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.

TMDb rating3.5

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.

Wings of Desire poster

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.

The Thin Red Line poster

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.

Stalker poster

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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.

The Second Mother poster
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.

Mulholland Drive poster

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.

The Sweet Hereafter poster

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.

My Own Private Idaho poster

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 Liverpool Goalie poster

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.

The Leopard poster

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.

Tokyo Story poster

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.

A Ghost Story poster

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