Film
Faraway, So Close!
Wim Wenders' sequel finds angels still watching over Berlin, now reunited but fractured by crime and capitalism. A meditation on goodness in a fallen world, shot through with noir melancholy and genuine tenderness. For anyone who loved the first film, or who believes cinema can be as moving as prayer.
If you liked this
Wings of Desire1987
The original, essential viewing. Wenders at his most poetic, introducing Damiel and Cassiel as they contemplate human suffering from above. Incomparably beautiful and strange.
But Nearly three hours of philosophical drift. If you need plot momentum, this will feel glacial. Requires patience and openness.

The Thin Red Line1998
Terrence Malick's war film asks the same questions about grace, suffering, and God's presence in a broken world. Ecstatic cinematography, whispered philosophy, real devastation beneath.
But Deliberately oblique and meditative. Dialogue is sparse and poetic rather than explanatory. Some find it pretentious; it demands surrender.

Stalker1979
Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece about a guide leading seekers into a mysterious zone. Shares Wenders' faith in cinema as spiritual practice, not entertainment. Hypnotic and unearthly.
But Two hours forty of long shots and minimal action. Soviet science fiction that's really philosophy. Patience isn't optional—it's the entire point.

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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Second Mother2015
Like Wenders, it sees angels in ordinary people. Where Faraway, So Close is about angels watching humans suffer, this is about humans watching each other with radical, demanding compassion. Both are about what we owe each other.
Anna Muylaert's Brazilian drama about a housekeeper returning to confront the family she's worked for. Quietly furious about class and exploitation, but filmed with tenderness. Political without preaching.
But In Portuguese. Not a feel-good film—it's about structural injustice and hurt that doesn't resolve neatly. Some may find it depressing or preachy.

More like this (7)
Mulholland Drive2001
David Lynch's fractured Los Angeles dream mirrors Wenders' Berlin: a city of illusion, corruption, and lost souls. Gorgeous, unsettling, and haunted by questions about identity and desire.
But Deliberately refuses to cohere. The narrative splits and doesn't resolve. If you need answers, you'll leave frustrated and angry.

The Sweet Hereafter1997
Atom Egoyan's portrait of a community destroyed by tragedy, searching for meaning and blame. Elegiac and morally complex, with the same sense of characters adrift in consequence.
But Structured in fragments; requires active assembly. Heavy subject matter about grief and loss. Not comforting, though it tries to be wise.

My Own Private Idaho1991
Gus Van Sant's portrait of street hustlers and lost boys in Portland. Shot through with poetry and genuine compassion for the discarded. Compassion as radical act.
But Graphic sexuality and drug use. Some scenes are difficult. The structure is deliberately loose and hallucinatory, which some find shapeless.

The Liverpool Goalie2010
A quiet German film about an aging man tending a tiny cinema, finding grace in ordinary moments. Unshowy, deeply felt, and about the redemptive power of attention and witness.
But Almost nothing happens. If you need external conflict or dramatic incident, you'll be bored. Small, intimate, and deliberately small-scale.

The Leopard1963
Luchino Visconti's epic of a Sicilian aristocrat watching his world transform. Gorgeous, melancholy, about the persistence of beauty in the face of historical change.
But Three hours long and paced like a funeral. Subtitled. The political and historical context requires engagement to appreciate.

Tokyo Story1953
Ozu's masterpiece about an aging couple visiting family, finding love and loss in the smallest gestures. Quiet, formal, heartbreaking. Cinema as meditation on time passing.
But Almost no plot and no music. Very slow. If you need external momentum, this will feel like nothing is happening. Requires surrender.

A Ghost Story2017
Both films are genuinely about mortality and the persistence of love beyond death. Both trust silence and boredom and long takes to arrive at something real. Both believe spectacle is beside the point.
David Lowery's haunting film about time, loss, and what remains of us. Shot in boxy aspect ratio, moving at its own pace. A meditation on death and impermanence as strange and beautiful as anything in Wenders.
But Genuinely strange formal choices. The protagonist wears a sheet. Some scenes are long and almost nothing happens. It's more mood than narrative, and some find it insufferable.

People
Cast
Otto SanderCassiel
Bruno GanzDamiel
Nastassja KinskiRaphaela
Peter FalkPeter Falk
Solveig DommartinMarion
Heinz RühmannKonrad
Rüdiger VoglerPhillip Winter
Willem DafoeEmit Flesti
Horst BuchholzTony Baker
Martin OlbertzThe Dying Man
Monika HansenHanna / Gertrud Becker
Lou ReedLou Reed
Directing
- Katrin MehlhopContinuity
- Wim WendersDirector
- Scott KirbyFirst Assistant Director
- Anyon ReySecond Assistant Director
- Caroline VeyssièreSecond Assistant Director
Writing
- Richard ReitingerScreenplay
- Ulrich ZiegerScreenplay
- Wim WendersScreenplay
- Daniel GanzScript Editor
- Lothar TrolleScript Editor
Production
- Paul Meyer-GerltAssistant Accountant
- Jolanda DarbyshireExecutive Producer's Assistant
- Michael SchwarzLine Producer
- Ulrich FelsbergProducer
- Wim WendersProducer
- Steffi HillerProduction Accountant
- Kaspar FalkenrothProduction Driver
- Kerstin BaldiniProduction Driver
- Volker Schulze zur WiescheProduction Driver
- Udo HeilandProduction Manager
- Günter FennerUnit Manager
- Karsten BrünigUnit Production Manager