Best movies like Elisa, My Life
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Elisa has not seen her father Luis for nine years, but she receives a telegram from her sister Isabel in a moment of crisis of her marriage with Antonio telling that her father is ill and she decides to travel to the countryside of Madrid with Isabel and her brother-in-law Julián and their two children to visit Luis for his birthday. Elisa decides to stay with his father when her sister returns to Madrid with her family and she gets closer to Luis, understanding why he left her mother years ago. Later she tells him that Antonio cheated her with her best friend Sophie and their relationship has ended. When Antonio unexpectedly arrives in the house, Elisa takes a decision about her life.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 936
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like Elisa, My Life (1977):
Similar in 81%
Stress Is Three (1968)
Plot Summary:
Set in one-day, three people embark together on a car trip from Madrid to Almeria. Antonio (Cebrián) is a successful industrialist, however he is dismayed that his personal life does not reflect his glittering career. He is insecure about his faltering marriage to Teresa (Chaplin), whom he believes is having an affair with his best friend, Antonio (Galiardo).
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 337
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: road movie, manga
Similar in 80%
Anna and the Wolves (1973)
Plot Summary:
The young but traveled Ana arrives in a manor in the countryside of Spain to work as nanny of three girls and finds a dysfunctional family.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: manga, art house, dread, biting, serious, realistic, tragic ending, allegory, suspense, weird
Similar in 84%
The City of No Limits (2002)
Plot Summary:
Victor is a man who gets to Paris to join his family around their seriously ill father, Max. As the chance of selling the family business begins to disrupt the family relationships, Victor is desperately asked for help by Max. What seems in the beginning mere delusions of an old man losing his mind, begin to show traces of some sort of real 'secret' that is troubling Max's last days. Victor decide to help his father to find that something (maybe just peace) he is searching for. Written by Snatcho.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, enigmatic, captivating, contemplative, gay cinema
Similar in 77%
The Garden of Delights (1970)
Plot Summary:
The greedy relatives of an amnesic and paralytic 45 years old millionaire try him to recover his memory by any means.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 716
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: offbeat, humorous, realistic, surreal, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, allegory, suspense
Similar in 83%
Mama Turns 100 (1979)
Plot Summary:
Ana and her husband Antonio arrive in the manor in the countryside of Spain where she worked as a nanny many years ago, for the centennial birthday of the matriarch.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Spain, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, allegory, tragicomedy, suspense, weird
Similar in 83%
Cousin Angelica (1974)
Plot Summary:
When the single middle-aged Luis travels from Barcelona to bury the remains of his mother in the vault of his family in Segovia, he is lodged by his aunt Pilar in her old house where he spent his summer of 1936 with her. He meets his cousin Angelica, who was his first love, living on the first floor with her husband and daughter, and he recalls his childhood in times of the Spanish Civil War entwined with the present.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, realistic, surreal, controversial, contemplative, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 76%
The Bird of Happiness (1993)
Plot Summary:
Carmen, a woman dedicated to the restoration of works of art, suffers a sexual assault shortly after being reunited with his only son. But she suffers from psychological disorder does not affect the man she lives. Deeply disappointed, he decides to embark on his own journey to the past.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 170
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 77%
Forgive Me (2006)
Plot Summary:
Violette, an expectant wife, who opens a nasty barrel of worms by filming a documentary about her dysfunctional family, to be shown to her (as yet) unborn son.Through her ever-present lens, Violette begins to unearth one nasty family secret after another.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 427
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Raise Ravens (1976)
Plot Summary:
In Madrid, the orphan sisters Irene, Ana and Maite are raised by their austere aunt Paulina together with their mute and crippled grandmother after the death of their mother and their military father Anselmo. Ana is a melancholic girl, fascinated by death, after seeing her mother having a painful death and her father dead in bed.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: mind bending, psychedelic, political, surreal, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, odd, masterpiece
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Vegetarian (2009)
Plot Summary:
An ordinary housewife, Yeong-hye, who has nightmares every night, finally becomes a vegetarian, throwing away all the meats in her refrigerator. Her husband Kil-soo starts to complain about her actions. Her family also worries about her health. During a family lunch, Yeong-hye tries to kill herself due to her father's abrupt violence. Observing all the happenings, Yeong-hye's brother-in-law, Min-ho, a videoartist, hears from his wife that Yeong-hye has a Mongolian spot on her hips. Min-ho gets inspiration from this and starts to sketch.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, sexy, disturbing, gloomy, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Don't Be Afraid (2011)
Plot Summary:
Silvia is a young girl marked by a dark childhood. When she is barely twenty-five, she decides to start over and to face the people, feelings and emotions that keep her bound to the past. In her fight against adversity and against herself, she will learn to control her fears and become an adult, responsible for her own actions.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 864
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, realistic, captivating, melancholic, sad, sincere, touching, serious, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Emile (2003)
Plot Summary:
In a story weaving the past and present together, Emile seeks redemption from the family he abandoned.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 797
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Limbo (2010)
Plot Summary:
Sonia arrives in Trinidad with her two children to join her husband Jo who is working as an oil engineer. On the surface she lives a life of luxury in a large houses with servants. The days are uneventful and blend together into an everlasting holiday, where the women nurse their superficial relationships over cocktails poolside – the perfect climate for self-delusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
To an Unknown God (1977)
Plot Summary:
An ageing man comes to terms with his mortality and his sexual orientation. The film was groundbreaking in its frank and mature examination of homosexuality.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 171
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: social, sincere, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
Anything You Want (2010)
Plot Summary:
Leo is immediately set adrift by his new found responsibilities as a single parent, a feeling that is made doubly distressing when Dafne, herself understandably confused and heartbroken by her mother's absence, asks for an "artificial" mother to help her fall asleep at night. It is here that Mañas takes the road less traveled, but to write any more about the plot line he introduces would be unfair to both the viewer and filmmaker alike. Suffice it to say that Leo's actions are both surprising and potentially dangerous, as they require Leo to subsume his own identity to the point where he nearly loses it.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 565
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, crying
Similar in 88%
Our Homeland (2012)
Plot Summary:
From the late 1950s through the '70s, more than 90,000 of the ethnic Koreans in Japan emigrated to North Korea, a country that promised them affluence, justice, and an end to discrimination. KAZOKU NO KUNI tells the story of one of their number, who returns for just a short period. For the first time in 25 years, Sonho is reunited with his family in Tokyo after being allowed to undergo an operation there. Sonho’s younger sister Rie is at the centre of the film, and is not hard to recognise as the director’s alter-ego. In her documentaries DEAR PYONGYANG and SONA, THE OTHER MYSELF, Yang Yonghi told the story of her own life, and how, at age six, she experienced the departure of her three older brothers, who left their family for Pyongyang.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Ismael (2013)
Plot Summary:
An 8-year-old boy tracks down his father.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, emotional, psychological, captivating, feel good
Similar in 75%
The Magnetic Tree (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young boy returns to his birth country, Chile, after a long absence. The house in the country where he lived with his family is up for sale and they all gather to bid the place farewell. Their visit to the "magnetic tree", a local curiosity with strange properties, will awaken almost forgotten feelings and affections in the boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Chile
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: surreal, sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, touching, contemplative, talky, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Archipelago (2010)
Plot Summary:
Patricia (Kate Fahy) and her two children, young adults Edward (Tom Hiddleston) and Cynthia (Lydia Leonard), arrive for a break at a holiday cottage. As rain and wind lash against the windows, Patricia grows exasperated at the absence of her husband, who remains an unheard voice on the phone. Good-natured Edward struggles to hide his angst at where his life is heading and assumes a fatherly role while becoming weirdly familiar with Rose (Amy Lloyd), the family’s hired cook. Cynthia, meanwhile, looms like a dark cloud and snaps and lashes out for no clear reason.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, sincere, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, weird, hot
Similar in 83%
Plans for Tomorrow (2010)
Plot Summary:
Three stories intertwined which occur in a single day. The day Ines discovers she is pregnant, Antonia decides to abandon her family and Marian realizes she is going to die.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Blondie (2012)
Plot Summary:
Three sisters, all adrift and in crisis, reunite at their childhood home as their domineering mother arranges a big birthday. But as the festivities come to an end, repressed conflicts rise to the surface. Old wounds are opened and a new family is born.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 707
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, touching, serious, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Silent Heart (2014)
Plot Summary:
The prestigious Danish filmmaker Bille August, winner of an Academy Award and two Palme d'Or in Cannes, returns with a highly personal drama. Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her disease worsens; but, as the weekend progresses, their mother's decision becomes harder and harder to deal with, and old conflicts come to the surface.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
The New Year Parade (2008)
Plot Summary:
When Mike and Lisa separate, their children suffer quietly in the middle of the annual Mummer's Parade.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 126
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sentimental, realistic, psychological, contemplative, captivating, sincere, serious, emotional, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 80%
One Day You'll Understand (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man endeavors to collect memories of his grandparents who died in a concentration camp during the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Germany, Israel
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Providence (1977)
Plot Summary:
Clive Langham (Sir John Gielgud) spends one tormenting night in his bed suffering from health problems and thinking up a story based on his relatives. He is a bitter man and he shows, through flashbacks, how spiteful, conniving and treacherous his family is. But is this how they really are or is it his own vindictive slant on things?.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, thought provoking, serious, emotional, philosophical, anthology, black comedy, metafiction, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Frailer (2014)
Plot Summary:
A woman diagnosed with terminal lung cancer gathers her three dearest friends together to make the most of the time she has left.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 104
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands, Norway
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
33 Scenes from Life (2008)
Plot Summary:
The Polish artist Julia and her husband Piotr, a talented and successful composer, live in Kraków. When Julias's mother, Barbara falls ill with stomach cancer, the life of the family is falling apart. Julia accompanies her mother to death, but her husband Piotr is at rehearsals in Cologne and leaves her to cope with this difficult situation. Only her friend Adrian is at her side. Her father Jurek is also overwhelmed by the impending loss of his beloved wife. After the death of the mother her father takes comfort from alcohol. Shortly after the father dies. Julia found only in the arms of Adrian to rest, but this in turn destroyed her marriage to Piotr. After the loss of the parents and break up of the marriage she is now alone in the world with an uncertain future where Adrian is of little help.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Poland
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, psychological, captivating, dark comedy, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 81%
When the Night (2011)
Plot Summary:
After meeting during their vacation, two young people with solitary lives suddenly come into a relationship that could benefit both of them.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Sisters (2009)
Plot Summary:
Lyon, France in 1970s, Sibylle, Corinne, and Georgette are sisters who share everything, as they live with their Italian mother. Sibylle is the only blonde in the family, except for their father who abandoned them, and she feels isolated. She dreams of meeting her French father one day.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 87%
Beyond (2010)
Plot Summary:
A poignant story, told with sincerity and humor, about a young woman´s dramatic childhood and about her grief and the struggle to move on. Noomi Rapace plays the main character in her first feature after the success with the Millennium trilogy and she plays opposite her husband, actor Ola Rapace.Award winning actress Pernilla August makes her directorial debut with her take on the bestselling novel Svinalängorna by Susanna Alakoski.In other main roles we see rising star Tehilla Blad and the Finnish acclaimed actors, Ville Virtanen and Outi Mäenpää.A morning just before Christmas, Leena, 34, receives a phone call from a hospital in her childhood hometown telling her that her mother is dying. This news takes her on a journey to face her mother for the first time in her adult life. Leena has fought all her life to let go of her grief over her lost and dark childhood. She is now forced to deal with her past to be able to move on.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Finland, Denmark
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, depressing, bleak, emotional, tense, gloomy