Best movies like Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Based on a local legend and set in an unknown era, it deals with universal themes of love, possessiveness, family, jealousy and power. Beautifully shot, and acted by Inuit people, it portrays a time when people fought duels by taking turns to punch each other until one was unconscious, made love on the way to the caribou hunt, ate walrus meat and lit their igloos with seal-oil lamps.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 172 min
Plot tags: bleak, tense, harsh, sentimental, atmospheric, stylized, experimental, poignant, epic, serious
Best tv shows and movies like Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001):
Similar in 88%
Where the Spirit Lives (1989)
Plot Summary:
In 1937, a young First Nations (Canadian native) girl named Ashtecome is kidnapped along with several other children from a village as part of a deliberate Canadian policy to force First Nations children to abandon their culture in order to be assimilated into white Canadian/British society. She is taken to a boarding school where she is forced to adopt Western Euro-centric ways and learn English, often under brutal treatment. Only one sympathetic white teacher who is more and more repelled by this bigotry offers her any help from among the staff. That, with her force of will, Ashtecome (forced to take the name Amelia) is determined to hold on to her identity and that of her siblings, who were also abducted.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 290
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Shouting Secrets (2011)
Plot Summary:
Shouting Secrets is a hopeful and heartwarming, universal story taking place in a present day Native American family. It's a story that is at once about the constancy and the fragility of love, as well as the importance of family.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Switzerland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, independent film, interesting
Similar in 87%
The Indian Runner (1991)
Plot Summary:
An intensely sad film about two brothers who cannot overcome their opposite perceptions of life. One brother sees and feels bad in everyone and everything, subsequently he is violent, antisocial and unable to appreciate or enjoy the good things which his brother desperately tries to point out to him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, rough, serious, independent film, cult classic, tense, captivating, controversial
Similar in 89%
Older Than America (2008)
Plot Summary:
The truth of the past come to light in a series of haunting visions in this drama. The strange visions grow more vivid with each passing day, a young woman of Native American heritage begins piecing together a Catholic priests diabolical plot to prevent her mother from revealing the atrocities that unfolded at a Native Indian boarding school.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 78%
Far North (2007)
Plot Summary:
A soldier's unexpected arrival affects two women's simple existence.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, France
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, captivating, suspenseful, serious, realistic, gloomy, epic, crying
Similar in 77%
Dance Me Outside (1994)
Plot Summary:
Explores the sensitive, and tense, relationship between life on an First Nations reservation and life in the outside world. When Native Canadian Silas Crow is forced to write a personal essay in order to get a much-desired job, he tells the story of the rape and murder of an Indian girl by a drunken thug. When the killer received a lenient two-year sentence for manslaughter, the First Nations community felt shock and anger -- and tried desperately to deal with the after-effects of this lack of justice.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, atmospheric, clever, serious, realistic, contemplative, stylized, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 77%
DreamKeeper (2003)
Plot Summary:
In South Dakota, in an Indian reservation, an old storyteller Indian asks his grandson Shane, who is in trouble owing money to some bad guys, to take his old pony and him to Albuquerque to the great powwow, an Indian meeting. While traveling, Grandpa tells mysterious Indian tales of love, friendship and magic.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy
Country: USA, Canada, Germany
Duration: 174 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, sentimental, feel good, philosophical, spiritual, epic, independent film, esoteric, semi serious
Similar in 82%
The Winter Guest (1997)
Plot Summary:
It's winter in a small Scottish village near the sea, and multiple lives intersect in a day. Frances (Emma Thompson) has just lost her husband to an early death, so her mother, Elspeth (Phyllida Law), travels to Frances' house to reconnect with her daughter and grandson, Alex (Gary Hollywood). Meanwhile, old women Chloe (Sandra Voe) and Lily (Sheila Reid) go to a funeral, youngsters Sam (Douglas Murphy) and Tom (Sean Biggerstaff) cut class, and Alex gets a crush on tomboy Nita (Arlene Cockburn).
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, bleak, talky, scenic, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying
Similar in 76%
Poor Boy's Game (2007)
Plot Summary:
Donnie Rose went to prison for beating a young man so brutally it left him handicapped for life. Nine years later, Donnie is out. He's a different man with only one place to go: back home to the same violent and racist neighborhood that created him. At the other end of town, the black community still wants revenge. The instrument of justice will be Ossie Paris, a devastatingly talented boxer who challenges Donnie to a match; a match Donnie's family and peers won't let him refuse. George Carvery has waited nine years to avenge his son's fate at the hands of Donnie. When finally they meet face to face, however, both realize they share a similar desire to overcome the past.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, rough, realistic, crying
Similar in 77%
Ten Canoes (2006)
Plot Summary:
A story within a story within a story. In Australia's Northern Territory, an Aboriginal narrator tells a story about his ancestors on a goose hunt. A youngster on the hunt is being tempted to adultery with his elder brother's wife, so an elder tells him a story from the mythical past about how evil can slip in and cause havoc unless prevented by virtue according to customary tribal law.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, melancholic, realistic, serious, parody, witty, disturbing, anthropological, touching, funny
Similar in 85%
The Maiden Danced to Death (2011)
Plot Summary:
There were two brothers - two dancers - in Communist Hungary. One defected, the other stuck it out. One gave his soul to commerce, the other to the Party. After twenty years, they meet again. And the dance begins.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Canada, Slovenia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, atmospheric, emotional, family saga, independent film
Similar in 88%
Redland (2009)
Plot Summary:
As a family struggles to survive in rural isolation during the Great Depression, their daughter's secret affair begins a journey into the unknown.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 100
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, rough, serious, disturbing, mystic, tense, bleak, realistic, independent film, epic
Similar in 76%
Edge of Madness (2002)
Plot Summary:
1851, Manitoba's Red River Valley. As winter sets in, a young woman on the edge of madness arrives exhausted at the fort, a wilderness station, claiming she murdered her husband. She's placed in a cell; for the next several months, she sews while the local prefect, Henry Mullen, investigates.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 734
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspense, erotic, bleak, period drama
Similar in 78%
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Plot Summary:
A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: depressing, fairy tale, erotic, heartbreaking, independent film, existential, psychological, atmospheric, bleak, emotional
Similar in 77%
The Outlander (2005)
Plot Summary:
It is the early 20th century. A stranger arrives in the small, rural community and disrupts the lives of its inhabitants. The man, who refuses to give his name, is dubbed The Outlander. A traveller who disdains conventional behaviour and parochialism, The Outlander disturbs the villagers' complacency and scandalizes the community; he also elicits admiration and gains a woman's love. He ultimately leaves in the same manner he had arrived, but not before he has helped the villagers open their eyes to the larger world beyond their village.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 406
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sentimental, touching, realistic, serious
Similar in 76%
The Wild Ones (2012)
Plot Summary:
Five juvenile delinquents break out of jail and attempt to make their way to a house in the Mendoza foothills of Argentina.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 239
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Netherlands
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, captivating, bleak
Similar in 80%
Gerry (2002)
Plot Summary:
Two friends named Gerry become lost in the desert after taking a wrong turn. Their attempts to find their way home only lead them into further trouble.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA, Argentina
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: surreal, minimal cast, art house, enigmatic, melancholic, disturbing, captivating, visual, mindfuck, independent film
Similar in 79%
Black Robe (1991)
Plot Summary:
In the 17th century a Jesuit priest and a young companion are escorted through the wilderness of Quebec by Algonquin Indians to find a distant mission in the dead of winter. The Jesuit experiences a spiritual journey while his young companion falls in love with the Algonquin chief's beautiful daughter underneath the imposing and magnificent mountains. Dread and death follows them upriver.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: Canada, Australia
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: bleak, realistic, christian film, historically accurate, sad, period piece, religious drama, colorful, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 89%
On the Ice (2011)
Plot Summary:
In Barrow, Alaska, teenagers Qalli and Aivaaq find their bond tested when a seal-hunting trip goes wrong, resulting in the death of their friend.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, independent film, tense, sincere, serious, suspenseful, crying
Similar in 78%
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Plot Summary:
A River Runs Through is a cinematographically stunning true story of Norman Maclean. The story follows Norman and his brother Paul through the experiences of life and growing up, and how their love of fly fishing keeps them together despite varying life circumstances in the untamed west of Montana in the 1920's.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 64000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sentimental, melancholic, intense, tense, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Shipping News (2001)
Plot Summary:
An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA, Sweden
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: melancholic, emotional, stylized, sentimental, serious, captivating, touching, depressing, heartbreaking, romantic
Similar in 79%
How I Ended This Summer (2010)
Plot Summary:
Two men at a remote Arctic base begin mistrusting each other after an important radio message.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, bleak, realistic, suspense, slow cinema, aesthetic, relaxing, serious
Similar in 83%
Zero Kelvin (1995)
Plot Summary:
Larsen, an aspiring poet in '20s Oslo, leaves his girlfriend to spend a year as a trapper in East Greenland. There he is teamed with a seemingly rough old sailor/trapper, Randbæk, and a scientist, Holm. Trapped in a tiny hut together as the Arctic winter sets in, a complex and intense love/hate relationship develops between Randbæk and Larsen, who are more similar than either would like to admit. A powerful psychological and physical drama set against stunningly bleak Arctic scenery.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Sweden
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: psychological, philosophical, atmospheric, neurotic, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, erotic
Similar in 75%
The Donner Party (2009)
Plot Summary:
Based on the real events of The Donner Party tragedy. The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the western expansion of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada during the winter of 1846-1847, a number of the trapped settlers joined together in a final effort to reach California and organize a rescue party.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, serious, realistic, mysterious, suspenseful, bleak, wild
Similar in 84%
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006)
Plot Summary:
Based on the journal of Knud Rasmussen's "Great Sled Journey" of 1922 across arctic Canada. The film is shot from the perspective of the Inuit, showing their traditional beliefs and lifestyle. It tells the story of the last great Inuit shaman and his beautiful and headstrong daughter; the shaman must decide whether to accept the Christian religion that is converting the Inuit across Greenland.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 382
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Denmark, Greenland
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, atmospheric, psychological, philosophical, touching, serious, intercultural, inter cultural
Similar in 86%
Before Tomorrow (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two isolated families meet for a summertime celebration. Food is abundant and the future seems bright, but Ningiuq, a wise old woman, sees her world as fragile and moves through it with a pervasive sense of dread. Ningiuq and her grandson Maniq are dropped off on a remote island, where, every year, the family dries the catch and stores it for winter. The task is soon finished. As summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up. Written by Anonymous (IMDb.com).
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 200
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 76%
The Necessities of Life (2008)
Plot Summary:
In 1952, an Inuit hunter named Tivii with tuberculosis leaves his northern home and family to go recuperate at a sanatorium in Quebec City. Uprooted, far from his loved ones, unable to speak French and faced with a completely alien world, he becomes despondent. When he refuses to eat and expresses a wish to die, his nurse, Carole, comes to the realization that Tivii's illness is not the most serious threat to his well-being. She arranges to have a young orphan, Kaki, transferred to the institution. The boy is also sick, but has experience with both worlds and speaks both languages. By sharing his culture with Kaki and opening it up to others, Tivii rediscovers his pride and energy. Ultimately he also rediscovers hope through a plan to adopt Kaki, bring him home and make him part of his family.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, intercultural, feel good, inter cultural
Similar in 80%
Troy (2004)
Plot Summary:
In year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age, two emerging nations begin to clash. Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemnom to help him get her back. Agamemnon sees this as an opportunity for power. So they set off with 1,000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy. With the help of Achilles, the Greeks are able to fight the never before defeated Trojans.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 561000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Malta, UK
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: epic, exciting, heroic, realistic, period piece, rough, serious, stylized, factual, costume drama
Similar in 85%
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
Plot Summary:
A mountain man who wishes to live the life of a hermit becomes the unwilling object of a long vendetta by Indians when he proves to be the match of their warriors in one-to-one combat on the early frontier.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Western
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, epic, realistic, scenic, meditative, factual, serious, bleak, existential, spaghetti western
Similar in 87%
The Snow Walker (2003)
Plot Summary:
A bush pilot in nothern Canada who with the aid of modernity thinks he can handle it all & knows it all. After reluctantly agreeing to transport a local indian girl to a medical facility his light plane crashes & they have to survive whilst finding their way back to civilization. Along the journey the man finds a new respect for the native ways as they battle to survive the elements.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, sentimental, breathtaking, realistic, compassionate, touching, heartbreaking, sad, scenic