Best movies like Divine Intervention
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Santa Claus tries to outrun a gang of knife-wielding youth. It's one of several vignettes of Palestinian life in Israel - in a neighborhood in Nazareth and at Al-Ram checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Most of the stories are droll, some absurd, one is mythic and fanciful; few words are spoken. A man who goes through his mail methodically each morning has a heart attack. His son visits him in hospital. The son regularly meets a woman at Al-Ram; they sit in a car, hands caressing. Once, she defies Israeli guards at the checkpoint; later, Ninja-like, she takes on soldiers at a target range. A red balloon floats free overhead. Neighbors toss garbage over walls. Life goes on until it doesn't.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War, Comedy
Country: France, Morocco, Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: surreal, meditative, stylized, thought provoking, touching, semi serious, clever, humorous, offbeat, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Divine Intervention (2002):
Similar in 76%
The Syrian Bride (2004)
Plot Summary:
In Majdal Shams, the largest Druze village in Golan Heights on the Israeli-Syrian border, the Druze bride Mona is engaged to get married with Tallel, a television comedian that works in the Revolution Studios in Damascus, Syria. They have never met each other because of the occupation of the area by Israel since 1967; when Mona moves to Syria, she will lose her undefined nationality and will never be allowed to return home. Mona's father Hammed is a political activist pro-Syria that is on probation by the Israeli government. His older son Hatten married a Russian woman eight years ago and was banished from Majdal Shams by the religious leaders and his father. His brother Marwan is a wolf trader that lives in Italy. His sister Amal has two teenager daughters and has the intention to join the university, but her marriage with Amin is in crisis. When the family gathers for Mona's wedding, an insane bureaucracy jeopardizes the ceremony.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Germany, Israel
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, sincere, emotional, islamic, uplifting, thought provoking, clever, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Under the Bombs (2007)
Plot Summary:
In the wake of Israel's 2006 bombardment of Lebanon, a determined woman finds her way into the country convincing a taxi driver to take a risky journey around the scarred region in search of her sister and her son.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Lebanon, UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, offbeat, islamic, crying
Similar in 83%
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 85%
It Must Be Heaven (2019)
Plot Summary:
Filmmaker Elia Suleiman travels to different cities and finds unexpected parallels to his homeland of Palestine.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Qatar, Germany, Canada, Turkey
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, sincere, melancholic, comedy drama, independent film, cult classic, contemplative, psychological, documentary filmmaking
Similar in 87%
Tel Aviv On Fire (2018)
Plot Summary:
Salam, an inexperienced young Palestinian man, becomes a writer on a popular soap opera after a chance meeting with an Israeli soldier. His creative career is on the rise - until the soldier and the show's financial backers disagree about how the show should end, and Salam is caught in the middle.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Luxembourg, Israel, France, Belgium
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, inspirational, thought provoking, intense, comedy drama
Similar in 86%
Self Made (2014)
Plot Summary:
Self Made tells the story of two women - one Israeli, the other Palestinian- who are trapped within their respective worlds. After a mix-up at a checkpoint, they find themselves living the life of the other on the opposite side of the border.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 232
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, surreal, semi serious, atmospheric, thought provoking, clever, offbeat, witty
Similar in 83%
Footnote (2011)
Plot Summary:
The story of a great rivalry between a father and son, both eccentric professors in the Talmud department of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The son has an addictive dependency on the embrace and accolades that the establishment provides, while his father is a stubborn purist with a fear and profound revulsion for what the establishment stands for, yet beneath his contempt lies a desperate thirst for some kind of recognition. The Israel Prize, Israel's most prestigious national award, is the jewel that brings these two to a final, bitter confrontation.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: melancholic, meditative, surreal, captivating, tragicomedy, clever, stylized, thought provoking, independent film, existential
Similar in 75%
Sallah (1964)
Plot Summary:
Sallah Shabati, the patriarch of the big family recently arrived to Israel from Yemen, tries to make money and get better housing, in a country that can barely provide for its own and is in the midst of absorbing hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: black comedy, black and white, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting, intercultural, suspense, inter cultural
Similar in 85%
Salt of This Sea (2008)
Plot Summary:
Born in Brooklyn to Palestinian refugee parents, Soraya (Suheir Hammad) decides to journey to the country of her ancestry when she discovers that her grandfather's savings have been frozen in a Jaffa bank account since his 1948 exile. She soon finds, however, that her simple plan is a complicated undertaking -- and one that takes her farther from her comfort zone (both geographically and emotionally) than she'd imagined in this romantic drama.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, sincere, emotional, realistic, political, sad, islamic, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Arab Labor (2007)
Plot Summary:
Amjad is an Arab-Israeli journalist whose problems with cultural identity drive himself and all around him crazy especially his wife, Bushra.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags: sitcom, humorous, cynical, semi serious, thought provoking, realistic, talky, biting, suspense
Similar in 88%
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 89%
Yana's Friends (1999)
Plot Summary:
Three parallel stories of immigrants in Tel Aviv during the Gulf War and about coming together while sealed in a room during the Scud attacks.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 595
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Israel
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
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 89%
Strangers (2007)
Plot Summary:
Six days in the lives of an Israeli living in a kibbutz and a Palestinian living in Paris, which starts with an accidental meeting in the Berlin Subway during the World cup finals, will change them completely.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 516
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 85%
West Beirut (1998)
Plot Summary:
In April, 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Moslem-Christian line. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a lark: school has closed, the violence is fascinating, getting from West to East is a game. His mother wants to leave; his father refuses. Tarek spends time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. By accident, Tarek goes to an infamous brothel in the war-torn Olive Quarter, meeting its legendary madam, Oum Walid. He then takes Omar and May there using her underwear as a white flag for safe passage. Family tensions rise. As he comes of age, the war moves inexorably from adventure to tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Norway, Lebanon, Belgium
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, melancholic, compassionate, emotional, sad, islamic, sincere, serious, realistic, sexy
Similar in 75%
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 80%
A Matter of Size (2009)
Plot Summary:
Four overweight friends from the Israeli city of Ramle are fed up of dieting and the dieting club they belong to. When Herzl (155 kilos), the main protagonist, loses his job as a cook and starts working as a dishwasher in a Japanese restaurant in Ramle he discovers the world of Sumo where large people such as himself are honored and appreciated. Through Kitano (60 kilos), the restaurant owner, a former Sumo coach in Japan (who is supposedly hiding from the Yakuza in Israel), he falls in love with a sport involving "two fatsos in diapers and girly hairdos". Herzl wants Kitano to be their coach but Kitano is reluctant - they first have to earn their spurs. "A MATTER OF SIZE" is a comedy about a ‘coming out’ of a different kind - overweight people learning to accept themselves.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sport
Country: Israel, Germany, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, semi serious, feel good, realistic, witty
Similar in 86%
David & Layla (2005)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by a true story, sparks fly when a Jew and a Muslim fall in love in New York. David (David Moscow), TV host of "Sex & Happiness", becomes smitten with the voluptuous Layla (Shiva Rose) - a mysterious, sensual dancer who turns out to be a refugee. David's reckless pursuit of Layla sets off an unveiling of the similarities and contrasts of their ancient cultures. His lust grows into love as he discovers in stunning Layla a sensitive, intelligent war survivor with a rich culture that echoes his own. But their families are dead set against their unlikely romance. Faced with deportation, Layla must choose.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 889
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, sincere, touching, witty, semi serious, independent film, slapstick comedy, neo screwball comedy
Similar in 86%
Too Young to Marry (2007)
Plot Summary:
Connecticut high school students Max Doyle and Jessica Carpenter fall in love and feel making love isn't enough, so they brave everyone's objections and get married.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 780
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, touching, emotional, realistic, romantic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 87%
Paradise (2013)
Plot Summary:
Carmen and Alfredo live a happy, quiet life in the suburbs surrounded by friends and family. After Alfredo receives a promotion, the two move away to Mexico City where they immediately feel the social pressure of being overweight in a bustling metropolis full of beautiful people. Taking the initiative, Carmen convinces her husband to join her in losing weight, but their relationship is put to the test when Alfredo’s program yields far better results than Carmen’s. From award-winning director Marianna Chenillo comes a touching comedy about how true beauty comes from the inside and paradise is closer to home than you might think.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 734
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Mexico
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 84%
James' Journey to Jerusalem (2003)
Plot Summary:
During his journey to Jerusalem young James learns the meaning of being Israeli.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 593
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, humorous, realistic, semi serious, clever, contemplative, biting, suspense
Similar in 87%
Watermelon (2003)
Plot Summary:
A tangled web of deciet pitches three lovers together with the added proposition of a baby.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 391
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic
Similar in 85%
Two Family House (2000)
Plot Summary:
Buddy Visalo (Michael Rispoli) is a factory worker, a frustrated crooner who once had a shot at the big time. Buddy's dreams of greatness have been reduced to an endless series of failed moneymaking schemes. His latest is buying a two-family house for him and his wife, Estelle (Katherine Narducci) and converting the ground floor into a neighborhood bar where he can perform. The wrench in the works is that he also inherits the upstairs tenants, Mary,a pregnant Irish girl fresh off the boat (Kelly Macdonald) and her abusive, alcoholic husband, Jim (Kevin Conway). As Buddy's gang of Italians tries to handle the situation, the girl goes into labor, and a baby is born, forcing them all to confront the limits of their tolerance and compassion.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, feel good, humorous, semi serious, realistic, independent film, scary, fairy tale, sentimental
Similar in 86%
Bigger Than the Sky (2005)
Plot Summary:
After being dumped by his girlfriend, a man stuck in a deadend life decides to audition for a small role in a local community theatre's production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Despite having no experience as an actor, he lands the lead role, which wreaks havoc upon his life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, humorous, semi serious, spiritual, clever, realistic, talky, independent film
Similar in 82%
The 92 Minutes of Mr. Baum (1997)
Plot Summary:
Balding advertising executive Mr. Baum spends more time on a new ad campaign for purple sunglasses than he does with his own family. But suddenly he is forced to reexamine his life after a doctor tells him that he has an 'aggressive' brain tumor and will die in 90 minutes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 183
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, thought provoking, clever, humorous, tragicomedy, realistic, surreal, contemplative, cynical, semi serious
Similar in 84%
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 78%
The Tiger and the Snow (2005)
Plot Summary:
Love and injury in time of war. Attilio de Giovanni teaches poetry in Italy. He has a romantic soul, and women love him. But he is in love with Vittoria, and the love is unrequited. Every night he dreams of marrying her, in his boxer shorts and t-shirt, as Tom Waits sings. Vittoria travels to Iraq with her friend, Fuad, a poet; they are there with the second Gulf War breaks out. Vittoria is injured. Attilio must get to her side, and then, as war rages around him, he must find her the medical care she needs. In war, does love conquer all?.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, humorous, surreal, emotional, stylized, romantic, sincere, surprise ending, feel good
Similar in 87%
Afula Express (1997)
Plot Summary:
David is a garage electrician, who dreamt all of his life of becoming a magician, but had no luck in it. His girlfriend Batya wants an ordinary life, but David is still looking for his dream, so he links up with Romanian immigrant Shimon, who is an expert magician.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Israel
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, touching, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 90%
Happily Ever After (2007)
Plot Summary:
Director Yukihiko Tsutsumi wrings laughs out of an unlikely topic -- domestic violence -- in this dark comedy about noodle-shop waitress Yukie Morita (Miki Nakatani), who puts up with the fiery temper, gambling and cruelty of her shiftless, ex-gangster boyfriend (Hiroshi Abe). But as flashbacks reveal, there's a reason behind Yukie's unconditional love for her man. Yûko Natori and Mayumi Sada also star.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 353
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: stylized, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat
Similar in 88%
The Time That Remains (2009)
Plot Summary:
An examination of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 through to the present day.[Synopsis from the director, courtesy of Cannes Film Festival] : "The Time That Remains" is a semi biographic film, in four historic episodes, about a family--my family--spanning from 1948, until recent times. The film is inspired by my father’s diaries of his personal accounts, starting from when he was a resistant fighter in 1948, and by my mother’s letters to family members who were forced to leave the country since then. Combined with my intimate memories of them and with them, the film attempts to portray the daily life of those Palestinians who remained in their land and were labeled "Israeli-Arabs," living as a minority in their own homeland.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: France, Belgium, Italy, UK, United Arab Emirates, Israel
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, humorous, touching, realistic, contemplative, offbeat, semi serious, biting, suspense