Best movies like Bashu, the Little Stranger
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
During the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the country, where everything from landscape to language is different. He meets Naii, who is trying to raise her two young children on a farm, while her husband is away. Despite cultural differences, and the fact that they do not speak the same language, Bashu and Naii slowly form a strong bond Written by Sam Tabibnia.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: inspirational, islamic, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Bashu, the Little Stranger (1989):
Similar in 76%
Killing Mad Dogs (2001)
Plot Summary:
Golrokh, an Iranian author, struggles to settle her husband's debts caused by a business partner who left him to bear the consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Tear of the Cold (2004)
Plot Summary:
During the Iran-Iraq war,a soldier and a Kurdish girl come to a new understanding of the notion of animosity despite their supposedly opposite circumstances.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 458
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, islamic
Similar in 81%
Born Under Libra (2000)
Plot Summary:
Divided by student protests and conflicting politics, college lovers Daniel and Mahtab are separated when Daniel flees Tehran. But Mahtab follows, travelling south to his village. As the lovers reunite and head back to Tehran, they find themselves trapped by flood waters in an abandoned battlefield, strewn with landmines and dead soldiers.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Night Bus (2007)
Plot Summary:
The film, which is in sharp monochrome, relates the story of a twenty-four-hour-long journey of two young Iranian soldiers (Issā and Emād) and a civilian driver (Amu Rahim) transporting thirty-eight Iraqi prisoners of war, taken from behind the Iraqi line, to a garrison inside Iran. From the details one is informed that the Iran–Iraq War has entered into its third year. The film masterfully depicts the deep inhumanity of acts of war amongst nations by showing the shared humanity of the combatants on both sides.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 626
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Kilometer Zero (2005)
Plot Summary:
Set during the Iraq-Iran war in the 80s, the film tells of a tragicomic road trip set in Iraq's Kurdistan.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 492
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Iraq, Finland
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, captivating, sentimental, realistic, black comedy
Similar in 87%
From Karkheh to Rhine (1993)
Plot Summary:
Saeed who is suffering from injuries that he received in the Iran-Iraq War, is sent to Germany for treatments. In Germany, he meets his sister and her German husband. Saeed and his sister who have not had any relations in many years try to re-establish the close relationship that they had long time ago.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Mother (1990)
Plot Summary:
The film progresses along two distinct but interwoven series of events. The first series involves young members of a family who have gathered round their old mother and revive their common childhood memories. the second line focuses on the old woman's preparations for her last journey and her joyous cooperation in arranging for the ceremonies that are to be observed after her death.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: spiritual, islamic, interesting
Similar in 77%
M for Mother (2006)
Plot Summary:
What appears to be a grand love story turns sour when parents-to-be discover that their unborn child will likely be born with serious birth defects, as a result of the mother's exposure to chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war. The father does not want to have a disabled child, but the mother insists on going through with the pregnancy.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, sad, islamic, entertaining
Similar in 81%
The Glass Agency (1998)
Plot Summary:
The Glass Agency is the story of a war veteran living in post war Iran. It depicts veterans who are suffering from social problems after the war. Society does not understand them and the standard social norms are not in harmony with their personalities.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: islamic, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
The Pear Tree (1998)
Plot Summary:
A man contemplates life and compares it to a pear tree in his yard which stops producing fruit.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Iran
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: spiritual, islamic, atmospheric, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Heart of Fire (2008)
Plot Summary:
Eritrea during the independence war against Ethiopia. Awet's mother left her when she was only a little girl and now she is growing up - in the midst of the upheaval - in an orphanage in Asmara. Her sense of justice is in evidence at an early age; as a young girl she is always trying to assert herself and protest against injustice. Several years later, her father - whom she believed lost - takes her away to live with his new family. But Awet is not welcome; her father torments her and finally gives her and her sister to one of Eritrea's liberation armies. The two girls are brought to a camp where they are to be trained as soldiers. There Awet experiences friendship, solidarity, and enthusiasm for the ideals of freedom. But her dream is shattered when she realizes that her heroes are committed to a brutal brothers' war against another liberation army. Confronted with death and fanaticism, Awet has to resort to her 'heart of fire', her courage and her conscience, to find a way out of.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 225
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Germany, Austria, France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, exciting, tense, captivating
Similar in 85%
Marooned in Iraq (2002)
Plot Summary:
During the war between Iran and Iraq, a group of Iranian Kurd musicians set off on an almost impossible mission. They will try to find Hanareh, a singer with a magic voice who crossed the border and may now be in danger in the Iraqi Kurdistan. As in his previous films, this Kurdish director is again focusing on the oppression of his people.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, sentimental, realistic, road movie, islamic
Similar in 86%
Mourning (2011)
Plot Summary:
A violent quarrel breaks out between a couple at midnight. Being at a relative's house in the north of Iran, they depart for Tehran in the middle of the night, but they do not bring along their son. Something terrible happens on their way.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 397
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, realistic, islamic, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Travellers (1992)
Plot Summary:
A young woman's wedding becomes a ritual of mourning when her sister and family die in an auto accident on the way to the wedding. The sisters' mother refuses to accept her daughter's death, and in the midst of wedding guests and mourners, including the drivers of the truck that caused the accident, she orders the wedding to take place. But how can the daughter marry in the midst of a wake and without the family's traditional mirror, which the sister was bringing to the service?.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, beautiful
Similar in 86%
The Cyclist (1989)
Plot Summary:
The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: islamic, psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007)
Plot Summary:
A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from arriving in time. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing as Taliban fighters. They tear her school book to pieces and threaten to stone their female captives.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France, Afghanistan
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, thought provoking, emotional, realistic, gloomy, semi serious
Similar in 79%
The Cow (1969)
Plot Summary:
An old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: depressing, art house, islamic, psychological, atmospheric, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic
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The Patience Stone (2012)
Plot Summary:
A woman in an unnamed, war-torn Middle Eastern country delivers an engrossing, emotional monologue to her comatose husband, in novelist and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi's poetic and politically charged allegory based on his award-winning novel. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Germany, UK, Afghanistan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, disturbing, rough, captivating, realistic, independent film, inspirational, social, sad, islamic
Similar in 86%
The Mirror (1997)
Plot Summary:
When a young Iranian's mother doesn't meet her after school, she tries to negotiate the streets of Tehran by herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: inspirational, serious, experimental, neorealism
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Blackboards (2000)
Plot Summary:
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, Italy, Japan
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, educational, road movie, art house, islamic, offbeat, bleak
Similar in 80%
Boutique (2004)
Plot Summary:
A clothing store worker (Jahan) meets a poor girl named Eti. Jahan tries to help the girl and solve her problems, but….
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, realistic, neo noir, islamic, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The Deserted Station (2002)
Plot Summary:
On a pilgrimage to Mashad from Tehran, a couple's transportation breaks down, far from any major town. The husband, a photographer, seeks help at a nearby village and encounters a teacher who offers to help. Whilst the husband and teacher go off to find a spare part, the wife, who used to be a teacher, takes over the teaching lessons in the village. It is clear that the children live there, in this strange deserted place, without any men, save the teacher and an old signal guard. As the day draws on, the children help to bring a new hope and life into the wife's heart.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 649
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, islamic, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 85%
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Plot Summary:
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: philosophical, melancholic, thought provoking, touching, serious, contemplative, art house, cerebral, compassionate, slow cinema
Similar in 84%
A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Plot Summary:
After their father dies, a family of five are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq. Matters are made worse when 12 year old Ayoub, the new head of the family, is told that his handicapped brother, Madi, needs an immediate operation in order to remain alive. This heartbreaking tale shows the lengths to which a family will go in order to survive in the harshest of conditions, where even the horses are fed liquor in order to work.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: realistic, bleak, meditative, emotional, harsh, sincere, rough, serious, inspirational, political
Similar in 90%
The Father (1996)
Plot Summary:
Mehrollah is a 14-year-old boy who is forced to find a job to support his family after his father dies. He travels to the southern parts of Iran, looking for work. Upon his return to his hometown, he notices certain changes in his family.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: inspirational, islamic, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
The Willow Tree (2005)
Plot Summary:
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, touching, captivating, inspirational, emotional, islamic, thought provoking, serious, beautiful
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Mother of Mine (2005)
Plot Summary:
1943: Nine-year-old Eero whose father is killed during the war is brought to Sweden to foster parents to his protection like thousands of other Finnish children. Eero feels lost, particularly as his foster mother Signe behaves very unfriendly. She was expecting a little girl and still mourns for her daughter who drowned in the sea.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland, Sweden
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, melancholic, bleak, realistic, sincere, captivating, serious, gloomy, surprise ending
Similar in 76%
Turtles Can Fly (2004)
Plot Summary:
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France, Iraq
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, emotional, atmospheric, stylized, rough, heartbreaking, political, dramatic, realistic
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Under the Skin of the City (2001)
Plot Summary:
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, islamic, masterpiece
Similar in 87%
Where is the Friend's Home? (1987)
Plot Summary:
An 8 year old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Iran
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: social, art house, inspirational, road movie, thought provoking, independent film, islamic, touching, feel good, serious