Best movies like Selam
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
'Selam' is a Turkish movie that tells the impressive stories of three Turkish teachers who are idealists working at schools opened by Turkish entrepreneurs on three different continents and in three different countries: Afghanistan, Senegal, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. This story is based on true events that has been in progress for more than 20 years in which a number of young people in love of peace and humanity leave their countries to teach, help and live in countries they have never heard of before. This is the story of people who live for their ideals and other people before themselves, and who leave their families, loves, friends, countries behind. They set on this pet just with the inspiration of the words which said "A couple of eyes are waiting for you here, but thousands of eyes are waiting in faraway lands." They had sacrifice and kindness in their bags, love in their hearts and a smiling Selam (greetings) in their tongues. - Written by Akif Okumus.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: educational
Best tv shows and movies like Selam (2013):
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The Submarine Kid (2015)
Plot Summary:
When Spencer Koll, a United States Marine, returns home from a horrific wartime experience, his mundane reality leads him to gravitate towards a new and mysterious woman on her own determined journey. Together, they enter into a magical but destructive new relationship which ultimately exposes their essential truths.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 907
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Walk with Me (2016)
Plot Summary:
Deployed on mission in Helmand, Afghanistan, 25-year old Thomas steps on a landmine and loses both his legs. At the local rehabilitation center, he meets Sofie, an ascending ballerina from the Royal Danish Ballet, who is helping a relative to regain strength after a long term sickness. Thomas desperately wants back in the field and gets impatient as progress does not emerge as fast as he wants to. When Sofie offers to help him with a more intense rehabilitation plan, he accepts. Despite their differences, they develop a special bond and a mutual affection.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 423
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Sweden, Denmark, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, sexy, suspenseful, sentimental, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 78%
Dear Emma, Sweet Böbe (1992)
Plot Summary:
The story shows Emma's and Böbe's fight for survival, for keeping their position in society which they achieved with hard work in the previous regime. They don't want to lose their place and become village girls again.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 635
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Hungary, Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Something in Between (1982)
Plot Summary:
An American woman comes to Belgrade to visit an old friend. There, on the exotic boundary between West and East, she becomes entangled in a love triangle.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 423
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Six Days of June (1985)
Plot Summary:
A young man finds a way to spend his last few days of freedom before joining the army. Set in eastern Bosnia in summer of 1968.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 133
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada, Yugoslavia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Downstream from the Sun (1969)
Plot Summary:
Young teacher first experience in their profession acquired in a remote mountain village, which has no school building. Life of a farmer, a clash between two warring race, then the conflict between the government and farmers for cutting the national forests needed to build new schools and the presence of a young teacher who doubt the search for truth, that will lead to major conflicts and tragedies.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: black and white, crying, learning
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Time of the Storks (1971)
Plot Summary:
Susanne and Christian get to know each other during a wonderful week in summer - and fall in love. This, however, leads to conflicts: up to now, Susanne has been living with Wolfgang, a biologist. This shared life was harmonious and based on mutual trust. Wolfgang is not only resolute and in full command of social situations; he has also always been the stabilizing force in the relationship. This is precisely why Susanne now feels drawn to the unsettled, unsteady and frivolous Christian, the complete opposite of the calm, well-balanced Wolfgang. And Christian, working as a shift boss on a natural gas derrick, has become more aware of his personal and social responsibilities as a result of loving Susanne.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 23
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: East Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Bitter-Sweet (1996)
Plot Summary:
Mateusz, Igor, Marlon i Paulina chodzą do jednego liceum. Po powrocie z Budapesztu Mateusz dowiaduje się, że jeden z kolegów, niejaki Bąbel, powiesił się na szkolnym boisku. Przejmując się tragedią znajomego chłopaka, postanawia na własną rękę przeprowadzić śledztwo w sprawie jego śmierci. Igor, który znalazł ciało Bąbla, wie co się stało, ale boi się mówić. Podobnie jest z innymi uczniami, nawet nauczycielami, którzy zajęci są głównie swoimi prywatnymi problemami. Ostatnią szansę widzi w rozmowie z zakochaną w nim Pauliną, ale dziewczyna pozostawia go samego w walce o poznanie prawdy.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 397
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
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Morning Bells (1967)
Plot Summary:
Young Teacher Lado moves to the village, where he falls in love with Ketu,a young librarian, but Ketu has been engaged to a fellow villager since childhood. Chofe and his brother threaten Lado that breaking his word and breaking custom can be fatal for the lovers. However, young people are not afraid of threats.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 10
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Hot Cat? (1968)
Plot Summary:
This love story finds a lonely teacher resisting the advances of an interested co-worker. She is fearful of affection and relationships due to a previous romance that did not work out. The small-town school marm tries to help a male student who has been suspended for drunkenness. She tutors the young man, and soon the two engage in a tender and passionate love affair in which both people reach out and touch each other physically and emotionally.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 173
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
L'afrance (2001)
Plot Summary:
El Hadj is studying in Paris. He is one of the young Senegalese men who have come to Paris since the French colony became independent to get a good education so that he can serve his fatherland on his return. Unexpectedly he is suddenly confronted by a problem with his residence papers, just because he has arranged an extension too late. His pleasant life filled with good prospects has gone in one fell swoop. He faces a dilemma. He can stay illegally in France, the country where he feels at home, where he has his friends, has fallen in love and can drink water from the tap. Or he can return (without graduating) to the 3rd-world country of Senegal to use the knowledge he has acquired. It is not only a practical choice. It comes down to the question of who he is, who he thought he could be.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Senegal
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: existential
Similar in 81%
I Ask to Accuse Klava K. of My Death (1980)
Plot Summary:
Klava and Seryozha (Sergey) have been together since preschool. He, one of the smartest kids in school, has always been in love with her but considered her more of just a pretty face rather than an intelligent person. He let her copy his homework and gave her his parents' things as gifts. When they are teens, Klava rejects his love because she knows that he doesn't value her for her, and instead is attracted to Lavrik, another intelligent boy from school. Klava likes him because for the first time she feels like someone is really interested in her as a person. Seryoszha, being very dramatic and wanting Klava's/everyone else's sympathy, writes a suicide note, "Please blame Klava K. for my death," but can he really commit suicide? Eventually he realizes that he is being too shallow and that while he makes such a drama out of such small problems, the people around him have real problems, but never said a thing.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 464
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, sentimental, touching
Similar in 86%
What's Left of You (2015)
Plot Summary:
On his 18th birthday, wealthy but spoiled Ozgur(Ekin Koc) gets a surprise from his deceased grandfather's will. He has to leave his luxurious life in Istanbul and graduate from a public school in a small village on the Aegean coast. After falling for Elif(Neslihan Atagul), a secretive classmate, Ozgur begins to understand the importance of this tiny and seemingly trivial village.Adapted from the South Korean romantic drama, 'A Millionaire's First Love'.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: romantic, light, sincere, colorful, colourful
Similar in 78%
Heiran (2009)
Plot Summary:
During the rule of Taliban in Afghanistan, about 3 million illegal Afghani immigrants entered Iran and caused numerous problems for the Iranian society to accept them. This film depicts the story of a 17 year old rural girl by the name of Mahi (Fish), who comes from a war-stricken family in southern Iran. Mahi falls in love with Heiran, an Afghan student who has come to their village to work. However, Mahi's family being strictly against her marriage to Heiran, force Mahi to choose one between her family and an Afghan boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Iran
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: islamic
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Small Voices (2002)
Plot Summary:
Melinda is a new substitute teacher at the Malawig Elementary School, located in a poor remote barrio. A young university graduate, her family expects her to look for work abroad, but in her idealism she takes on a challenging job in the provincial public school, which lacks resources and has corrupt personnel. The heavy monsoon rains and the nearby NPAs also add to her difficulties. The children are indifferent to their studies, having been affected by the hopelessness around them. Melinda tries to motivate them by capitalizing on their interest and talent in singing. She takes advantage of a funding opportunity to enter them in a choral contest. She encounters some resistance, however, from the school administration and from the parents of her students. Furthermore, the death of one of the choral group’s members at the hands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines casts a pall on their once joyful preparations. Melinda, however, constantly tries to rise above these challenges.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
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Evergreen Tree (1961)
Plot Summary:
Yeong-shin (played by the Choi Eun-hee–Shin Sang-ok’s wife) and Dong-hyeok (Shin Yeong-gyun) graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of their birth. When they arrive, the pair immediately gets to work, Dong-hyeok builds a village hall and starts aiding the farmers while Yeong-shin tries to gather the children to form a school. However, the villagers at first resent and resist the pair. It is not until one child, Ok-bun, takes the inititive and and learns to read under Yeong-shin’s care that the villages trust the pair and allow their children to be taken from the fields and taught reading, writing and math.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Heart of a Lion (2013)
Plot Summary:
Neo-Nazi falls in love with a woman who has a black son and finds himself fighting with conflicting feelings.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Finland, Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, psychological, sincere, suspense
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Love and Lies (1981)
Plot Summary:
Vam i ne snilos... A movie about two high school kids who meet in class and fall madly in love with each other. Unfortunately, His father and her mother had a history of their own between them which creates uneasiness in both of them. Also because of that, the boy's mother is very jealous and tries to separate them. The only person that tries to help them is their teacher who has relationship problems of her own.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: captivating, touching, sincere, sentimental, psychological
Similar in 87%
I Belonged to You (2016)
Plot Summary:
Based on the bestselling series of short stories by renowned Chinese writer Zhang Jiajia, I Belonged To You is a touching romantic tale revolving around two radio disc jockeys and the world they inhabit. They find the audience they reach reflects their own love and heartbreak, and forces them to deal with issues larger than just their own lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 605
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: light, thought provoking, touching, captivating
Similar in 82%
Our Meal for Tomorrow (2017)
Plot Summary:
A 7 year love story between Ryota Hayama and Koharu Uemura from their first date to eventual marriage. Ryota and Koharu are high school students. Ryota is indifferent to people and says very little. Koharu is not afraid of to speak her mind and she has a bright personality. Since a game of rice bag jump, they begin to date. They date at a fast-food restaurant, realize they love each other at a family restaurant and finally swear their love on a dining table with white rice.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 378
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: romantic, light, sincere, feel good, sweet, melancholic, realistic
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Friends (1993)
Plot Summary:
Three female friends, in the end of the eighties, share a house in Johannesburg, South Africa. Each of them has her own way to live the apartheid. Thoko is a black teacher, she practices non-violent passive resistance. The afrikaner Aninka takes refuge in archaeology not to see the reality. Sophie is a white militant, putting bombs in public places... Each of them respect the other two's ideas, but one of Sophie's bombs will change everything.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, France, South Africa
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: crying, independent film
Similar in 89%
Hot Sweet Sour (2017)
Plot Summary:
Murat and Duygu are deeply in love and when they graduate from College Murat takes the leap and asks Duygu for her hand in marriage but he doesn't get the answer he was looking for. They both agree that if they're both single in five years they will tie the knot, but life has other plans for them.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: romantic, captivating, entertaining
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Go (2001)
Plot Summary:
Isao Yukisada spins this gritty coming-of-age tale about Sugihara, a Japanese-born, third-generation Korean who struggles to find a place in a society that will not accept him. The film begins with Sugihara studying at a Korean junior high school that is dedicated to memory of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. His father is a grizzled ex-boxer who recently changed his citizenship from North to South Korea so he and his wife – Sugihara's mom – could visit Hawaii. Though his father regularly gets drunk and thrashes him, he also taught Sugihara the finer point of the sweet science. At one point in the film, Sugihara takes out an entire basketball team that was bent on taking him out. Upon graduation, Sugihara enters a normal Japanese high school where he meets and soon falls for Sakurai – a loose-sock copper-haired damsel who is attracted to Sugihara's restless spirit. As the film progresses, Sugihara struggles to throw off the stigma of his ethnicity and live a quiet, successful life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, sweet, realistic
Similar in 75%
Children of a Lesser God (1986)
Plot Summary:
James is a new speech teacher at a school for the deaf. He falls for Sarah, a pupil who decided to stay on at the school rather than venture into the big bad world. She shuns him at first, refusing to read his lips and only using signs. Will her feelings change over time?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, emotional, compassionate, heartbreaking, melancholic, sincere, uplifting, serious
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Endless Love (2017)
Plot Summary:
A famous and a wealthy doctor, falls in love with a poor housekeeper.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sexy, sentimental, romantic, uplifting, touching, sweet, beautiful
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Stanley & Iris (1990)
Plot Summary:
An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sentimental, melancholic, sincere, serious, realistic, romantic, light, anamorphic
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Love Likes Coincidences (2011)
Plot Summary:
Year 1977, a September morning in Ankara... Yilmaz tries to rush his pregnant wife Neriman to the hospital and he crashes into Omer's car. The causes Omer's pregnant wife Inci, who was in the back seat, to have a pre-term labor. The babies are born on the same day. They see each other for the first time... This accident is the threshold of the coincidences that bring Ozgur and Deniz together. They come across each other in Ankara several times during their childhood and youth. Each intersection has a butterfly effect, resulting in drastic changes in their lives. They sometimes cause disasters, sometimes miracles. However, they can never be together. Whatever it is that brings them together, manages to build a transparent wall between them. Until they come across each other again in Istanbul, 25 years later... --Anonymous (imdb).
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: romantic, inspirational, sentimental, emotional, dramatic, serious, realistic, contemplative, touching, heartbreaking
Similar in 82%
For Both of Us (2016)
Plot Summary:
Çiçek is a girl who grew up in a small village. She has so many questions about her own life with no answers. And then her life is changed by Dogan, her literature teacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, sincere, romantic, uplifting, touching, sweet
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JJ+E (2021)
Plot Summary:
Elisabeth and John-John live in the same city, but they inhabit different worlds.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Sweden
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, disturbing, teen
Similar in 83%
Full Speed (1996)
Plot Summary:
A brief extract of four kids' lives somewhere in France. Quentin, who won a writers contest and now pays more attention to his career as an author than to his friends, beautiful Julie, his girl-friend, much more mature than she looks, falling in love with Quentin's very best friend Jimmy, who is kind of stuck in his unability of self-expression and grown up under bad social circumstances. And there is the shy boy Samir, exiled from Algeria, who lost his "brother" and only friend some time ago. Samir heavily falls in love with Quentin, but he can't handle it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 877
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: erotic, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy, gay cinema, queer cinema