Best movies like El mar
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Childhood friends reunite later in life in Spanish tuberculosis sanitorium. Pressures of death all around combine with dark secrets of their past.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Spain
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: disturbing, erotic, psychological, serious, suspenseful, controversial, atmospheric, thought provoking, realistic, crying
Best tv shows and movies like El mar (2000):
Similar in 80%
Crossway (2008)
Plot Summary:
A very interesting thriller about the coming of age of a troubled young man searching his place in this world. Teenage boy Jonathan (Fabien de Marchi) is having a hard time living with his father and stepmother. On a whim, he steals some money and embarks on a journey of forbidden pleasures. He spends the night in abandoned building and wakes up bound and is held prisoner by Antoine (Johan Libéreau), a young drug dealer wanted by the police. The two boys forge an ambiguous relationship between violence, compassion and fascination. Victim, Jonathan ends up taking a liking to his tormentor.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 53 min
Plot tags: homoerotic, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, lgbt cinema, gay cinema
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Similar in 87%
Long Live Death (1971)
Plot Summary:
At the end of the Spanish civil war, Fando, a boy of about ten, tries to make sense of war and his father's arrest. His mother is religious, sympathetic to the Fascists; his father is accused of being a Red. Fando discovers that his mother may have aided in his father's arrest. Sometimes we witness Fando imagining explanations for what's going on; sometimes we see him at play, alone or with his friend Thérèse. Oedipal fantasies and a lad's natural curiosity about sex and death mix with his search for his mother's nature and his father's fate. Will Fando survive the search?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Tunisia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, surreal, experimental, philosophical, mind bending, psychedelic, political, controversial, art house, psychotronic
Similar in 89%
The Mark of Cain (2007)
Plot Summary:
After a bomb kills their company commander in Iraq, British soldiers Treacle and Shane are ordered to round up suspects and use torture on the detainees. Back home, the press gets the story and the pair achieves instant infamy.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, realistic
Similar in 89%
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 88%
Wild Awakening (2016)
Plot Summary:
Toni and Emma are brother and sister who owns a stable farm. Ramon and his son, Aaron works for them. Toni is openly gay and loves to party, Emma has a crush on Aaron who is a closeted gay who is afraid that his father might find out, but his father also has a secret.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, disturbing, homoerotic, queer cinema, gay cinema
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Similar in 81%
Tomcat (2016)
Plot Summary:
Andreas and Stefan lead a happy and passionate life: Together with their beloved tomcat Moses, they live in a beautiful old house in Vienna's vineyards. They work as a musician and as a scheduler in the same orchestra and they love their large circle of friends. An unexpected and inexplicable outburst of violence suddenly shakes up the relationship and calls everything into question - the blind spot that resides in all of us.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: homoerotic, psychological, light, sincere, touching, unusual plot structure, melancholic, contemplative, queer cinema, gay cinema
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Similar in 86%
Retaliation (2017)
Plot Summary:
An adult victim of childhood sexual abuse confronts the horrors of his past.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: tense, unusual plot structure, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, cult classic, crying
Similar in 75%
Shank (2009)
Plot Summary:
Teenage gang member Cal, hides his sexuality from his fellow gang members despite their often violent dislike of anyone that isn't the same as them, be they unsuspecting shoppers, foreign students, gays, etc. When his world collides with Olivier, a student he rescues from a pointless beating, he encounters a lifestyle that presents as many new experiences as it does obstacles.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, erotic, captivating, talky, compassionate, lgbt cinema, sexual, crying, romantic
Similar in 77%
The King of Havana (2015)
Plot Summary:
Recently escaped from reformatory, Reinaldo struggles to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society. Hopes, disillusionment, rum, good humor and above all hunger, accompany him in his wanderings, until he meets Magda and Yunisleidy, survivors like himself. In one or the other's arms, he will try to escape the material and moral misery surrounding him, living love, passion, tenderness and uninhibited sex to the limit.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 618
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Dominican Republic
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 86%
Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
Plot Summary:
In 1944 Lucien Lacombe, a young peasant in the Lot region is refused permission to join the French Resistance. Instead, the opposing "French Gestapo" obtain from him information about an underground leader and recruit him into their organization.Lucien enjoys his power and inclusion as a member of the German Police (Milice française) but soon falls in love with a Jewish girl. Forcing himself upon her family, Lucien becomes personally involved with the very people some of his collaborators and superiors are, in part, employed to oppress.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: anthology, art house, postmodern, visual, psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing, controversial
Similar in 80%
The Damned (1969)
Plot Summary:
In the early days of Nazi Germany, a powerful noble family must adjust to life under the new dictatorship regime. The transition from democracy to dictatorship is thus dramatized through the lives of the family which also owns a powerful German industrial firm. Through such characters as a German Baron, a child molester, a Nazi Storm Trooper, an innocent man framed for murder, and a Captain in the German SS, "Damned" thus shows how so called "German Upper Class Nobility" first resented Adolf Hitler, then accepted him, and at last embraced him.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, West Germany
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: disturbing, controversial, erotic, retro, political, sad, art house, neorealism, dread, insightful
Similar in 83%
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 78%
The Devil's Playground (1976)
Plot Summary:
A powerful drama relating the intimate aspect of teenage boys and their priest/educators behind the walls of a religious institution where rigid discipline backfires natural feelings are deemed unnatural acts and human lives are controlled in the names of good intentions.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, crying, independent film, queer cinema
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Similar in 90%
Killer Kid (1994)
Plot Summary:
Eleven-year-old Laïd lives in war-torn Lebanon. Chosen and trained by an extremist organisation, he has been forced to enter the adult world far too early. He has been transformed into a fanatical and programmed machine, whose life could be summed up in the words "kill without hesitation".Because of his intellect and his commitment to the holy war he is handpicked for a deadly assignment in Paris. But in order to get access to the target he has to learn how to merge in, to become an ordinary eleven-year-old. Karim becomes his role model. Karim is the same age as Laïd and grew up in one of the Paris suburbs. He is carefree and "hip" and becomes the perfect teacher in a world of skateboards, rap music and video games.Despite the cultural differences, despite the fact that one of them is an indoctrinated machine and the other one a perfectly ordinary carefree boy, a friendship begins to grow between the two.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, disturbing, crying
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Similar in 86%
Strayed (2003)
Plot Summary:
Fleeing the June 1940 arrival of Hitler's army in Paris, a young war widow and her two children are rescued from dive-bombing German fighters by a cocky, reckless teenager. He finds them refuge in an abandoned house, but despite the fact that the family quickly comes to be depending much on his cunning and survival abilities, their cohabitation proves uneasy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, suspenseful, erotic, road movie, thought provoking, intelligent, romantic drama, tense
Similar in 81%
Salon Kitty (1976)
Plot Summary:
Kitty runs a brothel in Nazi Germany where the soldiers come to "relax". Recording devices have been installed in each room by a power hungry army official who plans to use the information to blackmail Hitler and gain power himself. A girl named Margherita discovers the little ploy and with Kitty's help plans to take on the dangerous task of exposing the conspiracy.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: erotic, disturbing, sexy, controversial, intense, psychotronic, grindhouse, sensual, creepy, devastating
Similar in 83%
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, British soldier Jack Celliers comes to a japanese prison camp. The camp is run by Yonoi, who has a firm belief in discipline, honour and glory. In his view, the allied prisoners are cowards when they chose to surrender instead of commiting suicide. One of the prisoners, interpreter John Lawrence, tries to explain the japanese way of thinking, but is considered a traitor.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, New Zealand, Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, bleak, realistic, sad, experimental, avant garde, art film, serious, crying
Similar in 90%
The Sleeping Voice (2011)
Plot Summary:
Pepita travels to Madrid to be near her sister Hortensia who is pregnant and in prison. Hortensia is sentenced to death. The execution will not be carried out until after the baby is delivered. Pepita tries everything to stay the execution, but when unsuccessful she goes to the prison everyday to make sure Hortensia's son goes with her and not into an orphanage.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Spain
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, emotional, suspenseful, political, intense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 80%
Beach Rats (2017)
Plot Summary:
An aimless teenager on the outer edges of Brooklyn struggles to escape his bleak home life and navigate questions of self-identity, as he balances his time between his delinquent friends, a potential new girlfriend, and older men he meets online.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, captivating, disturbing, erotic, exciting, sexy, lgbt cinema, social, controversial
Similar in 87%
The Deputy and the Congressman (1978)
Plot Summary:
Madrid, Roberto Orbea is a member of the Spanish communist party. He is married to Carmen, and he has been elected as Deputy in the first democratic elections in Spain. But his enemies, the fascist, know his double life. Roberto likes boys, and they hire Juanito to seduce the politician. They fall in love.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 720
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: political, social, sensual, sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, crying, independent film
Similar in 87%
North Sea Texas (2011)
Plot Summary:
Pim lives in a run-down house in a dead-end street somewhere on the Flanders coast, together with his mother Yvette Bulteel. Life here smells of cold French fries, cheap cigarettes, vermouth and stale beer. Mother Yvette uses her friend Etienne, with his lousy grey Fiat, as a driver for the nights she has to “perform”. As a kid Pim dreams of a better life, imagining princesses and beauty queens. But when Pim turns 16 he dreams of Gino, the handsome boy next door, instead. Ever since they were children there has been this tension between them. Now Gino is Pim’s motorcycling hero. Cold mockery, little humiliations and tiny bits of hope make up Pim’s life. No wonder he sometimes flees to his dream world.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Belgium
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, sincere, lgbt cinema, romantic, suspenseful, erotic, art house, sexual, cute
Similar in 87%
Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
Plot Summary:
Joe, a young American soldier, is hit by a mortar shell on the last day of World War I. He lies in a hospital bed in a fate worse than death - a quadruple amputee who has lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, mouth and nose. Unbeknown to his doctors, he remains conscious and able to think, thereby reliving his life through strange dreams and memories and unable to distinguish whether he is awake or dreaming. He remains frustrated by his situation, until one day when Joe discovers a unique way to communicate with his caregivers.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: depressing, disturbing, thought provoking, surreal, political, psychological, atmospheric, controversial, black and white, emotional
Similar in 84%
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Plot Summary:
A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 75000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Netherlands
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, depressing, psychological, independent film, realistic, controversial, heartbreaking, serious, gloomy, emotional
Similar in 85%
Goodbye, Children (1987)
Plot Summary:
A French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. He becomes the roommate of top student in his class. Rivals at first, the roommates form a bond and share a secret.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, West Germany, Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sad, heartbreaking, christian film, depressing, art house, sentimental, touching, emotional, realistic, sincere
Similar in 82%
The Tin Drum (1979)
Plot Summary:
Oskar is born in Germany in 1924 with an advanced intellect. Repulsed by the hypocrisy of adults and the irresponsibility of society, he refuses to grow older after his third birthday.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany, France, Poland
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: surreal, disturbing, controversial, art house, harsh, talky, realistic, clever, epic, serious
Similar in 81%
Savage Grace (2007)
Plot Summary:
This examination of a famous scandal from the 1970s explores the relationship between Barbara Baekeland and her only son, Antony. Barbara, a lonely social climber unhappily married to the wealthy but remote plastics heir Brooks Baekeland, dotes on Antony, who is homosexual. As Barbara tries to "cure" Antony of his sexuality -- sometimes by seducing him herself -- the groundwork is laid for a murderous tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Spain, USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sexy, erotic, emotional, controversial, talky, psychological, intense, sincere, serious
Similar in 77%
The Ages of Lulu (1990)
Plot Summary:
The Ages of Lulu is a gruelling sensual odyssey from Spanish director Bigas Luna, made immediately prior to his popular trilogy Jamón, jamón (1992), Golden Balls (1993) and The Tit and the Moon (1994). Starting as the somewhat queasy story of the young Lulu's affair with the manipulative Pablo (Oscar Ladoire), the movie takes a much darker turn once they are wed. It is conventional cinematic wisdom that there's no such thing as sex after marriage, but here Lulu's husband incomprehensibly leads her into blindfolded relationships with others, then is heartbroken when she reacts with disgust.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, emotional, sensual, disturbing, sexual, serious, eros, psychological, controversial
Similar in 76%
My Own Private Idaho (1991)
Plot Summary:
In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: road movie, cult classic, surreal, art house, lgbt cinema, touching, serious, captivating, melancholic, independent film
Similar in 77%
Bent (1997)
Plot Summary:
Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sexy, brutal, disturbing, bleak, serious, emotional, erotic, lgbt cinema, sad, homoerotic
Similar in 80%
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