The Last Anchorite (UK, 2008)
director and cinematographer, Remigiusz Sowa.
PART 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXf_7Tt0-c
PART 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6WE__82Q8
The "last anchorite" is Father Lazarus El-Anthony, a Coptic hermit living in solitude on Mount Colzim (of St. Anthony's cave), Egypt. An Australian, he worked as a university lecturer teaching literature and philosophy, chiefly Marxism. After his mother's death from cancer, he rethought his life, left Australia, and ultimately came to live as a monk in the desert of Egypt.

The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun (Denmark, 2007)
director and cinematographer, Pernille Rose Grønkjær
produced by Sigrid Dyekjær
from the website (no longer available):
The story of Mr. Vig, a well educated 86 year-old bachelor, and Sister Amvrosija, a Russian nun, who by chance, or destiny, becomes part of his life. Mr. Jørgen Laursen Vig is owner of a worn down castle situated in the Danish country side. All his life Mr. Vig has dreamed of turning his castle into a Russian orthodox monastery.

Amongst White Clouds (Canada, 2005)
produced by Edward Burger
http://www.amongstclouds.com
from the website:
The lives of zealot students, gaunt ascetics and wise masters living in isolated hermitages dotting the peaks and valleys of China’s Zhongnan Mountain range. The Zhongnan Mountains have been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago. Many of China's most realized Buddhist masters attained enlightenment in this very range!

Into Great Silence (Germany, 2005)
produced by Philip Groening
http://www.diegrossestille.de/english/
from the website:
The Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order, is based in the French Alps. "Into Great Silence" will be the first film ever about life inside the Grande Chartreuse. ... Silence. Repetition. Rhythm. The film is an austere, next to silent meditation on monastic life in a very pure form. No music except the chants in the monastery, no interviews, no commentaries, no extra material.

Milarepa (Bhutan, 2006)
produced by Neten Chokling
from the website (no longer available):
Milarepa, one of the most widely known Tibetan saints, is also revered for the verses he composed throughout his life, known as the Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa. His faithful devotion to his teacher, Marpa, astonishing perseverance, and ultimate attainment made his life story into a legend, inspiring millions.

The Man Who Planted Trees (Canada, 1987)
Produced by Frédéric Back
based on the book of the same title (L'Homme qui plantait des arbres) by Jean Giono.

The story of a shepherd who repairs the ruined ecosystem of a secluded valley by single-handedly cultivating a forest over a thirty year period. Over 35 years, Elzeard Bouffier quietly cultivated a magnificent forest in a desolate area of southern France. The tale is told by a young traveler who happens upon the old gentleman one day, and finds himself returning to rediscover the landscape several times over the following decades.

Dersu Uzala (USSR/Japan, 1974)
Directed and screenplay by Akira Kurosawa.

Set at the turn of the twentieth century, the film tells the story of a Mongol hermit living alone in the Siberian taiga who is befriended by a Russian captain surveying the area. The captain and his soldiers take on Dersu as an invaluable guide. Dersu displays an intimate knowledge of nature and survival, and the captain comes to recognize rare gifts in the simple frontiersman. An epic scale yet modest and deliberate in its depth .

Simon of the Desert (Simón del desierto) (Mexico. 1965)
Directed by Luis Buñuel.

Despite Buñuel's reputation for anti-clericalism and atheism, this portrait of Simon Stylites, the 5th-century desert hermit who stood on a pillar most of his life, is imminently sympathetic with the protagonist's rejection of the world. "The character really moves me. I enjoy his sincerity, his lack of interest, his innocence," said Buñuel in an interview. Simon is tormented by the devil (a woman) in various guises, and black humor reveals the foibles of Simon's various visitors, though none of whom affects Simon's stolid perseverance. A bitter satire? or rather a thoughtful and provocative look at what it takes to oppose modern culture, noise, and decadence. Hermitary review.

Willard: The Hermit of Gully Lake (Canada, 2007)
Produced by Amy Goldberg
http://www.pushbackproductions.com/willard.html
from the website:
In the 1940’s American-born Willard (Kitchener) MacDonald jumped his troop train heading to WWII. Fearing authorities he lived as a hermit deep in the northern wilderness of Nova Scotia, Canada for more than 60 years. This is the true story of "The Hermit of Gully Lake," a man who lived a life that the rest of us could never endure. He was a soul in exile ... that touched the lives of so many ....

The Hermit of Manana (USA, 2006)
Produced by Elisabeth Harris

http://thehermitofmanana.com

from the website:
Ray Eugene Phillips was born in 1892, attended the University of Maine, fought in World War I, held down a job in New York City in the bustling 1920s, and then, seemingly on a whim, happily decided to leave it all behind for a life of solitude on the tiny, isolated island of Manana, Maine. He spent the rest of his life there, with a herd of sheep and a gander, a small wooden rowboat, in a shack made out of materials that washed up onto the shore.

The Fort Fisher Hermit (USA, 2006)
Produced by Rob Hill

http://www.thefortfisherhermit.com
from the website:
What causes Robert E. Harrill, a 20-year old man, to travel from his lifelong home in the mountains to the coast of North Carolina and spend the remainder of his life without a house, job, or any other physical means of support, and in the process become the second largest tourist attraction in North Carolina in the late 1960s?

Alone in the Wilderness (USA, 2003)
Produced by Bob Swerer Productions
Dick Proenneke (1916-2003) ventured alone into the Alaska wilderness in the late 1960s, built a log cabin homestead, and remained living there nearly 40 years. Other Swerer films about Proenneke are Alaska: Silence and Solitude (1998) and The Frozen North (2006). View a web video (ca. 9 min.) of Alone in the Wilderness.