Best movies like Himalaya
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
As the denizens of a Tibetan village prepare for their arduous annual trek to exchange salt for grain, the community's allegiances are split between aging chieftain Tinle (Thilen Lhondup) and rebellious young Karma (Gurgon Kyap). Tinle tries to maintain his clout and preserve obedience to ancient customs when Karma challenges the old man's power.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Switzerland, UK, Nepal
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: road movie, independent film, atmospheric, spiritual, dramatic, tense, sincere, epic, serious, captivating
Best tv shows and movies like Himalaya (1999):
Similar in 80%
Paths of the Soul (2015)
Plot Summary:
PATHS OF THE SOUL follows a group of Tibetan villagers who leave their families and homes to make a "bowing pilgrimage" — laying their bodies flat on the ground after every few steps — along the 2,000-kilometre road to Lhasa. Though equally devoted to the trip, they all have different reasons: one traveller needs to cleanse bad family karma; another, a butcher, wants to wash the animals' bloodstains from his soul; and another pilgrim, sensing the end is near, hopes that prayers and prostrations will break the chain of cause and effect determined by his life's actions. During their months on the road, a baby is born, they meet fellow travellers, and their resolve is put to the test by harsh snowstorms and physical fatigue. But no hardship can deter them from their ultimate goal — not even the threat of death, a very real danger in this high altitude where a common cold can take one's life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 926
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, road movie, no music
Similar in 84%
The Horse Thief (1986)
Plot Summary:
Devout Buddhists, Norbu and Dolma live with their young son Tashi in a clan in Tibet. Norbu is a highwayman. After Norbu is charged with stealing from the temple, he and his family are banished. Impoverished and marginalized, they can do little when their beloved son becomes ill. Tashi dies of a fever. After a second son is born, Norbu focuses his every action on keeping this child alive, seeking re-admission to the clan for his wife and child, then risking all to save them from isolation and starvation in winter. Images of harsh landscapes, vultures, and prayer wheels carry a virtually wordless narrative.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: spiritual, poetic
Similar in 90%
Mountain Patrol (2004)
Plot Summary:
A moving true story about volunteers protecting antelope against poachers in the severe mountains of Tibet.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, sincere, masterpiece
Similar in 81%
With a Girl of Himalaya (2008)
Plot Summary:
A Korean executive ventures into the Himalayas in order to deliver the remains of a Nepalese migrant worker to his family.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 283
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, surreal, atmospheric, serious
Similar in 82%
Golden Kingdom (2015)
Plot Summary:
Story of four young monks left alone in their remote monastery in Myanmar. Shot entirely in newly-opened Myanmar with non-actors, the film bridges spirit, cinema, and traditional Burmese storytelling to open a view onto an unseen world.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 150
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Myanmar
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, tense, atmospheric, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Siddhartha (1972)
Plot Summary:
Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin and his search for a meaningful way of life. His journey takes him through periods of harsh asceticism, sensual pleasures, material wealth, self-revulsion and eventually to the oneness and harmony that he had been seeking. The story is based on the best-selling novel by German Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: India, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: spiritual, philosophical, road movie, dramatic, surreal, existential, independent film, psychological, atmospheric, serious
Similar in 82%
Mandala (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film follows the differing lives of two Buddhist monks in Korea. By following their lives and their interaction throughout the film, Im creates a contemplation of the nature of individualism, religious belief and enlightenment.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 380
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Postmen in the Mountains (1999)
Plot Summary:
An old postman has spent his whole life delivering mail to the mountain of Hunan and is about to retire. His only son is due to take over his duties. As father and son journey through the mountains, the son begins to appreciate the toil and burden his father has to bear as postman for the villagers, and the old postman is also deeply moved as his son relates his mother's anxiety as she waits for him to return home from every trip.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Nun (2013)
Plot Summary:
Suzanne Simonin describes her life of suffering in letters. As a young woman she is sent to a convent against her will. Since her parents cannot afford the dowry required for a marriage befitting her rank they decide she must instead become a nun. Although a kind and understanding Mother Superior helps her to learn the convent’s daily routine, Suzanne’s desire for freedom remains unabated. When the Mother Superior dies, Suzanne finds herself faced with reprisals, humiliation and harassment at the hands of the new Abbess and the other Sisters. For many years, Suzanne is subjected to bigotry and religious fanaticism. (Berlinale.de).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, atmospheric, serious, psychological, erotic, sincere, independent film, period drama
Similar in 81%
The Grocer's Son (2007)
Plot Summary:
Antoine Sforza, a thirty-year-old young man, left his village ten years before in order to start a new life in the big city, but now that his father, a traveling grocer, is in hospital after a stroke, he more or less reluctantly accepts to come back to replace him in his daily rounds.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, thought provoking, contemplative, captivating, spiritual, touching, serious
Similar in 80%
The Rocket (2013)
Plot Summary:
Set against the lush backdrop of rural Laos, this spirited drama tells the story of scrappy ten-year-old Ahlo, who yearns to break free from his ill-fated destiny. After his village is displaced to make way for a massive dam, Ahlo escapes with his father and grandmother through the Laotian outback in search of a new home. Along the way, they come across a rocket festival that offers Ahlo a lucrative but dangerous chance to prove his worth.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia, Thailand, Laos
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 84%
One Mile Above (2011)
Plot Summary:
Shuhao is a 24 year old Taiwanese university graduate. His older brother Shuwei, whom he has idolized since childhood, dies on a bicycle ride to Lhasa. He decides to complete Shuwei's journey, hoping to prove himself through this challenging trip. Shuhao's inexperience almost sees him headed over a cliff one dark night. Food poisoning nearly costs him his life just after surviving an attack by a pack of menacing Tibetan Mastiffs. In the end, Shuhao arrives in Lhasa to see the Potola Palace. His lonely journey, filled with laughter and tears, brings him to the discovery of a new purpose in life.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 280
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: China, Taiwan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, realistic, captivating, road movie
Similar in 78%
Nanga Parbat (2010)
Plot Summary:
Drama about the tragic Nanga Parbat expedition by the two Messner brothers in 1970, on which Reinhold Messners younger brother Günther died.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, tense, disturbing, factual
Similar in 81%
Boxing Day (2012)
Plot Summary:
A struggling, indebted business man leaves his family immediately after Christmas to pursue a lucrative property deal that could solve all of his problems: buying foreclosed properties from banks at a fraction of their value, refi tting them for a minimum cost, and then selling them for a large profi t. He hires a local chauffeur for 24 hours to drive him around the mountainous area but, as night sets in and the weather worsens, the car is trapped on an icy road and the men face an uncertain fate.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 200
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, clever, gloomy, road movie, minimal cast, modern day adaptation
Similar in 90%
Son of Babylon (2009)
Plot Summary:
A willful young boy follows his just as obstinate grandmother in a journey across Iraq, determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Ahmed's father, who never returned from war.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iraq, UK, France, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Egypt
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, captivating, emotional, independent film, islamic, tense, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Sounds of Sand (2006)
Plot Summary:
On the one hand, there's the desert eating away at the land. The endless dry season, the lack of water. On the other there's the threat of war. The village well has run dry. The livestock is dying. Trusting their instinct, most of the villagers leave and head south. Rahne, the only literate one, decides to head east with his three children and Mouna, his wife. A few sheep, some goats and Chamelle, a dromedary, are their only riches. A tale of exodus, quest, hope and fatality. Rahne and his family travel across hostile lands under a lethal sun, walking endlessly onwards and frequently crossing paths with death. But "Sounds of sand" is also a parable about determination and eternity that takes us in the footsteps of Shasha, a nomad child full of the joys of life, whose tenacity and strength will conquer her father's love.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 553
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic
Similar in 86%
Atlantic. (2014)
Plot Summary:
A Moroccan fisherman sets off on an epic journey towards Europe on his wind surfboard. But the pursuit of dreams does not come without sacrifice.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 575
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Morocco, France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
The Art of Travel (2008)
Plot Summary:
High school grad. Conner Layne is about to marry his first love, but when wedding plans fail, he goes solo on his honeymoon to Central America, finding adventure with a ragtag group of foreigners who attempt to cross the Darien Gap in record time.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, psychological, sincere, bleak, road movie, serious, emotional
Similar in 85%
Let the Wind Blow (2004)
Plot Summary:
A collegian in turbulent Mumbai attempts to improve his lifestyle.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 127
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film, banned
Similar in 77%
Natural Sciences (2014)
Plot Summary:
In a rural school in the middle of the mountains, a girl who is starting to become a woman feels the profound need to discover her true identity. She does not know who her father is and she is determined to find him, but her mother does not approve it. The hostility of winter in such a harsh place turns this desire into a real threat: freezing in the middle of nowhere. Going behind the backs of the school authorities and the girl's mother, her teacher decides to help her. They set off on this quest for truth, but it is not going to be an easy journey... Their only clue is a small, rusty plate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, road movie
Similar in 88%
Travelers and Magicians (2003)
Plot Summary:
A young government official, named Dondup, who is smitten with America (he even has a denim gho) dreams of escaping there while stuck in a beautiful but isolated village. He hopes to connect in the U.S. with a visa out of the country. He misses the one bus out of town to Thimphu, however, and is forced to hitchhike and walk along the Lateral Road to the west, accompanied by an apple seller, a Buddhist monk with his ornate, dragon-headed dramyin, a drunk, a widowed rice paper maker, and his beautiful daughter, Sonam.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Bhutan
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: road movie, atmospheric, serious, captivating, spiritual, independent film, inspirational, philosophical, poignant, anthropological
Similar in 78%
Little Buddha (1993)
Plot Summary:
Little Buddha is a movie about the life of Siddhartha starring Keanu Reeves and Bridget Fonda and directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Liechtenstein, UK
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: unusual plot structure, spiritual, fairy tale, retro, philosophical, existential, cult classic, independent film, sentimental, meditative
Similar in 76%
Samsara (2001)
Plot Summary:
A love story situated in the Himalayas. A Buddhist monk can't choose between life and the way of the Buddha.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance
Country: India, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: philosophical, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, captivating, spiritual, sentimental, sexy, sincere, realistic
Similar in 76%
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? (1989)
Plot Summary:
Three people live in a remote Buddhist monastery near Mount Chonan: Hyegok, the old master; Yong Nan, a young man who has left his extended family in the city to seek enlightenment - Hyegok calls him Kibong!; and, an orphan lad Haejin, whom Hyegok has brought to the monastery to raise as a monk. The story is mostly Yong Nan's, told in flashbacks: how he came to the monastery, his brief return to the city, his vacillation between the turbulence of the world and his hope to overcome passions and escape the idea of self. We also see Hyegok as a teacher, a protector, and a father figure, and we watch Haejin make his way as a curious and nearly self-sufficient child.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: spiritual, slow cinema, psychedelic, thinking, aesthetic, psychological, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, captivating
Similar in 83%
The Old Man (2012)
Plot Summary:
This is a survival story - a Hemingway's 'Old Man and the Sea' as if written for our days.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 774
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: Kazakhstan
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, captivating, suspense, psychological, tense
Similar in 86%
The Return (2003)
Plot Summary:
A story of two Russian boys whose father suddenly returns home after a 12-year absence. He takes the boys on a holiday to a remote island on a lake that turns into a test of manhood of almost mythic proportions.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, emotional, art house, road movie, atmospheric, cerebral, thought provoking, lyrical, suspenseful, independent film
Similar in 85%
A Time in Quchi (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bao stays with his grandfather for the summer and is shocked to see there are no modern appliances.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious
Similar in 75%
The Beckoning Silence (2007)
Plot Summary:
In The Beckoning Silence, Joe Simpson, whose amazing battle for survival featured in the multi-award winning "Touching the Void", travels to the treacherous North Face of the Eiger to tell the story of one of mountaineering's most epic tragedies. As a child, it was this story and that of one of the climbers in particular, that first captured Simpson's imagination and inspired him to take up mountaineering.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, suspenseful, scenic
Similar in 82%
Scream of Stone (1991)
Plot Summary:
A meeting of two world famous climbers, one an experienced mountaineer the other a sport climber, and a journalist (Ivan) results in a bet on which of the two is the best climber. Roger (the mountaineering expert) states that Martin (the sport climber) wouldn't survive a day on a 'real' climbing expedition, although he is considered to be the world's best sport climber (having just won an indoor 'world championship,' an event depicted in the opening scene). They plan to climb 'Cerro Torre,' in the Patagonia region of South America, near the Argentinian/Chilean border, one of the world's most difficult mountains, especially considering the extreme weather conditions common to the area.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Argentina, UK, South Africa
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, poliziottesco
Similar in 83%
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
Plot Summary:
Austrian mountaineer, Heinrich Harrer journeys to the Himalayas without his family to head an expedition in 1939. But when World War II breaks out, the arrogant Harrer falls into Allied forces' hands as a prisoner of war. He escapes with a fellow detainee and makes his way to Llaso, Tibet, where he meets the 14-year-old Dalai Lama, whose friendship ultimately transforms his outlook on life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 153000
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: inspirational, captivating, epic, breathtaking, dramatic, scenic, uplifting, serious, philosophical, realistic