The 21 Best Movies About Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is one of the hardest mental illnesses to cope with, but that does not mean that you cannot connect with the people who have it.

Although the break with reality seems difficult to explain, cinematographic language has many ways of expressing the way these people see things

Movies about schizophrenia to understand the disease

This selection of films about schizophrenia is one more way to understand what this condition consists of and the social and emotional implications that it usually entails.

1. Take Shelter (2011)

A psychological drama in which you can see how the break between a man and reality evolves in which he lives. Little by little, the protagonist of the film gives in to the impulses of believing in a series of apocalyptic hallucinations that lead him to build an underground shelter.

2. Donnie Darko (2001)

Indie film starring actor Jake Gyllenhaal. In her, A young man named Donnie has visions in which he sees a person dressed as a giant rabbit sinister looking. This entity tells you that the world is going to end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes and 12 seconds. The premiere of this work went almost unnoticed, but with the arrival of its DVD version it became a cult film.

3. Lilith (1964)

A psychiatrist who works in a health center reserved for the upper classes meets Lilith, a young woman with schizophrenia, And he fell in love with her. Through this relationship and his desire to forge a romantic relationship with the patient, the doctor renounces living in the world of what he understood to be “the sane ones.” This film is based on a novel by JR Salamanca.

4. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

A film about schizophrenia based on a real case. It talks about the life of John Forbes Nash, a mathematician with paranoid schizophrenia who went on to win a Nobel Prize in 1994. Throughout its 131 minutes, A Beautiful Mind shows the evolution of Nash’s illness and also the way in which he makes it compatible with his passions.

5. Spider (2002)

Directed by David Cronenberg, this film tells about a man who, after spending time in a psychiatric hospital, stops taking his medication and relive experiences related to a traumatic childhood marked by the death of her mother and her relationship with her father.

6. Canvas (2006)

A story that puts in the center of focus a family from South Florida and the way in which they live with their mother’s illness. One of the most moving films about schizophrenia

7. Angel Baby (1995)

Relatively little-known Australian film about two people with schizophrenia who meet in group therapy. After falling in love and moving in together, they deal with a series of difficulties related to their mental health and the onset of pregnancy.

8. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977)

This film about schizophrenia takes place in a psychiatric hospital where a woman is admitted after confusing reality and fiction repeatedly. In this scenario, the protagonist comes into contact with a psychiatrist who offers her the possibility of maintaining a point of connection with the real world.

9. The Fisher King (1991)

Directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges, This work tells the case of a radio host who comes into contact with a beggar with signs typical of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Together they undertake the search for the Holy Grail.

10. Black Swan (2010)

One of director Darren Aronofsky’s most famous films, talks about the case of a dancer (played by Natalie Portman) who undertakes the search for artistic perfection although along the way signs are revealed that it increasingly breaks with the perception of reality.

11. The Soloist (2009)

In line with other films about schizophrenia based on real cases, The soloist tells the story of Nathaniel Ayers, a talented cellist who during his training at the conservatory developed mental illness and ended up living as a beggar. However, the situation changes when a journalist meets him and is impressed by his skills.

12. Benny & Joon, the love of the innocent (1993)

Joon is a young woman who, after the death of her parents, begins to experience hallucinations and delusional ideas, a set of symptoms typical of schizophrenia. Her brother dedicates all his efforts to taking care of her, although the arrival of Sam, a young man played by Johnny Depp, will cause the problems to intensify, on the one hand, and a love relationship to emerge, on the other.

13. Angels Without Heaven (1993)

In this play the friendship between a young man with schizophrenia and a Vietnam War veteran is shown who coincide in a homeless shelter. The friendship that is born between them reveals the way in which they can connect that, despite having different pasts, they can see themselves reflected in each other.

14. Some Voices (2000)

This romantic drama talks about Ray, he is a young man who, after having stayed in a psychiatric center, begins to live with his brother Pete. They both help each other but when Ray falls in love with a woman the relationship begins to falter.

15. K-Pax (2001)

One of the best-known films about schizophrenia, K-Pax talks about the life of a man who calls himself Prot and about whom practically nothing is known beyond the fact that he says he comes from a distant planet and that he plans to return at some point in the future. Prot is admitted to a psychiatric center due to his delusional beliefs, and there he revolutionizes the lives of the rest of the patients.

16. I am a cyborg (2006)

One of the best-known South Korean films in the West. It is about the lives of two young people confined in a psychiatric center who establish a curious connection. Young-goon believes that she is a cyborg and that she can only power herself on batteries, so she refuses to eat. Il-soon, a young man who always hides behind a mask, will have to understand the logic behind the young woman’s thoughts in order to help her.

17. Veronika decides to die (2009)

This fiction tells the life of a young woman who, after deciding that she wants to die and attempting suicide, is informed that she has little time left to live due to the overdose of the drugs she uses. While she remains hospitalized, she meets a patient with schizophrenia who makes her see things differently.

18. Death of an Angel (2001)

Samuel L. Jackson plays a man with schizophrenia who tries to find the murderer of a young man deciphering all the clues he can find. This work leaves aside the more intimate aspect that characterizes other films about schizophrenia to emphasize the importance of the mystery plot.

19. Nise (2015)

A Brazilian film about the most recent paradigms of psychiatry, based on humane treatment of patients with the most serious mental disorders Dr. Nise da Silveira tries to ensure that the inmates with schizophrenia at her medical center are seen as people, something that helps her gain the enmity of her colleagues.

20. Adèle’s intimate diary (1975)

This film deals with the life of Adèle Hugo, the daughter of Victor Hugo, and her physical and mental problems related to her obsessive way of experiencing unrequited love.

21. Woh Lamhe (2006)

A romantic drama in which schizophrenia plays an important role. This Hindi film released in 2006 collects a different way of looking at mental illness.