Film

The Monastery

Name: The Monastery
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2019
Cast: Rita Major, Thérèse Dufresne, Claire Magnan, Mariette Lussier, Marie-Thérèse Miville Deschênes

Slow-burning

A year inside a Quebec monastery with the only French-speaking Dominican convent in North America. These sisters—some in their nineties—speak freely about faith, doubt, solitude, and the choices that led them here. Tender, unhurried, and genuinely curious about the women behind the habit.

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American Gospel: Christ Alone2018

Explores faith and doubt through contemporary evangelical Christianity. Like The Monastery, it takes believers seriously without flinching from hard questions about why people choose these lives.

But Focuses heavily on American megachurch culture, which may feel ideologically distant from the quiet contemplation you're seeking.

The Innocents2016

A Polish nun in a Soviet camp discovers she's pregnant. Visually stunning and morally complex, it shares the film's interest in female spiritual life under extreme pressure and isolation.

But Far darker in tone—this is trauma cinema, not the gentle observation The Monastery offers. Subtitled and bleak.

Winter Light1963

Bergman's spiritual crisis film. Sparse, glacial, obsessed with faith and its absence. If you want to think about what The Monastery's sisters actually believe, this is the bleakest possible mirror.

But Punishingly slow and austere. Not a film that gives comfort or answers—it's an endurance test.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Monastery

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Film About Coffee2014

Both films find the sacred in the quotidian. The sisters' daily prayers and liturgy; the filmmakers' ritualized approach to their craft. Both argue that repetition and attention are how we live meaningfully.

Sounds frivolous; it's actually a meditative examination of labor, tradition, and how people find meaning in repetitive, humble work. The formal structure mirrors monastic rhythm—daily routines that contain philosophy.

But It's a feature-length essay about coffee sourcing and roasting. If the subject sounds boring, the film won't persuade you otherwise.

Silence2016

Scorsese's adaptation of Shusaku Endo's novel about faith under persecution. Meditative, gorgeously shot, genuinely interested in doubt as a form of belief rather than its opposite.

But Nearly three hours long, in Japanese for portions, and philosophically exhausting. Requires patience and repeated viewings.

The Last Station2009

Tolstoy's final year. Shows the cost of a life devoted to principle—how isolation, age, and conviction can fracture even the closest relationships.

But More biographical drama than documentary observation. Softens some of the harder edges of spiritual extremism.

Of Gods and Men2010

French monks in Algeria facing violence. Quiet, prayerful, focused on how community sustains faith when everything else is stripped away. Shot with real tenderness.

But The historical context (Algeria's civil conflict) adds weight that some may find overwhelming. Subtitled.

The Nun2018

Visually sumptuous horror that explores repression and desire within convent walls. Gothic and operatic where The Monastery is intimate—a different register entirely.

But It's a supernatural thriller, not a serious exploration of faith. The monastery here is a horror set, not a home.

Grey Gardens1976

Both are intimate portraits of women who have removed themselves from ordinary life. But where the nuns find peace, the Beales find madness. The mirror shows how structure—religious or obsessive—can save or trap.

Documentary portrait of two isolated, eccentric women living in decline in a decaying mansion. Like The Monastery, it's a patient, non-judgmental year-in-the-life that reveals the strange logic of chosen worlds.

But This is about obsession and entropy, not faith. Uncomfortable, claustrophobic, and sometimes exploitative in a way The Monastery never is.

Stalker1979

The Monastery shows us why people choose lives of contemplation. Stalker IS contemplation—form matching content. Both films trust silence and repetition as ways of knowing.

Tarkovsky's three-hour science fiction meditation on desire, faith, and the spaces we devote ourselves to. Glacially paced and hypnotic. About pilgrimage and belief in the most abstract terms.

But Soviet sci-fi with philosophical ambitions. Extremely slow, dialogue-heavy, and asks you to sit with ideas rather than move through plot. No conventional narrative satisfaction.