Best movies like In Your Absence
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
13-year-old Pablo is a quiet, lonely boy with a troubled past. His only friend is Julia, a shameless 15-year-old girl who is more than willing to help Pablo with his transition from childhood to adolescence, and give him some advice on sex, love and life in general. On a quiet country road just outside of the village, Pablo meets Paco, an oddly calm, well dressed stranger whose car just broke down. Nevertheless, he seems more interested in the boy than fixing his problem.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 949
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Spain
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, surprise ending, captivating, disturbing, art house, tense, atmospheric, rough, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like In Your Absence (2008):
Similar in 76%
Nine Meals from Chaos (2018)
Plot Summary:
Eight years after a cataclysm and disease ravaged the human race -leaving just one in every ten surviving-, all social structures have crumbled like sand castles. Too still live for anything to have been reconstructed. All remaining animals have been consumed and no sowing has yet been possible. It is Man at his most basic, destitute level. It is Man at his most basic, destitute level. Two groups inhabit the desolate and abandoned land: packs of orphaned children in a feral state, living a nomadic life-style for their safety, and adults (with their offspring), barely surviving any better by living off their meat. It is a war only the most desperate of the two will win.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspenseful, apocalyptic, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Nothing in Return (2015)
Plot Summary:
One summer, Dario flees the hellish environment of his home. Luismi, unconditional friend, a poor devil with pretensions of winning, and Antonia, an old woman who collects abandoned his motorcar furniture, become his new family. Three generations living together in a city too big to be alone.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, tense, social, queer cinema
Similar in 88%
The Colors of the Mountain (2010)
Plot Summary:
A motley crew of young boys in Colombia lives only for one passion: soccer. But when their precious new ball rolls into a minefield, their dreams are suddenly on hold. Even as the village becomes the center of a tug-of-war between right-wing paramilitary groups and leftist guerrillas, the idea of a rescue attempt is too tempting to resist.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Colombia, Panama
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, bleak, realistic, tense, touching, serious, independent film, crying
Similar in 75%
The Hanged Man (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two lovers break the law and struggle to stay together when carnal obsession causes tempers to flare.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 746
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Ireland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros (2005)
Plot Summary:
A 12-year-old gay who comes from a criminal family falls in love with a handsome policeman.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, erotic, serious, realistic, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
The Last Summer of La Boyita (2009)
Plot Summary:
Young Jorgelina feels estranged from her boy-crazy older sister, who has entered adolescence and doesn't want to hang around with little kids anymore. Finding refuge in their Boyita camper-van, Jorgelina travels with her father to the countryside, where her lifelong playmate Mario is undergoing some unexpected changes of his own.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 970
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Spain, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, exciting, melancholic, suspenseful, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Initiation (2009)
Plot Summary:
16-year old Axel and his clique are rioting in a residential home. There he meets the 80-year old Gustav who gains interest in the young boy, as he reminds him of his lost love.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 176
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria, Germany
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 82%
Harmony Lessons (2013)
Plot Summary:
During a medical examination, 13-year-old Aslan is humiliated in front of a load of his fellow pupils. The incident unleashes his latent personality disorder. Plagued by self-doubt, he strives for cleanliness and perfection and is obsessed with trying to control everything around him. His compulsion draws Aslan, who lives with his grandmother in a village in Kazakhstan, into increasingly difficult situations. He abhors the way most of his fellow pupils are held in the sway of a criminal scheme, in which Bolat, one of Aslan’s tormentors, is also involved. Bolat blackmails the younger children into paying him protection money; he has nothing but contempt for ostracised Aslan.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 994
Genere: Drama
Country: Kazakhstan, Germany, France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Second Best (1994)
Plot Summary:
The difficult relationship between a british postal officer and his adoptive son.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 84%
Sebbe (2010)
Plot Summary:
Duct tape, electrical cables, trigger, explosives. Sebbe never planned to build a bomb. It just happened. Sebbe is 15 years old and lives with his mother in an apartment that is too narrow. He does his best. He never strikes back. Sebbe loves his mother because he knows nothing else. In the junkyard the dream is alive, and in the hands of Sebbe, dead objects come to life. Here he has the power to create. Here he is free - but alone. His isolation grows as his world shrinks, until one day he is completely isolated with no other than his mother. And when she falls, everything falls.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, tense, mind bending, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 84%
In Bloom (2013)
Plot Summary:
Eka and Natia leave their childhood behind and ignore societal customs to escape from their turbulent family lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Georgia, Germany, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, serious, captivating, social, art house, transgressive, sincere, queer cinema
Similar in 80%
The Visitor (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young boy lives with his mother on a farm surrounded by deep forest in the remote wilds of the Finnish countryside. From time to time, the boy visits his father - a man of great violence - in prison. Locked in the stable is an unruly horse, the boy´s only other companion. Their simple life is disrupted when a stranger appears, with a note from the father and a bullet in his side. Reluctantly, mother and son offer the stranger refuge.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 618
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland, Estonia, Germany, UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspense, tense, realistic, gloomy, ambiguous ending, independent film, silent, student film
Similar in 75%
Private Lessons (2008)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring tennis player is taken under the wing of an established player as his family life falls apart.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, emotional, realistic, erotic, sexy, eros, stylized, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Jet Boy (2001)
Plot Summary:
Dave Schultz' feature debut Jet Boy is a drama about a boy attempting to figure out his future. Nathan (Branden Nadon) goes on a search to find his father after his mother dies of a drug overdose. Nathan has been prostituting himself in order to get by when he befriends Boon Palmer (Dylan Walsh). In Dylan, Nathan sees his possible future. In Nathan, Dylan sees a chance to rectify his past.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, emotional, erotic, sexy, independent film, bleak, gloomy, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
The Cement Garden (1993)
Plot Summary:
After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a mysterious illness. Aware that she is going to have to go into hospital she opens a bank account for the children, so that they can be financially self-sufficient and will be able to avoid being taken into care by the authorities. Unfortunately she also dies and Julie and Jack (the older, teenage children) decide to hide her body in the basement so that they can have free reign of their household. Soon Tom has taken to dressing as a girl whilst Sue has become increasingly reticent, confiding only to her diary, meanwhile Jack and Julie sense an attraction developing for each other. However Julie's new beau, Derek, threatens to unearth the many dark secrets within this family as he becomes increasingly suspicious of Jack.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, erotic, sexy, talky, art house, compassionate, psychological, serious, realistic, controversial
Similar in 81%
Out of Hand (2005)
Plot Summary:
Sebastian and Paul are two bored boys about 16 years of age. They drink alcohol, steal - and attend a private school. They can't find a sense of meaning in their present adolescent existence. They abduct Sonja and lock her in an old, abandoned factory building. But what shall they do with her? Disorientation, fear, desire and also love are changing to cruel aggressivity.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 462
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria, Germany, Italy
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, disturbing, suspenseful, tense
Similar in 77%
1st Love (2013)
Plot Summary:
Antoine, 13, spends the summer vacation with his parents in a rented cottage on an island in the middle of the Saint-Lawrence River. His neighbour, 17-year-old Anna, is an enigmatic and lively young woman. Antoine begins to experience the first stirrings of love-which soon yield a troubling brew of anxiety, desire and obsession. He eventually comes across a terrible secret that will forever change his life.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 82%
Everything Is Fine (2008)
Plot Summary:
Josh is an ordinary teen living in an ordinary suburb. One morning he finds his friend's dead body. Next, he discovers that three more friends also have killed themselves, leaving him out of their pact. As the sole survivor, Josh becomes more and more detached from the world around him. It is a modern portrait of today's teens: invincible yet fragile, clear-thinking yet confused.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, touching, erotic, sincere, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Cold Showers (2005)
Plot Summary:
Mickael's family is struggling (they don't have enough money to pay for hot water) however his life is full with Judo and his girlfriend Venessa. Then Mickael makes a decision to open up his relationship to include Clement his rich-kid Judo partner, starting a chain of events.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, erotic, serious, emotional, melancholic, captivating, sexual, art house, eros, sensual
Similar in 83%
My Uncle Antoine (1971)
Plot Summary:
Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business. Mon Oncle Antoine is Director Claude Jutra's masterpiece: A poignant, starkly honest, but humane film, shot through with authenticity from beginning to end. Realized with an unflagging artistic vision, Mon Oncle Antoine poetically portrays a young boy's coming of age, vividly capturing the Quebec mining town in which he lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: social, art house, sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 83%
Cider with Rosie (2015)
Plot Summary:
A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the Cotswolds during and immediately after the First World War.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, sentimental, touching, semi autobiographical
Similar in 78%
Being 14 (2015)
Plot Summary:
The lives and turbulent adventures of a bunch of fourteen-year-old teenagers, through the eyes of three young girls - Sarah, Jade and Louise - with one last year to go before high school.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 201
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, tense, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Black Bread (2010)
Plot Summary:
In the harsh post-war years' Catalan countryside, Andreu, a child that belongs to the losing side, finds the corpses of a man and his son in the forest. The authorities want his father to be made responsible of the deaths, but Andreu tries to help his father by finding out who truly killed them. In this search, Andreu develops a moral consciousness against a world of adults fed by lies. In order to survive, he betrays his own roots and ends up finding out the monster that lives within him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, serious, emotional, suspenseful, disturbing, controversial, bleak
Similar in 75%
Secrets of the Heart (1997)
Plot Summary:
Javi and his friend Carlos visit an old house on the outskirts of a small Spanish village. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, France, Portugal
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 85%
12 and Holding (2005)
Plot Summary:
Three pre-adolescents with virginal and eager-of-signals naivety, hit headlong against monstrous and inhospitable loneliness, in the incandescent fire among the ashes of their own inocence.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, heartbreaking, sad, sentimental, serious, depressing, harsh, art house
Similar in 85%
Wild Reeds (1994)
Plot Summary:
As the Algerian War draws to a close, a teenager with a girlfriend starts feeling homosexual urges for two of his classmates: a country boy, and a French-Algerian intellectual.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, lgbt cinema, sad, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 77%
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Plot Summary:
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Netherlands
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, psychological, independent film, realistic, controversial, heartbreaking, serious, gloomy, emotional
Similar in 84%
Pellet (2000)
Plot Summary:
El Bola, a 12 year old boy a.k.a. "Pellet" is a 12 year old boy raised in a violent and sordid environment. Embarrassed by his family life, he avoids becoming close to classmates. The arrival of a new boy at school changes his attitude towards his classmates, and friendship. The heart of the story is the change in El Bola's life, at almost all levels, after befriending this new classmate. Written by ElianaM.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, touching, social, sincere, depressing, controversial, hispanic
Similar in 89%
Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's (2008)
Plot Summary:
Summer 1966. It's time to enjoy the summer holiday, total freedom. Teenage Élise discovers that the sudden departure of her mother completely disrupts the family. Her brother Coco seeks solace in the garage, building a super racing car. Her youngest brother Benoît throws himself into his own inner world. The father seems absolutely knocked out by the situation. Élise decides to take control of her family, in an eloquent attempt to save them. With the assistance of flourishing nature around her, she stands on the threshold of an incomparable summer.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 922
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, disturbing, sexy, sincere, captivating, sexual
Similar in 80%
Ken Park (2002)
Plot Summary:
Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Netherlands, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: disturbing, art house, sexual, rough, explicit, sexy, realistic, serious, independent film, erotic