🍿gregorio samba, who is dreaming that he is a cockroach a, who is dreaming that he is a writer who was writing about an employer, who is dreaming that he is a cockroach. front view, infinitive cycle, drawn in 2d. movies
10 movies
Chungking Express
Brigitte Lin, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Chiu-wai
Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents.
Why you'll love it
Features interlocking narratives and cyclical storytelling with dreamlike pacing, exploring parallel realities and the recursive nature of human connection and loneliness.
Perfect Blue
Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji
A pop singer gives up her career to become an actress, but she slowly goes insane when she starts being stalked by an obsessed fan and what seems to be a ghost of her past.
Why you'll love it
A psychological 2D anime thriller that deconstructs identity through multiple overlapping realities and perspectives, creating disorienting nested narratives about who we truly are.
Mulholland Drive
Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux
After a car wreck on Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Why you'll love it
A masterwork of nested realities and dreams-within-dreams exploring identity fragmentation, featuring a recursive narrative structure that constantly shifts perspective and meaning.
Paprika
Megumi Hayashibara, Tôru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori
When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, all hell breaks loose. Only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it.
Why you'll love it
A visually stunning 2D anime that masterfully blends multiple layers of dreams and reality with fluid transitions, exploring the blurred boundaries between consciousness and identity.
Waking Life
Ethan Hawke, Trevor Jack Brooks, Lorelei Linklater
A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purposes of the universe.
Why you'll love it
A rotoscoped 2D animated film about a man trapped in recursive dreams, exploring philosophical questions about consciousness, reality, and the nature of existence itself.
Angel's Egg
Mako Hyôdô, Jinpachi Nezu, Kei'ichi Noda
A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg.
Why you'll love it
An experimental 2D animated short film with surreal, dreamlike imagery and philosophical depth about existence and transformation in a mysterious, allegorical world.
The Secret of Kells
Evan McGuire, Brendan Gleeson, Mick Lally
A young boy in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids is beckoned to adventure when a celebrated master illuminator arrives with an ancient book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers.
Why you'll love it
A gorgeously hand-drawn 2D animated film with recursive storytelling, dreamlike mythology, and intricate visual patterns suggesting infinite cycles and nested narratives.
Kafka
Jeremy Irons, Theresa Russell, Joel Grey
Kafka works during the day at an insurance company, where events lead him to discover a mysterious underground society with strange suppressive goals.
Why you'll love it
A live-action film directly inspired by Kafka's existential themes of transformation and dehumanization, exploring the nightmarish relationship between individuals and bureaucratic systems.
The Thousand Plane Raid
Christopher George, Laraine Stephens, J.D. Cannon
A U.S. Air Force colonel convinces the Allies during World War II that a daylight bombing raid of Germany will bring a quick end to the war.
Why you'll love it
Features layered narrative perspectives and shifting realities that echo the cyclical dream-within-dream-within-dream concept you're describing.
Metamorphosis
Why you'll love it
A surreal animated adaptation exploring themes of transformation and identity, with dreamlike sequences that mirror the recursive nature of your nested narrative structure.