Film
Gunda
Viktor Kossakovsky's black-and-white documentary follows a mother pig, some cows and a one-legged chicken through their days on a farm, with no narration, no music, no human voice at all. It's patient, tactile filmmaking that asks you to simply look at animals as creatures with inner lives, not livestock. Slow, quiet, and quietly devastating by the end.
If you liked this
First Cow2020
Andrea Arnold's dairy-cow documentary is Gunda's closest living relative: same unblinking camera, same refusal to narrate, same slow accumulation of dread as an animal's ordinary life reveals its shape.
But It's even less eventful than Gunda and the ending pulls no punches at all.
Honeyland2019
A wordless, observational portrait of a Macedonian beekeeper and her bees that trusts images over explanation. If you loved being left alone to watch in Gunda, this rewards you the same way.
But It's about humans as much as animals, so the focus shifts a bit from what drew you to Gunda.
Sweetgrass2009
Sheep, shepherds and the Montana wilderness, filmed with zero narration and total patience. A gorgeous, gritty piece of observational cinema for anyone who wants more unmediated animal-and-landscape watching.
But Even slower than Gunda in places, with long stretches of literally just walking and weather.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Au Hasard Balthazar1966
Both use an animal's passive endurance as a moral lens on human cruelty, letting the creature's dignity accumulate without a single word of commentary.
Robert Bresson's austere fiction film follows a donkey through a life of quiet suffering at human hands, refusing sentimentality at every turn. It's the arthouse ancestor of what Gunda is doing decades later.
But It's a scripted narrative with human characters and religious undertones, slow and bleak in a very different, very French way.
More like this (8)
Baraka1992
A wordless global tour of nature, ritual and industry shot in stunning 70mm. It shares Gunda's faith that imagery alone can carry meaning, just on a much bigger, more cosmic scale.
But It ranges far beyond farm animals into human civilization broadly, so the intimacy of Gunda isn't quite there.
My Octopus Teacher2020
A different animal, a different mood, but the same core question: what happens when you actually pay attention to a nonhuman creature's inner life? Warmer and more narrated, but just as tender.
But Voiceover-heavy and emotionally guided in a way that's the opposite of Gunda's hands-off style.
Microcosmos1996
Insects filmed with the intimacy usually reserved for humans, no narration, just astonishing macro photography of a world you walk past every day. Gunda's spirit, shrunk down to bug size.
But The scale and subject are wildly different, so it's a cousin in method more than in feeling.
Winged Migration2001
Cameras that seem to fly alongside actual birds, capturing migration with an intimacy that still feels unmatched. Like Gunda, it wants you to feel what it's like to be inside an animal's experience.
But There is narration and music here, so it's a gentler, more conventional nature film than Gunda.
Leviathan2013
A sensory, disorienting documentary shot aboard a commercial fishing trawler, all texture and noise and no explanation. If Gunda's silence appealed, this pushes that approach into something rougher and stranger.
But It's abstract to the point of nausea-inducing at times, and the animal welfare angle is far bleaker.
Koyaanisqatsi1983
No dialogue, no plot, just images and Philip Glass's score contemplating humanity's relationship to the natural world. A more philosophical, human-focused echo of Gunda's trust in pure image.
But It's about cities and machines more than animals, so the connection is tonal rather than direct.
Okja2017
Same animal, same industrial-farming horror underneath, but told as maximalist blockbuster fantasy instead of austere observation, proving the story survives any costume.
Bong Joon-ho's wild, genre-hopping fable about a girl and her genetically engineered super-pig takes Gunda's exact subject and blows it up into satire, action and heartbreak on a Netflix budget.
But It's loud, silly, and sentimental in ways Gunda pointedly refuses to be, with corporate villains played almost cartoonishly broad.
Chicken Run2000
Both take the fate awaiting farm animals dead seriously as a premise, one through silence and dread, the other through laughter and a heist plot.
A stop-motion comedy about chickens plotting their escape from a farm before they end up as pies. It's Gunda's premise turned into a jailbreak caper, gags and all.
But It's a kids' comedy with jokes and a happy ending, about as far from Gunda's tone as a film about farm animals can get.
People
Directing
- Viktor KossakovskyDirector
Writing
- Ainara VeraScreenplay
- Viktor KossakovskyScreenplay
Production
- Regina K. ScullyCo-Executive Producer
- Joslyn BarnesCo-Producer
- Susan RockefellerCo-Producer
- Joaquin PhoenixExecutive Producer
- Tone Grøttjord-GlenneExecutive Producer
- Anita Rehoff LarsenProducer
- Charlotte HailstoneProduction Manager
- Recha NiaProduction Manager