Best movies like Alias Maria
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A vision of Colombia's inhuman armed conflict, seen through the eyes of a young - and pregnant - girl soldier.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 398
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Colombia, Argentina, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: tense, psychological, rough, unusual plot structure
Best tv shows and movies like Alias Maria (2015):
Similar in 78%
Kampuchea: The Untold Story (1985)
Plot Summary:
After seeing his parents and grandmother killed by the Vietnamese, a 12 year old Khmer boy flees with his baby sister in an attempt to reach safety in Thailand. On the way he befriends a group of Khmer fighters.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 14
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Thailand
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: cult film
Similar in 75%
Reach for Glory (1962)
Plot Summary:
During World War II, teenage boys in a small English town are consumed with jingoism and brutal war games, hoping dearly that the war won't end before they can fight in it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 87%
The Guardians (2017)
Plot Summary:
Women are left behind to work a family farm during the Great War.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Switzerland, Belgium
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, bleak, suspense, disturbing, novela, anamorphic
Similar in 84%
Adam (2019)
Plot Summary:
Abla, a widow and mother to a 10-year-old girl, struggles to survive and give her child the best possible future. After the death of her husband, she starts a home-based business from her kitchen, which opens up on the street through a metal shutter. Every day, she makes and sells homemade bread and all types of traditional Moroccan pastries. Closed-off from life, leading an existence devoid of happiness and taking refuge in her work, Abla has become old before her time. Unable to manifest love towards her child, she has replaced tenderness with pragmatism. When Samia, a young woman who is heavily pregnant knocks on her door, seeking shelter and overwhelmed by the weight of her burden of giving birth to a child without a father, Alba is unaware that this chance encounter will change her forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Morocco, France, Belgium, Qatar
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: cult film
Similar in 86%
The Liberation of Skopje (2016)
Plot Summary:
Eight-year-old Zoran is the hero of this story set in Skopje during the German occupation of the city in World War II. Through his eyes, we experience all the cruelty, poverty and suffering of wartime. A love affair between his Macedonian mother and a German officer will help his family get through the hard times….
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 395
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Croatia, Finland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, rough, thought provoking, suspense
Similar in 84%
Bellissima (2001)
Plot Summary:
Elzbieta (Ewa Kasprzyk) desperately wishes for her daughter, Maria (Maria Goralczyk), to become famous so she can live vicariously through her. Feeling she was deprived of her shot at fame, Elzbieta sets up auditions for Maria, even though Maria isn't interested. During the shooting of a television commercial, Maria walks out, leaving her mother and her mother's actor boyfriend hanging. Will Elzbieta's dreams for Maria come true?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 61 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, suspenseful, psychological
Similar in 86%
Dog Days (2016)
Plot Summary:
Endless dog days of summer weigh heavily on the impoverished suburb of Changsha where a young mother, Lulu, works as a dancer in a cheap nightclub. Coming home late one night, she discovers that her boyfriend Bai Long has disappeared with their baby. Her desperate search takes her to a transvestite bar where gay man Sunny is performing; he knows the whereabouts of the child’s father. A deal is struck between the odd couple whose lives are now fatefully intertwined.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 85
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, suspenseful, unusual plot structure, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Inbetween Worlds (2014)
Plot Summary:
Jesper is a soldier in the German army, who reports for a new tour of duty in Afghanistan. His unit is to protect a village from the Taliban.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 681
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, tense, captivating, sincere, rough
Similar in 85%
Happy New Year (2011)
Plot Summary:
A war-torn marine returns home to face his fiercest battle yet - the one against himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, rough, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 78%
Afghan Luke (2011)
Plot Summary:
Disheartened when his story about Canadian snipers possibly mutilating corpses in Afghanistan is buried, Luke (Nick Stahl) quits his job but is even more determined to return to Afghanistan to get the real story. With his offbeat buddy, Tom (Nicolas Wright), tagging along, Luke returns to Afghanistan and intends to gather enough evidence to get his old story into print. But he soon finds that the country is an even more dangerous place than when he left. To make matters worse, his old friend and fixer, Mateen (Stephen Lobo) has been hired away by Luke's journalistic nemesis, Imran Sahar (Vik Sahay). Soon the trip for Luke and Tom in Afghanistan turns into a surreal and perilous adventure, a journey into an alternate reality, filtered through a haze of gun smoke.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 811
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, thought provoking, captivating, psychological, rough, serious, semi serious
Similar in 85%
Kippur (2000)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War in which Egypt and Syria launched attacks in Sinai and the Golan Heights. The story is told from the perspective of Israeli soldiers. We are led by Weinraub and his friend Ruso on a day that begins with quiet city streets, but ends with death, destruction and devastation of both body and mind. Various scenes are awash in the surreal, as Weinraub's head hangs out over a rescue helicopter's open door, watching with tranquil desperation as the earth passes beneath, the overpowering whir of the blades creating a hypnotic state. It is not a traditional blood, guts and glory film. There are no men in battle, only the rescue crew trying to pick up the broken pieces.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: tense, disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, atmospheric, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 90%
White Material (2009)
Plot Summary:
Maria is a White farmer who runs a failing coffee plantation in an unnamed African country in the present day. Civil war has broken out and rebel soldiers, many of them child soldiers, are advancing on the area. Rebels on the radio advocate attacks on emblems of colonialism. Maria's workers leave, but she refuses to abandon the plantation, and searches for men to finish harvesting of the coffee.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Cameroon
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, disturbing, rough, emotional, realistic, depressing, controversial, stylized, art house, odd
Similar in 77%
Invisible (2017)
Plot Summary:
Ely is 17 years old. After school, she works few hours at a pet shop. When Ely learns that she is pregnant, her inner world explodes even though she tries to go on with her daily routine as if nothing was different. She is afraid and upset, and she knows that, whatever she decides to do, there is no turning back.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 850
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, touching, unusual plot structure, contemplative
Similar in 82%
The Zookeeper (2001)
Plot Summary:
Jonah Ludovic (Sam Neill) is a custodian at a small municipal zoo. After a night of heavy shelling Ludovic arrives at his job to find the staff abandoning the zoo. He joins a skeleton crew that includes an elderly guard and a veterinarian (Om Puri). Their purpose: to keep the animals alive until help arrives from an international zoological mission.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Denmark, UK, Czech Republic, Netherlands
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, rough, suspenseful, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, biting
Similar in 77%
The Commissar (1967)
Plot Summary:
Klavdia Vavilova, a Red Army cavalry commissar, is waylaid by an unexpected pregnancy. She stays with a Jewish family to give birth and is softened somewhat by the experience of family life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, atmospheric, philosophical, spiritual, political, sincere
Similar in 89%
In Safe Hands (2018)
Plot Summary:
Théo is given up for adoption by his biological mother on the very day he is born. After this anonymous birth, the mother has two months to change her mind… Or not. The child welfare services and adoption service spring into action… The former have to take care of the baby and support it during this limbo-like time, this period of uncertainty, while the latter must find a woman to become his adoptive mother. She is called Alice, and she has spent the last ten years fighting to have a child.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, captivating, emotional, touching, feel good
Similar in 82%
The Last Full Measure (2019)
Plot Summary:
The incredible true story of Vietnam War hero William H. Pitsenbarger, a U.S. Air Force Pararescuemen medic who personally saved over sixty men. Thirty-two years later, Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman investigates a Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pitsenbarger and uncovers a high-level conspiracy behind the decades-long denial of the medal, prompting Huffman to put his own career on the line to seek justice for the fallen airman.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, captivating, disturbing, depressing, cult classic, period piece
Similar in 84%
Shot Through the Heart (1998)
Plot Summary:
The horrors of war are examined from the view points of lifelong friends (Linus Roache, Vincent Perez), who end up on opposing sides in the civil war in Sarajevo. One is an expert marksman, who trains the snipers used to terrify the city and the other becomes a freedom fighter, who rejects his friend's offer to gain an escape from the city. As might be expected, the two eventually have to face-off against one another.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, biting, suspense
Similar in 89%
War Witch (2012)
Plot Summary:
Somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Komona a 14-year-old girl tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything started when she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, touching, serious, bleak, social, sad, depressing, independent film, realistic, crying
Similar in 77%
Savior (1998)
Plot Summary:
A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, depressing, tense, rough, suspenseful, realistic, road movie, smart, serious
Similar in 76%
Johnny Mad Dog (2008)
Plot Summary:
A cast of unknown performers are used in this drama about child soldiers fighting a war in an unnamed African country.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Belgium, Liberia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, disturbing, brutal, sad, bleak
Similar in 85%
Fanny's Journey (2016)
Plot Summary:
Fanny is a Jewish girl in a French orphanage in 1943. When she and her friends are no longer safe from the Nazis, they try to flee to Switzerland. After their guide disappears, Fanny has to take the lead and help the other kids make it over the mountains.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, thought provoking, touching, suspense
Similar in 87%
The Saver (2015)
Plot Summary:
When teenaged Fern is orphaned in the middle of a harsh Montreal winter, she is determined to avoid her mother’s tragic fate, and take care of herself. With Youth Protection nipping at her heels, she lies about her name and age, to get a job as a janitor another as a cook. Juggling life and work and the discovery of the book, ‘50 Ways to become a Millionaire: All you need to do is save,’ Fern decides to do just that, replacing her grief with the quest to become a millionaire. Written, directed and edited by award-winning filmmaker Wiebke von Carolsfeld (Marion Bridge, Stay), The Saver stars the newly discovered Imajyn Cardinal and is based on the young adult novel by Edeet Ravel.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 106
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, captivating, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 75%
100 Days in the Jungle (2002)
Plot Summary:
100 Days in the Jungle tells the amazing true story of Canadian oil workers who were kidnapped by Colombian rebels and marched through the Ecuadorian jungle for 100 days.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Fremde Tochter (2017)
Plot Summary:
Seventeen-year-old Lena meets 19-year-old Farid, a young Muslim. She has a clear-cut attitude towards his culture and religion: utter rejection. Despite their differences – or perhaps because of them – they fall in love.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 178
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, unusual plot structure, captivating, suspense, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Fires on the Plain (2014)
Plot Summary:
In the final days of World War II, occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines face resistance from the local population and the American offensive. The dwindling Japanese soldiers attempt to survive through the horrors of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 831
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, realistic, captivating, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 77%
Parallel Mothers (2021)
Plot Summary:
Two unmarried women who have become pregnant by accident and are about to give birth meet in a hospital room: Janis, middle-aged, unrepentant and happy; Ana, a teenager, remorseful and frightened.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: dramatic, sincere, psychological, suspenseful, tear jerker, hispanic, postmodern, queer cinema, weird
Similar in 90%
Hatred (2016)
Plot Summary:
Summer of 1939. Zosia is a young Polish girl who is deeply in love with Ukrainian Petro. Their great love will be put to the test when her father decides to marry her to a wealthy widower Skiba. Right after wedding she is left alone because her husband is drafted to the Polish army for the war with Germany. Meanwhile, tensions grow due to Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians living side by side.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, art house, historical romance
Similar in 81%
Beasts of No Nation (2015)
Plot Summary:
A drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country. Follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who is forced to join a group of soldiers in a fictional West African country. While Agu fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first torn between conflicting revulsion and fascination Depicts the mechanics of war and does not shy away from explicit, visceral detail, and paints a complex, difficult picture of Agu as a child soldier.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 86000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: disturbing, political, bleak, harsh, dramatic, tense, atmospheric, suspense, serious, rough
Similar in 77%
In Darkness (2011)
Plot Summary:
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lvov (former Poland).
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Germany, Canada
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: harsh, disturbing, sincere, uplifting, social, educational, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful