Best movies like Alila
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Life in a flimsy Tel Aviv apartment complex is a sour urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces. The character's lives overlap and collide. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who's older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police officer. In each scene the camera moves through walls, over desks, and around rooms in order to keep focused on the character it's following, in moments of drama as well as in moments of mudane daily activity.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, avant garde
Best tv shows and movies like Alila (2003):
Similar in 87%
Devil's Island (1996)
Plot Summary:
The story of families living in barracks, left by the US Army in Reykjavik at the conclusion of World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iceland, Germany, Norway, Denmark
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
America (2010)
Plot Summary:
Lisa, a beautiful young Russian woman, is married to Victor, a Portuguese. Fernanda, the Spanish ex-wife of Victor, taking advantage of the coming wave of illegal immigrants in Portugal, wants to do business with false passports. Since then, and to Lisa's desperation, her home becomes a halfway house for immigrants of various nationalities and different races, all in search of a better future. Among them is Andrei, a young Ukrainian orthopedist who is wanted by the Russian mafia. Andrei falls in love with Lisa, who sees in him the opportunity to get out of that life. But things are not simple.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Russia, Brazil, Spain, Portugal
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, tragicomedy, realistic
Similar in 84%
Les papas du dimanche (2012)
Plot Summary:
The movie tells a story about a family in France, in contemporary times, and its problem such as bittersweet and sincere, breakup, family problems, parents and children.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 88%
Vodka Lemon (2003)
Plot Summary:
Hamo, a handsome 60-year old man, lives alone in a Romenian village with one of his daughters and his granddaughter. He also owns a retirement of seven dollars per month, a closet, an old russian television set and a military costume.A letter from his second daughter arrives from France.A rumor runs through the village: the envelope would be full of money...But Hamo doesn't think but of the beautiful unknown girl from the cemetery.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Italy, Switzerland, Armenia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, islamic, sentimental, road movie, sincere
Similar in 80%
Free Zone (2005)
Plot Summary:
Rebecca, an American who has been living in Jerusalem for a few months now, has just broken off her engagement. She gets into a cab driven by Hanna, an Israeli. But Hanna is on her way to Jordan, to the Free Zone, to pick up a large of sum of money.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, Belgium, France, Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: road movie, serious, thought provoking, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 88%
Mad Ship (2013)
Plot Summary:
A Scandinavian immigrant, driven to madness by ruined dreams and the tragic death of his wife, embarks on a quixotic mission to build a homemade ship and sail out of the prairie dust bowl at the height of the Great Depression.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, period piece
Similar in 82%
In the Heart (2014)
Plot Summary:
Masha (37) is in an overwhelming relationship with Luuk, father of two and separated. Nothing seems to stand in their way until Luuk turns incurably ill, leaving Masha without status.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 77%
Sacred (1999)
Plot Summary:
The year 2000 approaches in Jerusalem's Orthodox Mea Shearim quarter, where the women work, keep house, and have children so the men can study the Torah and the Talmud. Rivka is happily and passionately married to Meir, but they remain childless. The yeshiva's rabbi, who is Meir's father, wants Meir to divorce Rivka: "a barren woman is no woman." Rivka's sister, Malka, is in love with Yakov, a Jew shunned by the yeshiva as too secular. The rabbi arranges Malka's marriage to Yossef, whose agitation when fulfilling religious duties approaches the grotesque. Can the sisters sort out their hearts' desires within this patriarchal world? If not, have they any other options?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: philosophical, thinking, sincere, clever, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, controversial, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Yasmin (2004)
Plot Summary:
In England, the Pakistanis Yasmin lives two lives in two different worlds: in her community, she wears Muslin clothes, cooks for her father and brother and has the traditional behavior of a Muslin woman. Further, she has a non-consumed marriage with the illegal immigrant Faysal to facilitate the British stamp in his passport, and then divorce him. In her job, she changes her clothes and wears like a Westerner, is considered a standard employee and has a good Caucasian friend who likes her. After the September, 11th, the prejudice in her job and the treatment of common people makes her take side and change her life.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 786
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching
Similar in 89%
Brides (2014)
Plot Summary:
Nutsa, a young mother, lives with her two children in a suburbs of Tblissi in Georgia. Her partner Goga is in prison. They get married, so she gains the right to talk to him once a month in the visiting room on the other side of the glass. The ceremony is quick with a strange ambiance. Goga in prison, Nutsa with children outside, a routine sets in.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Georgia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Red Leaves (2014)
Plot Summary:
An Ethiopian immigrant, sets out on a journey through his children's homes after losing his wife. Coming to know some of life's harsh new realities, he tries to survive in his own way.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, tense
Similar in 82%
Manpower (2014)
Plot Summary:
An intelligent social issues drama, Manpower sketches a portrait of four men in crisis. Moving between scathing realism and subtle irony, the film raises questions of belonging and uprooting, exile and emigration, home and family. Meir Cohen is a decorated police officer yet he barely earns a living. His new assignment to deport African migrant workers teaches him that foreigners aren’t the only ones with no future in his country. Other plotlines intertwine with Meir’s story: an Israeli-Filipino boy fighting for recognition; a taxi driver whose children are migrating to a distant country; and a veteran migrant worker who’s forced to decide whether to leave or to hide until trouble passes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, realistic, serious, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 89%
The Piano in a Factory (2010)
Plot Summary:
Steelworker Chen has a passion for music and plays the accordion in a local band with a close group of friends. When his estranged wife returns one day after years of absence, she demands a divorce and sole custody of their daughter. Chen is at a loss. He doesn't mind divorcing a woman who has become a stranger, but he can't bear to part with his daughter. Chen has worked hard to give her a respectable life and has taught her his love of music. When asked if she'd rather stay with her father or go with her mother, the girl gives a practical, devastating answer: she'll go with whomever can provide her with a piano. Chen cannot afford such a luxury item, but the piano becomes his last hope to save what little is left of his family. With the help of his loyal friends and the support of his lover - the singer in his band - Chen concocts several plans to fulfill his daughter's wish.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: China
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, touching, realistic, artsy, art film
Similar in 84%
Late Marriage (2001)
Plot Summary:
Zaza is a 31-year old Israeli bachelor, handsome and intelligent, and his family wants to see him married. But tradition dictates that Zaza has to choose a young virgin. She must be beautiful and from a good family, preferably rich. Zaza's parents, Yasha and Lily drag Zaza to meet potential brides and their families. Zaza has no choice. He plays along with his family, advocates of the suffocating traditions of their Georgian Jewish heritage. But Zaza always manages to somehow get out of being engaged. What his parents don't know is that Zaza is already in love. Judith is sensuous, strong and intriguing. She's also a divorcée with a 6-year-old daughter. So Zaza has kept Judith a secret from his family. He will have to choose between respect of the strict confines of family and tradition, or the love of his life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, touching, emotional, romantic, clever, offbeat, humorous, semi serious, crying
Similar in 78%
Blame It on Mum (2009)
Plot Summary:
Mady Celliers, an attractive housewife of 60, he spends his life speaking ill of her two daughters and her husband, a man who shows a strange behavior since has retired. Antoine, the eldest son, company director, is unable to make a success of a business: out of a bankruptcy to get into another, her sister Alice madonnas obsessively paints sad. Annabelle, a nurse in an intensive care unit, tries desperately to save his family pronosticándole the future. When Alice meets by chance Jacques, a lonely police pessimistic explode all family neurosis.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 417
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching
Similar in 78%
Good Fences (2003)
Plot Summary:
Set in the 1970s, Tom Spader is an attorney who is determined to end what he has dubbed "the colored man's losing streak." When his winning of a high-profile case thrusts him into the limelight, he decides to moves his wife and their two kids out of their mixed lower-middle-class town and into the posh enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, black comedy, biting, suspense
Similar in 78%
The Italian (2010)
Plot Summary:
Life smiles at Dino Fabrizzi,a cool forty-two-year old Italian. Not only is he the most successful salesman at The Maserati dealership in Nice but he has had a steady (and hot) relationship with Hélène,his girlfriend, who is beginning to contemplate marriage. To crown it all he is nearly certain to land a senior position at the dealership. But there is a tiny wee problem. The funny Italian is not Italian at all! His real name is Mourad and he is actually of Algerian origin. So, when to please his father (who does not know his son pretends to be Italian), he promises him to celebrate Ramadan he is bound to get into serious trouble.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, semi serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
Sabah: A Love Story (2005)
Plot Summary:
One day, when Sabah least expects it, she falls in love with the wrong man. She's Muslim, he's not. Unbeknownst to her family, she goes on a whirlwind affair before both culture and love collide.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Canada
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, offbeat, islamic
Similar in 87%
Looking for Miguel (2007)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy Columbian politician blinded by his own privilege is forced to walk a mile in the shoes of the people he despises most after falling victim to a violent attack and subsequently losing his memory. Miguel was a man of fine stock, a politician who has led a charmed life since the day he was born. But Miguel has no appreciation for his lot in life, and scoffs at the everyday people who must struggle just to survive. One day, after being assaulted on the street and left for dead, Miguel awakens with no memory of the past. He has forgotten his distain for the dumpster divers, petty thieves, and wandering transients who crowd the city streets, and now their warmth and solidarity is the only thing keeping him alive. As Miguel forges a friendship with a pious but promiscuous drag queen, the fragments of the past gradually become illuminated in his mind, prompting him on a desperate quest to reclaim his identity and atone for the sins of his past.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Colombia
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, bleak, contemplative
Similar in 75%
Happy Hour (2003)
Plot Summary:
Set in present day New York City, "Happy Hour" is a literate and often funny story of love and how to receive it. Tulley, a once-promising literary star now biding his time as an advertising copy editor, moves from cynicism to acceptance as he secretly hopes to write a great novel only to learn that his life of booze will end all too soon. Levine, his best friend and Natalie, the woman who might have saved him, suffer the pain of Tulley's anger and rejection.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 441
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 87%
Little Jerusalem (2005)
Plot Summary:
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 84%
Our Precious Children (2003)
Plot Summary:
30 ans, l'âge des responsabilités... Martin s'apprête à partir en vacances avec sa femme Ariane et sa fille Cerise, 4 mois... C'est alors qu'il croise Constance, son ex, son amour de jeunesse, elle-même flanquée de deux marmots. C'est décidé : on passera quelques jours ensemble, au soleil, dans la maison familiale. Comme au bon vieux temps.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 434
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: humorous, touching, realistic, semi serious, sexy, sexual
Similar in 80%
The Gilded Cage (2013)
Plot Summary:
In the beautiful area of Paris, Maria and José Ribeiro lived for almost thirty years on the ground floor of a Haussmann building, in their dear little lodge.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, touching, semi serious, realistic, intercultural, masterpiece
Similar in 83%
Men Don't Leave (1990)
Plot Summary:
After her husband John dies unexpectedly, Beth Macauley is unprepared for life without him. She is unemployed with no job skills and $60,000 in debt from on-going renovations to their house located in suburban Bingham. She doesn't know what to do but sell what material possessions she has, such as the family pick-up truck and the house, and move into an apartment in the city, namely Baltimore. Beth just wants to survive by finding a job she doesn't dislike, and keep her family together while trying to maintain her sanity and sense of self-worth.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, sincere, feel good, realistic, semi serious, independent film, light, road movie
Similar in 86%
A Cooler Climate (1999)
Plot Summary:
Iris is broke after her divorce and takes a job working as a housekeeper for a wealthy woman named Paula. When Paula and her husband separate, an unlikely friendship blossoms between the women.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 702
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film, psychological, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 80%
Belonging (2004)
Plot Summary:
Jess (Brenda Blethyn) and town handyman Jacob (Kevin Whately) have been happily married 20 years, recently taking in a trio of Jacob's elderly relatives, including his mother (Rosemary Harris). Though the relations are demanding, kindhearted Jess -- who selflessly quit her job -- enjoys looking after them. But when Jacob disappears one day, Jess' life falls apart, and she must learn to cope with things on her own in this touching drama.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 299
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, touching
Similar in 84%
The Rising Place (2001)
Plot Summary:
The close friendship of two young women, each of a different race, and their struggle to find purpose in their lives during this time of social injustice and world war.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Crossing Borders (2006)
Plot Summary:
Spain 1960, the dawn of the country's economic development. Industrial "reorganization" means that many workers have lost their jobs and are forced to emigrate. Martin is one of them. Martin, his wife Pilar and their son Pablito live with Martin's parents in a basement apartment that comes with their job as superintendents of the building. Encouraged by Marcos, his friend and co-worker, Martin decides to emigrate to Switzerland. The whole family has to admit that for the time being this is the most promising plan. Unable to obtain a work contract from the Swiss Consulate, Martin and Marcos decide to go anyway, pretending they are tourists to get past the border police. Pablito will experience drastic changes in a short period of time: his father's departure, a new way of life in a different country with a different environment and learning another language. But afterwards, in Switzerland, they will face new experiences which will allow them to live with renewed happiness.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous, feel good, intercultural
Similar in 89%
Brooklyn Lobster (2005)
Plot Summary:
Giorgio's Lobster Farm has been a tradition in Brooklyn for over 65 years. Manned by an eccentric crew and serving the best seafood in the state.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 489
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, emotional, atmospheric, captivating, sentimental, sincere, touching, realistic, semi serious, semi autobiographical
Similar in 75%
Face (2002)
Plot Summary:
Genie, a Chinese-American teenager, develops feelings for a charming African-American DJ, but her grandmother forbids their romance forcing Genie to choose between family and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative