red Desert (1964)

Plot Summary:

Amid the modern wastelands and toxic factories of Italy, wife and mother Giuliana (Monica Vitti) desperately tries to conceal her tenuous grip on reality from those around her, especially her successful yet neglectful husband, Ugo (Carlo Chionetti). Ugo's old pal, Corrado (Richard Harris), shows up in town on a business trip and is more sensitive to Giuliana's anxieties. They begin an affair, but it does little to quell Giuliana's existential fears, and her mental state rapidly deteriorates.

Similar in 86%

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life (1995)

Plot Summary:

Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?.

Similar in 80%

Devil Woman (1964)

Plot Summary:

In medieval times, on a remote plain, a widow and her mother-in-law kill wandering samurai, put their bodies in a hole in the ground and sell their armour and valuables, until the daughter-in-law falls in love with one of their intended victims.

Similar in 79%

Nostalgia (1983)

Plot Summary:

The Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov, accompanied by guide and translator Eugenia, is traveling through Italy researching the life of an 18th-century Russian composer. In an ancient spa town, he meets the lunatic Domenico, who years earlier had imprisoned his own family in his house for seven years to save them from the evils of the world. Seeing some deep truth in Domenico's act, Andrei becomes drawn to him. In a series of dreams, the poet's nostalgia for his homeland and his longing for his wife, his ambivalent feelings for Eugenia and Italy, and his sense of kinship with Domenico become intertwined.

Similar in 82%

The Passenger (1975)

Plot Summary:

David Locke (Jack Nicholson) is a world-weary American journalist who has been sent to cover a conflict in northern Africa, but he makes little progress with the story. When he discovers the body of a stranger who looks similar to him, Locke assumes the dead man's identity. However, he soon finds out that the man was an arms dealer, leading Locke into dangerous situations. Aided by a beautiful woman (Maria Schneider), Locke attempts to avoid both the police and criminals out to get him.

Similar in 86%

The Collector (1965)

Plot Summary:

Freddie is an inept bank clerk with no future. His only hobby is collecting butterflies, which gives him a feeling of power and control that is otherwise totally missing from his life. He comes into a large sum of money, and buys himself a country house. Still unable to make himself at ease socially, he starts to plan on acquiring a girl friend - in the same manner as he collects butterflies. He prepares the cellar of the house to be a collecting jar, and stalks his victim over several days.

Similar in 77%

Winter Light (1963)

Plot Summary:

A Swedish pastor fails a loving woman, a suicidal fisherman and God.

Similar in 80%

Repulsion (1965)

Plot Summary:

In Roman Polanski's first English-language film, beautiful young manicurist Carole suffers from androphobia (the pathological fear of interaction with men). When her sister and roommate, Helen, leaves their London flat to go on an Italian holiday with her married boyfriend, Carole withdraws into her apartment. She begins to experience frightful hallucinations, her fear gradually mutating into madness.

Similar in 81%

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Plot Summary:

Nothing is as it seems when a woman experiencing misgivings about her new boyfriend joins him on a road trip to meet his parents at their remote farm.

Similar in 86%

Through a Glass Darkly (1961)

Plot Summary:

Karin hopes to recover from her recent stay at a mental hospital by spending the summer at her family's cottage on a tiny island. Her husband, Martin, cares for her but is frustrated by her physical withdrawal. Her younger bother, Minus, is confused by Karin's vulnerability and his own budding sexuality. Their father, David, cannot overcome his haughty remoteness. Beset by visions, Karin descends further into madness.

Similar in 87%

Persona (1966)

Plot Summary:

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. Alma eventually confesses her secrets to a seemingly sympathetic Elisabeth and finds that her own personality is being submerged into Elisabeth's persona.

Similar in 75%

The Trial (1962)

Plot Summary:

An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges.

Similar in 80%

Misery (1990)

Plot Summary:

Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of Paul's heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy.

Similar in 79%

Naked Lunch (1991)

Plot Summary:

After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally murders his wife and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in an Islamic port town in Africa.

Similar in 75%

3 Women (1977)

Plot Summary:

An awkward young teen working at a spa becomes overly attached to her fellow worker, a lonely outcast. They hang out at a bar owned by a strange pregnant artist and her has-been cowboy husband. Amid emotional crises, the three woman steal and trade one another's personalities.

Similar in 79%

Room (2015)

Plot Summary:

Jack is a young boy of 5 years old who has lived all his life in one room. He believes everything within it are the only real things in the world. But what will happen when his Ma suddenly tells him that there are other things outside of Room?.

Similar in 90%

Dogtooth (2009)

Plot Summary:

Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.

Similar in 75%

The Experiment (2001)

Plot Summary:

Das Experiment is a shocking psycho thriller about the potential for brutality that humans hide. Even more shocking is the fact that it’s based on an actual occurrence—a 1971 psychological experiment at Stanford University that was aborted prematurely when the experimenters lost control.

Similar in 83%

Enemy (2013)

Plot Summary:

A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.

Similar in 89%

The Machinist (2004)

Plot Summary:

The Machinist is the story of Trevor Reznik, a lathe-operator who is dying of insomnia. In a machine shop, occupational hazards are bad enough under normal circumstances; yet for Trevor the risks are compounded by fatigue. Trevor has lost the ability to sleep. This is no ordinary insomnia.