Simon of the DesertMovies like Simon of the Desert
- Key Features:
- Religious satire, Temptation, Religious allegory, Devil, Spiritual journey, Surrealism, Philosophical, Faith, Existentialism, Short film, Cult classic
- Tone:
- humorous, satirical, whimsical
- Target Audience:
- Art house enthusiasts, Cult film aficionados, Philosophical cinema viewers, Surrealist film lovers
- Emotional Arc:
- Amusement → Reflection
Simon of the Desert

Simon, a deeply religious man living in the 4th century, wants to be nearer to God so he climbs a column. The Devil wants him come down to Earth and is trying to seduce him.
Simon of the Desert
Two men, part tramp, part pilgrim, are on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. On their way they meet a whole assortment of people—some truculent, some violent, and some bizarre; they experience many adventures—some mysterious, some erotic, some even supernatural.

Satan tempts Father Dossignan, who is trying to save the soul of a young girl who killed one of her lovers.

On his way out of the wilderness, Jesus struggles with the Devil over the fate of a family in crisis, setting himself up for a dramatic test.

Don Juan is sent from Hell to Earth with a mission: to seduce a virgin in order to spoil her pure wedding. The mission becomes frantic when Don Juan falls in love for the first time in centuries.

In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-class sextet sits down to dinner but never eats, their attempts continually thwarted by a vaudevillian mixture of events both actual and imagined.

A bizarre black comedy about a man whose overwhelming ambition in life is to be a renowned serial killer of women, and will stop at nothing to achieve it - but not everything goes according to plan...

A formal dinner party starts out normally enough, but after the bourgeois group retire to the host’s music room, they inexplicably find themselves unable to leave.

After hiding a murderer, a Catholic priest is forced into self-exile and decides to embark on a pilgrimage through the Mexican countryside.

In paradise, a group gathers to discuss why people still act selfishly, even though Jesus sacrificed himself for them 2,000 years ago. As a result, a new Messiah is sent to Earth to address the issue.

Don Sallust is the minister of the King of Spain. Being disingenuous, hypocritical, greedy and collecting the taxes for himself, he is hated by the people he oppresses. Accused by The Queen, a beautiful princess Bavarian, of having an illegitimate child to one of her maids of honor, he was stripped of his duties and ordered to retire to a monastery.

After living for over two centuries, Augusto Pinochet is a vampire ready to die… but the vultures around him won't let him go without one last bite.

Jesus, who's hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family. A Christmas special so wrong it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos.

El Topo decides to confront warrior Masters on a trans-formative desert journey he begins with his 6 year old son, who must bury his childhood totems to become a man.

This Surrealist film, with a title referencing the Communist Manifesto, strings together short incidents based on the life of director Luis Buñuel. Presented as chance encounters, these loosely related, intersecting situations, all without a consistent protagonist, reach from the 19th century to the 1970s. Touching briefly on subjects such as execution, pedophilia, incest, and sex, the film features an array of characters, including a sick father and incompetent police officers.

The Alchemist assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept's intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.

Twenty-something Freddy is becalmed in a podunk French village where the only sign of life is the local amateur brass band and youth aimlessly roaming around the countryside on scooters. He has an intense sexual connection with his girlfriend but has no joy or passion to give her. When she falls for a handsome Arab youth a tragedy unfolds.

A young couple is compelled to leave their Christian missionary station in the Kalahari Desert after being threatened with death by an extremist militant gang. After crashing their aircraft they must battle man and beast for their lives.

Zé is a very poor man whose most prized possession is his donkey. When his donkey falls terminally ill, Zé makes a promise to Saint Bárbara: If his donkey recovers, he will carry a cross - like Jesus - all the way from his city to Saint Bárbara's church, in the state capital. Upon the recovery of his donkey, Zé leaves on his journey. He makes it to the church, but the priest refuses to accept the cross once he discovers the context of Zé's promise.

Simón, a Venezuelan freedom fighter exiled in Miami, copes not only with trauma, but also deep guilt over a choice he must make: stay in Miami and start a new life, or return home to the losing fight against a tyrannical regime.

Juan Conte is a world-renowned spokesman of the new atheism. After suffering a heart attack, he receives a transplant and a change in his personal life begins, opening up to the possibility of being in a couple for the first time. Juan will go on a journey of horror and pain, in which his vision of reality will be put to the test.

Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.

The story revolves around a Basque Roman Catholic priest dedicated to committing as many sins as possible, a death metal salesman from Carabanchel, and the Italian host of a TV show on the occult. These go on a literal "trip" through Christmas-time Madrid to hunt for and prevent the reincarnation of the Antichrist.

In antique Rome, a simple pepboy for chars becomes involved in a coup against Cesar. Rahatlocum is a North African Roman colony where Julius Caesar came to spend an expensive holiday. The revolt rumbles among the small people who find a leader in the person of Ben-Hur Marcel.

Poor, hungry peasant Macario longs for just one good meal on the Day of the Dead. After his wife cooks a turkey for him, he meets three apparitions, the Devil, God, and Death. Each asks him to share his turkey, but he refuses all except Death. In return, Death gives him a bottle of water which will heal any illness. Soon, Macario is more wealthy than the village doctor, which draws the attention of the feared Inquisition.

A mild-mannered gay dentist and a womanizing bar owner rekindle their unlikely friendship when, upon meeting by chance after a decade apart, the latter turns out to be severely ill.

A young man becomes convinced that the solution to all his problems is to live in jail, and he will do whatever it takes to get it.

Biblical archaeologist Don Verdean is hired by a local church pastor to find faith-promoting relics in the Holy Land. But after a fruitless expedition he is forced to get creative in this comedy of faith and fraud.

A tough young man, who helps to kick poor people out of their houses, falls in love with a girl. She lives with her father in the building about to be demolished.

A street priest struggling to save his church learns his late uncle left him a small business that could turn his fortune around: he'll soon realize that said business is in fact... a brothel!

Spanish soldiers battle indigenous tribes and their own brutal natures as they search for a legendary city built of gold.

An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is called upon to save the existence of humanity from being negated by two renegade angels trying to exploit a loophole and reenter Heaven.

Paris, 1930. Luis Buñuel is penniless after the scandal surrounding the release of his last movie. Sculptor Ramón Acín, a good friend, buys a lottery ticket and promises Buñuel that he will pay for his next movie if he wins the prize.

After landing on a mysterious planet, a team of astronauts begin to turn on each other, swayed by the uncertain influence of the planet and its strange inhabitants.

A group of young people leave a disco and bump into a shepherd who is ready to spend his night worshipping Satan.

Guillaume Canet is told by a young co-star that he's no longer Rock'n' Roll and can't sell films anymore. He then tries to prove her wrong and gets help from his girlfriend, Marion Cotillard.

Follows Diogenes as he goes about his day as a police officer. He's prone to do things the right way, surrounded by a pretty much corrupt & citizen distant police department, & always resolves his duties with a personal method.

In a small Spanish town, during the Christmas holidays, a group of rich old ladies organize a peculiar event that consists of inviting a homeless person to sit down to dinner at their wealthy table. Plácido, a humble worker, is hired by the organizers to participate in a parade with his three-wheeled vehicle, a seemingly simple mission that will not be easy for him to accomplish.

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

A devout Mormon living in L.A. becomes a pornographic actor after his martial arts moves impress a big-time director.

A libidinous construction worker uses his charm and bravado in an attempt to attain enough finances to build his dream project.

A group of people gather in the California desert to watch a "film" set in the late 1990s featuring a sentient, homicidal car tire named Robert. The assembled crowd of onlookers watch as Robert becomes obsessed with a beautiful and mysterious woman and goes on a rampage through a desert town.

Lieutenant Giovanni Drogo is assigned to the old Bastiani border fortress where he expects an imminent attack by nomadic fearsome Tartars.

Tim and Allie seek shelter in a remote desert compound after becoming lost and stranded. A strange Manson-like character, Preacher, reluctantly allows them inside with strict orders to be gone by morning and not wander "where you are not invited."

A man and his son take an allegorical stroll through life with a talking bird that spouts social and political philosophy.

Everyone knows that being a teenager is not easy, especially when you are a demigod with unlimited powers and risking being crucified at any moment, this is the life of Jesus Christ in his new school.

A disciplined and sexually driven man forces his family to stay isolated in their home in order to protect them from the “evil nature” of human beings.

Along a rocky, barren coastline, Jesus begins teaching, primarily using parables. He attracts disciples; he's stern, brusque, and demanding. His parables often take on the powers that be, so he and his teachings come to the attention of the Pharisees, the chief priests, and elders. They conspire to have him arrested, beaten, tried, and crucified, just as he prophesied to his followers.

Andreas Kartak, a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris, is lent 200 francs by a stranger as long as he promises to repay it to a local church when he can afford to. Kartak is determined to pay back his debt but circumstances, and his alcoholism, forever intervene.

Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.

On their road trip through the southwestern desert, Alex and his girlfriend Scarlett arrive in a town in the middle of nowhere and take a room in a mysterious hotel so that Scarlett, who is feeling increasingly ill, can get some rest.

The second coming is upon us, and Jesus has returned to earth. But before he can get down to the serious business of judging the living and the dead, he has to contend with an army of vampires that can walk in the daylight.

Three siblings who detest each other and hiking must complete together a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in order to be eligible to inherit their mother's wealth.

Sister Maria is known in the convent for her good works and charity, but, in the secret depths of her sexual fantasies, she is tormented by visions of another world - a world where her forbidden passions are allowed to run free. In this world Satan is her master. As her acts of violence and blasphemy mount, Maria realizes that she has been chosen by the Devil to destroy the convent and lead her sister nuns into hell!

For Anna Maria, paradise lies with Jesus, and she devotes her time to door-to-door missionary work. One day after years of absence, her husband, an Egyptian Muslim confined to a wheelchair, comes home—and soon prayers are replaced by fighting.

In an industrializing Italian town, a married woman, rendered mentally unstable after a traffic accident, drifts into an affair with a friend of her husband.

An epic journey, faithfully adapted to modern-day. Christian faces distractions, challenges, and perils at every turn of the way. But ends victorious, with helpful guides, as he stays on the narrow path to the distant Celestial City.

Agent Jesus Juarez (aka Chucho) has always played the Devil in his town's Nativity Play. This Christmas, when the new pastor of the church recasts the role, the two men engage in a battle between good and evil.

In 1911, a willful and determined man from peasant stock named Charles Saganne enlists in the military and is assigned to the Sahara Desert under the aristocratic Colonel Dubreuilh.

An array of outrageous people, including a desperate nymphomaniac and a terrorist with an acute sense of smell, seek love and happiness in Madrid.

To find Joseba, a dying friend, and see him reunite with his daughter Ely, two old friends, Jean Pierre and Tocho, embark with her on a road trip through the Sahara desert, from Spain to Mali.

La vida ha llevado a Julián Pérez por caminos equivocados, pero el destino le presentará a este hombre la oportunidad de encontrar su redención cuando es enviado a la misión más peligrosa y noble de toda su vida, una misión ordenada por la única autoridad que todavía respeta, su madre, Doña Elvira. Julián debe viajar hasta el otro extremo del mundo, a un lugar llamado Irak, a traer de vuelta vivo, a su hermano menor el soldado de infantería Juan Pérez. Con la promesa hecha, Julián Pérez regresa a su natal Sinaloa donde reclutará a un comando de elite, destinado a cumplir una misión suicida: viajar a Irak y salvar al soldado Pérez.

A writer secludes himself in the mountains and falls in lust with local Berta. After realizing the oddities of the rural community the author starts to question the lines between reality and fiction.

Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.

A recent college graduate flees to Paris after a break-up, where his involvement with a prostitute begins to reveal a potentially dark recent past.

An American priest working in Mexico is considered a saint by many local parishioners. However, due to a botched exorcism, he carries a secret that’s eating him alive until he gets an opportunity to face his demon one final time.

A meteorite will destroy the world in three days. For Ale, that means 72 hours of alone time, getting as drunk as possible. But when a mysterious drifter appears, the self-serving Ale faces a more immediate danger. Now, he finds himself protecting his mother and his brother's children from his fellow man in humanity's final hours. Daniel Casadella co-stars in this thought-provoking drama.

Set in a sleepy Austrian mountain village, ex-detective Simon Brenner has grown weary of his job repossessing cars and embarks on an extended getaway to the countryside. But before long he becomes embroiled in the convoluted world of the locals of a supposedly quiet town.

Don Anselmo, a retired old man, decides to buy a motorized disabled stroller since all his pensioner friends own one. His family strongly refuses him to purchase the vehicle, so don Anselmo decides to take extreme measures to achieve his goal…

In the Holy Land, the Roman occupation has produced a cauldron of oppression, anxiety and excessive taxes levied upon the Jewish people. Fearing the wrath of Roman governor Pontius Pilate , Jewish high priest Caiaphas tries to keep control of his people. That control is threatened when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem, performing miracles and spreading messages of love and hope. Those who fear that Jesus will inspire a revolution decide that he must die.

A young priest coaches a team of uncoordinated monks in order to win a soccer tournament and save their monastery from being turned into a hotel.

Four men from different parts of the globe, all hiding from their pasts in the same remote South American town, agree to risk their lives transporting several cases of dynamite (which is so old that it is dripping unstable nitroglycerin) across dangerous jungle terrain.

The lives of residents in an old Cairo building, "The Yacoubian Building," are affected by issues like corruption, extremism, class disparity, and sexuality. Through diverse characters, the film offers a critical examination of Egyptian society.

A man who has been having visions of an impending danger begins an affair with a woman who may lead him to his doom.

In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.

When American author Nicholas brings in a cosmetologist named Kika to prepare the corpse of his recently deceased son, she inadvertently revives the young man, then falls in love with him. Forces conspire against the couple, though, as Nicholas wants Kika for himself.

In Baghdad the Magnificent reigns Haroun al Plassid, who is the Caliph. There also dwells Iznogoud, who wants to be the Caliph. The irascible Grand Vizier hatches plot after plot to remove his ruler and take his place—melting Djinn, invisibility spell, cursed diamond, voodoo doll… But no amount of cunning or obstinacy can make up for sheer, hilariously bad luck.

After an evening of drinking, six men find themselves in front of The God of the Joke. Distressed to find that people aren't laughing anymore, He gives the six friends a mission: to save the world with the Eleven Commandments of the Joke. The men enthusiastically take on their task. They undertake various tests aimed at pushing the limits of stupidity.

Alphonse Tram is unwittingly involved in several murders despite having no memory of committing the crimes. His confusion lead him to confess to his neighbour, Inspector Morvandieu. Alphonse and Morvandieu become the axis around which murders occur.

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

Michel Berthier, a senior executive at a mattress manufacturing company, has just been fired. As he does not dare to tell the truth to Juliette, his partner, he goes into debt to maintain the family’s standard of living, showering them with gifts. But soon he can no longer lie, and he decides to leave the house. After losing his money, his car, and his shoes, he meets Toubib, Mimosa, and Crayon, three “homeless” people who wash themselves in the restrooms at the Gare de l’Est. They take him under their wing and lead him to break into his former company in order to get sleeping bags and beds.

A young cobra and his scorpion best friend go on a journey across the Sahara desert to save a new-found love.

Buenos Aires, Argentina. A luxurious van is parked on the sidewalk. A man enters with the purpose of stealing whatever he can find, but when he wants to leave, he cannot. The doors do not open, the control panel does not respond: the van has become an armored box and he is trapped like a mouse.

Two angels, one from the heaven and one from the hell, come to earth to save the soul of a boxer.

A boy escaped from home, listening, crouched in the depths of his hiding place, the cries of the men who seek him. When the game passes, what remains before him is an infinite and arid plain that he must cross if he wants to get away definitively from what has made him flee. His steps will intersect with those of a pastor and, from that moment, nothing will be the same for either of them.

Álvaro, a man obsessed with the idea of writing what he brands as “high literature,” manipulates the lives and feelings of the people around him to write about the consequences caused by his devious acts.

Planet Earth, 9177. The remains of humankind live in a post-apocalyptic environment divided into only two social classes: the ruling king and the oligarchs who inhabit the Representative Building and the poor of the world who hardly survive in the slums built around it.

A group of Serbian socialists prepares for the war in a surreal underground filled by parties, tragedies, love and hate.

A young man turns from drug addiction and petty crime to a life redeemed by a discovery of compassion.

The adventures of an upper-class suburban family abruptly confronted with the younger brother's discovery of his homosexuality, the elder sister's suicide attempt and sadomasochist tendencies, and the intrusion of a very free-spirited maid and her husband. And it all started with the arrival in the family of an innocent looking rat.

19-year-old Argentine Martin has a nearly fatal drug overdose. After that, his mother sends him to Madrid, where his film director father (also Martin) lives with his new, much younger lover, Alicia, and bisexual actor friend, Dante.

An atheist goes through a near-death experience in an auto accident before converting to Christianity.

A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless, cult leader mother, and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.

Flamboyantly gay Austrian television reporter Bruno stirs up trouble with unsuspecting guests and large crowds through brutally frank interviews and painfully hilarious public displays of homosexuality.

A father and daughter journey from Denmark to an unknown desert that exists in a realm beyond the confines of civilization.

A true story of Samy, native of La Courneuve, who is out of love for Nadia, decides to climb Mount Everest.



