Best movies like Ajami
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Ajami is an area of Tel Aviv in Israel where Arabs, Palestinians, Jews and Christians live together in a tense atmosphere. Omar, an Israeli Arab, struggles to save his family from a gang of extortionists. He also courts a beautiful Christian girl: Hadir. Malek, an illegal Palestinian worker, tries to collect enough money to pay for his mother's operation. Dando, an Israeli cop, does his utmost to find his missing brother who may have been killed by Palestinians.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany, Israel, UK
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, emotional, bleak, educational, smart, tense, captivating, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Ajami (2009):
Similar in 87%
Jaffa (2009)
Plot Summary:
In the city of Jaffa; a young girl plans to run away with her secret lover, when a tragedy forever changes the course of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 774
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Israel, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Cairo Exit (2010)
Plot Summary:
A powerful account of life in contemporary Cairo, this raw drama about a pair of star-crossed lovers shines a powerful spotlight upon the social and cultural taboos that riddle the city's diverse population. Heralding a bold new shift for contemporary Egyptian cinema, 'Cairo Exit' is a gritty and uncompromising work from a major new cinematic talent, Hesham Issawi.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, stylized, bleak
Similar in 83%
God's Pocket (2014)
Plot Summary:
A boozy lowlife tries to bury the truth about his crazy stepson's suspicious death, but a nosy newspaper columnist and the young man's mother complicate matters.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, rough, captivating, neo noir, independent film, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
The Bridge to Nowhere (2009)
Plot Summary:
A group of 20-something blue-collar workers in Pittsburgh cook up a scheme to make extra money that involves prostitution. Their business takes off, then gets way out of hand.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 80%
Your Next Life (2004)
Plot Summary:
A fight over the calf of a prize milk cow in the close-knit and traditional Pas Valley of Cantabria leaves a cantankerous dairy farmer dead and another fearful of arrest. He and his daughter Val conspire to keep the cause of death quiet, but tensions mount when Val becomes attracted to the dead farmer's son, Rai, estranged from his father and now a hairdresser in the city. The tensions open long-festering family resentments and spur the lurid imagination of Val's younger sister, the teen Genia. "What goes unsaid, gets undone," the Pasiegos say, but is it true? Is there harm in staying silent?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, emotional, serious, realistic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Inheritance (2012)
Plot Summary:
A Palestinian family living in the north of Galilee gathers to celebrate the wedding of one of their daughters, as war rages between Israel and Lebanon. Internal conflicts explode between the family - secrets are revealed and lies are unmasked. The battles between different family members become as merciless as the outside war once their father falls into a coma and inches toward death.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 148
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Israel
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 81%
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (2014)
Plot Summary:
The trial story of Viviane Amsalem's five year fight to obtain her divorce in front of the only legal authority competent for divorce cases in Israel, the Rabbinical Court.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, France, Germany
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, thought provoking, touching, social, art house, detective, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
In Between (2016)
Plot Summary:
The film captures the daily duality of three young Palestinian women in Tel Aviv, caught between hometown tradition and big city abandon, and the price they must pay for a lifestyle that seems obvious to many: the freedom to work, party, fuck, and choose.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Israel
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, unusual plot structure, humorous, captivating, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
The Wee Man (2013)
Plot Summary:
The true life story of the rise to power of Glasgow gangster Paul Ferris.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful, rough, bleak, captivating, cult film
Similar in 86%
Common (2014)
Plot Summary:
Multi-award-winning writer Jimmy McGovern's brand new film based on the UK's controversial joint enterprise law. Jimmy McGovern's gritty drama stars Nico Mirallegro as guileless 17 year old Johnjo O'Shea, who goes from innocent bystander to accessory to premeditated murder after giving a few friends a lift.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, serious, realistic, crime drama, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 80%
The Other Son (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two men discover they were accidentally switched at birth.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 83%
44 Inch Chest (2009)
Plot Summary:
Provocative, outrageously profane and surprisingly tender amidst an explosion of unbridled testosterone, 44 INCH CHEST explores the masculine ego at breaking point, testing whether fear is stronger than love. Colin (Ray Winstone) is in agony, shattered by his wife’s (Joanne Whalley) infidelity, so his friends kidnap the wife's lover so he can have his revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, atmospheric, bleak, serious, surreal, psychological, captivating, neo noir, twisted, rough
Similar in 81%
April Showers (2009)
Plot Summary:
A look inside a tragedy through the eyes of a survivor. Based on actual events, April Showers is about picking up the pieces in the direct aftermath of school violence.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 85%
Adam: His Song Continues (1986)
Plot Summary:
Follows the true story of John and Reve Walsh who, after their child was murdered, fought to raise national awareness of the problem of missing children.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
Tough Enough (2006)
Plot Summary:
From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the difficulties a 15-year-old faces in a poor and criminal environment.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Out in the Dark (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two young men — a Palestinian grad student and an Israeli lawyer — meet and fall in love amidst personal and political intrigue in this striking debut feature from Israeli director Michael Mayer.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Israel, USA, Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, sincere, lgbt cinema, gloomy, sad, homoerotic, sexual, cute
Similar in 87%
The Attack (2012)
Plot Summary:
An Arab surgeon living in Tel Aviv discovers a dark secret about his wife in the aftermath of a suicide bombing.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, War
Country: Lebanon, France, Qatar, Belgium, Egypt
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, realistic, serious, suspenseful, touching, suspense, social, bleak
Similar in 75%
Lemon Tree (2008)
Plot Summary:
Salma Zidane, a widow, lives simply from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank's occupied territory. The Israeli defense minister and his wife move next door; the Secret Service orders the trees removed for security. The stoic Salma seeks assistance from the Palestinian Authority (useless), Israeli army (dismissive), and a young attorney, Ziad Daud, who takes the case; this older client attracts him. While the courts deliberate, the Israelis fence her trees and prohibit her from entering the grove. As the trees wither, the defense minister's wife and, separately, an Israeli journalist, look on Salma with sympathy. In this allegory, does David stand a chance against Goliath?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel, Germany, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, sentimental, touching, contemplative, emotional, edutainment, informative, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 87%
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (2010)
Plot Summary:
Tai is 17 years old. Naim is 20. She's Israeli. He's Palestinian. She lives in Jerusalem. He lives in Gaza. They were born in a land of scorched earth, where fathers bury their children. They must endure an explosive situation that is not of their choosing at an age where young people are falling in love and taking their place in adult life. A bottle thrown in the sea and a correspondence by email nurture the slender hope that their relationship might give them the strength to confront this harsh reality to grapple with it, and thereby ever so slightly change it. Only 60 miles separate them but how many bombings, check-points, sleepless nights and bloodstained days stand between them?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Israel, Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Inch'Allah (2012)
Plot Summary:
A Canadian doctor finds her sympathies sorely tested while working in the conflict ravaged Palestinian territories.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, serious, emotional, disturbing, psychological, captivating, bleak, gloomy, extraordinary
Similar in 82%
Private (2004)
Plot Summary:
A Palestinian family is trapped inside a house commandeered by Israeli soldiers.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 922
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, tense, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 86%
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Plot Summary:
Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Spain
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sentimental, bleak, realistic, depressing, heartbreaking, compassionate, touching, sincere, emotional
Similar in 89%
Tsotsi (2005)
Plot Summary:
The South African multi-award winning film about a young South African boy from the ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster. Tsotsi, who left home as a child to get away from helpless parents, finds a baby in the back seat of a car that he has just stolen. He decides that it his responsibility to take care of the baby and in the process learns that maybe the gangster life isn’t the best way.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, South Africa
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, emotional, harsh, rough, captivating, dramatic, art house, realistic, inspirational
Similar in 75%
Northwest (2013)
Plot Summary:
Nordvest is a gangsterfilm set in the suburbs of Copenhagen. Casper (18), the oldest of 3 siblings, survives life on the streets by committing burglaries for the neighbourhood boss, Jamal. When Casper gets an offer to work for Jamal’s rival Björn, he jumps at the chance for a better life, making his way into a world of drugs and prostitution. As things escalate between Björn and Jamal, Casper finds himself and his family dead center of a conflict, that threatens to destroy them.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, tense, bleak, serious, noir, neo noir, hood, sincere
Similar in 78%
Cost of a Soul (2010)
Plot Summary:
Wounded in the war, Tommy Donahue and DD Davis return home from Iraq to the slum neighborhood they grew up in. Tommy returns to his wife, Faith, whom he abandoned while she was pregnant to escape a life of crime. Tommy meets his disabled six year-old daughter, Hope, for the first time, and she begins to melt his frozen heart. While DD struggles to make an honest living, his older brother, Darnell, has risen to become the neighborhood kingpin. DD faces the pressure to save his younger brother, James, from following in Darnell’s dangerous footsteps. Tommy and DD find themselves trapped in the same slum they joined the military to escape. As they struggle for redemption, their own families become entangled in a web of crime, corruption and violence.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, psychological, captivating, rough, bleak, independent film
Similar in 82%
LUV (2012)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of one day, a shy 13-year-old forms a bond with his troubled uncle.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, rough, realistic, hood, crime drama, independent film
Similar in 86%
Adulthood (2008)
Plot Summary:
After serving six years for killing his schoolmate, a young man learns that someone is out for revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: hood, rough, serious, realistic, cult classic, gloomy, bleak
Similar in 79%
Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000)
Plot Summary:
Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Since they left Dib and his gang, they have been living on the portside of Casablanca. They live in constant fear of Dib's revenge. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib's gang. Matters are getting serious.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: Morocco, Tunisia, France, Belgium, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, bleak, social, disturbing, crying, islamic, realistic, masterpiece
Similar in 78%
My Father My Lord (2007)
Plot Summary:
"My Father My Lord" is an intimate and deeply disturbing story of the conflict between a father's love and his deep devotion to religion. A respected Orthodox Rabbi dotes on his only son but his religious strictures leave an emotional gap between the impish child and the stern father. When the father's all-consuming obsession with observing religious ritual inadvertently leads to tragedy, his previously subservient wife rages against both her husband and God. A dramatic retelling of the story of Abraham.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 492
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, captivating, sad, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Paradise Now (2005)
Plot Summary:
Paradise Now is filmed from the perspective of two Palestinian men who are preparing to perform a suicide attack in Israel. This is the first film to deal with the subject of suicide bombers.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Netherlands, Israel, Germany, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, thought provoking, controversial, depressing, political, rough, dramatic, intense, realistic