Movies like The White Ribbon: 20 to watch next
If you loved The White Ribbon (2009) — a drama and mystery film directed by Michael Haneke — these 20 movies are the closest matches.
The first picks are what fans of The White Ribbon most often go on to watch; the rest share its genres and themes like child abuse, authority and pastor. 5 of them are streaming in India right now — each entry shows where.
Where to watch The White Ribbon →·Get picks for your whole taste →
- 1
Cracks 2009★ 6.6
Shares: Drama, Mystery
Jealousy flares after the headmistress of an elite boarding school for girls becomes obsessed with a new student.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 2
The Tin Drum 1979★ 7.0
Shares: Drama
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 3
To End All Wars 2001★ 6.4
Shares: Drama
Based on a real-life story, this drama focuses on a small group of Allied soldiers in Burma who are held captive by the Japanese. Capt. Ernest Gordon, Lt. Jim Reardon and Maj. Ian Campbell are among the military officers kept imprisoned and routinely beaten and deprived of food. While Campbell wants to rebel and attempt an escape, Gordon tries to take a more stoic approach, an attitude that proves to be surprisingly resonant.
Stream in India on Tubi TV
- 4
Escape from Sobibor 1987★ 7.2
Shares: Drama
The true story of WWII's notorious Sobibor Nazi death camp, where a courageous inmate orchestrates and leads the escape of over 300 prisoners.
Stream in India on Artiflix, Plex
- 5
Novitiate 2017★ 6.5
Shares: Drama
In the early 1960s, during the Vatican II era, a young woman training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, sexuality and the changing church.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 6
Pretty Baby 1978★ 7.0
Shares: Drama
In 1917 New Orleans, a 12-year-old girl is raised in a brothel by her prostitute mother.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 7
Sound of Falling 2025★ 7.0
Shares: Drama
Four adolescent girls each spend their youth in the same farmhouse over the last century. Though separated by decades, resonances between their lives emerge: their desires and distress, secrets and truths, encounters with another’s gaze and defiant gaze in return.
Stream in India on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel
- 8
The Road Dance 2022★ 6.7
Shares: Drama
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 9
The King Tide 2024★ 6.8
Shares: Mystery
After the mayor of an idyllic island village discovers a child with mysterious powers awash on their shores, the once peaceful community devolves into civil war, torn over the belief that the child is the next saviour.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 10
Lore 2012★ 6.7
Shares: Drama
After being abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country. Led by the eldest, 14 year-old Lore, the children are forced to confront their parents’ actions and the reality of a new world.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 11
Free Country 2020★ 6.3
Shares: Drama
Former East Germany, 1992. Patrick Stein and Markus Bach, two very different police officers, are commissioned to investigate the disappearance of two female teenagers in a remote area of the country. Did they run away from home or did something more terrible happen to them?
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 12
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers 1946★ 7.1
Shares: Drama
Three childhood friends, Martha, Walter and Sam, share a terrible secret. Over time, the ambitious Martha and the pusillanimous Walter have married. She is a cold businesswoman; he is the district attorney: a perfect combination to dominate the corrupt city of Iverstown at will. But the unexpected return of Sam, after years of absence, deeply disturbs the life of the odd couple.
Stream in India on Artiflix, Brew, JustWatch TV Beta
- 13
The Silence 2010★ 6.6
Shares: Drama
13-year-old Sinikka vanishes on a hot summer night. Her bicycle is found in the exact place where a girl was killed 23 years ago. The dramatic present forces those involved in the original case to face their past.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 14
Blue Jean 2023★ 6.8
Shares: Drama
Jean, a PE teacher, is forced to live a double life. When a new student arrives and threatens to expose her sexuality, Jean is pushed to extreme lengths to keep her job and her integrity.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 15
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl 1998★ 7.2
Shares: Drama
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 16
Nowhere in Africa 2001★ 7.0
Shares: Drama
A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 17
Sparta 2022★ 6.6
Shares: Drama
Ewald moved to Romania years ago. Now in his 40s, he seeks a fresh start. Leaving his girlfriend, he moves to the hinterland. With young boys from the area, he transforms a decaying school into a fortress. The children enjoy a new, carefree existence. But the distrust of the villagers is soon awoken. And Ewald is forced to confront a truth he has long suppressed.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 18
Lady Macbeth 2016★ 6.6
Shares: Drama
Rural England, 1865. Katherine, suffocated by her loveless marriage to a bitter man and restrained by his father's tyranny, unleashes an irresistible force within her, so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now
- 19
Cape Fear 1991★ 7.3
Shares: Drama
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.
Stream in India on JioHotstar
- 20
How Green Was My Valley 1941★ 7.3
Shares: Drama
Huw Morgan, the academically inclined youngest son in a proud family of Welsh coal miners, witnesses the tumultuous events of his young life during a period of rapid social change. At the dawn of the 20th-century, a miners' strike divides the Morgans: the sons demand improvements, and the father doesn't want to rock the boat.
Not on subscription streaming in India right now