Best movies like Hold Back
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Paris, today. Dorcy, a young black Christian, wants to marry Sabrina, a young North African. It what would be a simple matter if it weren't for the fact that Sabrina has 40 brothers and that this easygoing wedding has crystallized a taboo still rooted in the mentalities of the two communities: no marriages between Blacks and Arabs. Slimane, the elder brother, and guardian of traditions, will oppose this union in every way possible.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, tense, thought provoking
Best tv shows and movies like Hold Back (2012):
Similar in 86%
I Am Yours (2013)
Plot Summary:
An unhappy single mother in Norway's Pakistani expatriate community begins to ignore her young son in favor of placating a Swedish filmmaker she thinks could change her life for the better.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 754
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, sexy, eros
Similar in 78%
Marussia (2013)
Plot Summary:
In cities like Paris there are countless people from Eastern Europe who have forsaken their homelands because they can see no future there. Lucia and her little daughter Marussia are two such people. They have been thrown out by the Russian acquaintances they were staying with and must tramp the streets with their trolley suitcases searching for somewhere else to live. A Russian Orthodox priest offers them their first night's shelter. They spend the second night in a homeless hostel and party through the third with a chance acquaintance. On the fourth night they sleep clandestinely in a cinema and on the fifth with a Russian artist in a hotel … Lucia is good-looking, dresses elegantly and is certainly not shy of men. This serves the mother and her daughter well. In spite of all the uncertainties in their lives, the two frequently share tender moments.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: France, Russia
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, sincere, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Mother (1992)
Plot Summary:
This family drama is the sequel to director Henri Verneuil's autobiographical film, Mayrig. It takes place some forty years after the end of the previous film. In the earlier film, a young man has moved with his family to Marseilles from Armenia and is adapting to his new country to the best of his ability. This tends to put him in conflict with his traditional Armenian family. Nonetheless, they are all hardworking and loving. Now, forty years later, the lead character has changed his name to Pierre Zakar, because it is easier for the French to pronounce and relate to. He has also become a very successful playwright.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
The Invader (2011)
Plot Summary:
An African immigrant living illegally in Belgium is desperate to find his own sense of belonging.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 852
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: Belgium, Sweden
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, tense, bleak, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
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 79%
Scorn (2011)
Plot Summary:
Scorn takes a look into the trials and tribulations of a group of people dealing with relationships, love, pain and friendship during the course of one year.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 16
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film, contemplative
Similar in 78%
Inheritance (2012)
Plot Summary:
A Palestinian family living in the north of Galilee gathers to celebrate the wedding of one of their daughters, as war rages between Israel and Lebanon. Internal conflicts explode between the family - secrets are revealed and lies are unmasked. The battles between different family members become as merciless as the outside war once their father falls into a coma and inches toward death.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 148
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Israel
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 80%
Making Plans for Lena (2009)
Plot Summary:
Ever since she broke up with Nigel, Lena soldiers on through life as best she can with her two kids. She valiantly overcomes the obstacles put in her way. But she has yet to confront the worst of them: Her unstoppable family has decided, by any means necessary, to make her happy.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 984
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, emotional, psychological, serious, realistic, clever, talky, folk tale
Similar in 79%
Exit: A personal history (2010)
Plot Summary:
A young man travels to Holland for an assisted suicide. The young man was convinced that this was his only way of ending an existence that he considered to lack any dignity.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 22
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: experimental, atmospheric, contemplative, psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, surreal, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Iron Island (2005)
Plot Summary:
Squatters live on a mothballed oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. The children attend a school on board; men harvest scrap metal and old oil in the hull; women keep house and raise children and Captain Nemat runs it all with an iron hand. We follow a lad who rescues fish trapped in the hull, an old man who stares at the sun, the idealistic teacher, and Ahmad, the Captain's assistant who has fallen in love with a young woman whose father wants to marry her to someone of means. What future has this sinking city?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 980
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, atmospheric, offbeat, gloomy
Similar in 88%
I Am from Titov Veles (2007)
Plot Summary:
Burdened by memories of their late father, three sisters struggle to escape the suffocating environment of the dying town of Veles. A contemporary story of urban decay, „Jas sum od Titov Veles“ employs a stark realism to depict the vivid landscape of post-Communist Macedonia.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 617
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Slovenia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Aliyah (2012)
Plot Summary:
Paris 2011. Alex is 27. He's lives off dealing and pays the debts of his brother, Isaac, who after being his support has now become dead weight. When his cousin announces he's going to open a restaurant in Tel Aviv, Alex imagines he can join him and change his life. Set on emigrating, Alex has to find money, leave his beloved Paris, end his complicated love life, drop his destructive brother and find his way.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 567
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, captivating, emotional, touching, serious, contemplative
Similar in 78%
The Mouth Agape (1974)
Plot Summary:
The portrait of a woman going through a terminal illness and the tumorous lives of her husband and son.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
The Apostle (2014)
Plot Summary:
Akim, young Muslim will become imam sees his upset when he is touched by the love of Christ ... In a family chaos that opposes his brother identity Akim attempt to be accepted by his family.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, psychological, captivating, disturbing, tense, contemplative
Similar in 79%
Angel's Fall (2004)
Plot Summary:
Zeynep, Tülin Özen works in a hotel as a housekeeper. But she suffers hell on earth because of her father's behavior. She only talks to Mustafa, 'Engin Dogan' who works in the same hotel and he is interested in Zeynep. She is not interested in Mustafa who is younger than Zeynep, but she is not indifferent to him. While Zeynep is trying to make a bonfire of bad situation, Selçuk, Budak Akalin who lives on the other side of city is a voice technician. He feels guilty after his wife's death. The suitcase which has his wife's dresses changes the Zeynep's destiny.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Turkey
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, touching, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Second Generation (2003)
Plot Summary:
An explosive two-part drama about love, family and identity - set around the tangled relationships of two Indian families with a deep-rooted, shared history.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, realistic, contemplative, thought provoking
Similar in 88%
Red Leaves (2014)
Plot Summary:
An Ethiopian immigrant, sets out on a journey through his children's homes after losing his wife. Coming to know some of life's harsh new realities, he tries to survive in his own way.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, tense
Similar in 82%
Manpower (2014)
Plot Summary:
An intelligent social issues drama, Manpower sketches a portrait of four men in crisis. Moving between scathing realism and subtle irony, the film raises questions of belonging and uprooting, exile and emigration, home and family. Meir Cohen is a decorated police officer yet he barely earns a living. His new assignment to deport African migrant workers teaches him that foreigners aren’t the only ones with no future in his country. Other plotlines intertwine with Meir’s story: an Israeli-Filipino boy fighting for recognition; a taxi driver whose children are migrating to a distant country; and a veteran migrant worker who’s forced to decide whether to leave or to hide until trouble passes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, realistic, serious, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 84%
Young Girls in Black (2010)
Plot Summary:
Noémie and Priscilla, two teenage girls from working class backgrounds, cultivate the same violence, the same contempt of the world. They are a source of serious concern for family and friends, who sense them capable of going to extremes. Noémie has already tried to kill herself once when with the work of German Romanic writer Kleist ringing true to her, convinces equally unhappy best friend Priscilla to make a suicide pact. The two of them can see no reason to go on living but the practicalities and opportunity to go through with that plan is harder than they envisage.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 210
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: tense, emotional, realistic, contemplative, psychological, sincere, serious
Similar in 76%
Blame It on Mum (2009)
Plot Summary:
Mady Celliers, an attractive housewife of 60, he spends his life speaking ill of her two daughters and her husband, a man who shows a strange behavior since has retired. Antoine, the eldest son, company director, is unable to make a success of a business: out of a bankruptcy to get into another, her sister Alice madonnas obsessively paints sad. Annabelle, a nurse in an intensive care unit, tries desperately to save his family pronosticándole the future. When Alice meets by chance Jacques, a lonely police pessimistic explode all family neurosis.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 417
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching
Similar in 76%
A Single Girl (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young Parisian must make major decisions about pregnancy, a job and her boyfriend.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexual, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, rough
Similar in 78%
Max & Lenny (2014)
Plot Summary:
Max and Lenny is the story of a friendship between two girls fighting for survival in a northern area of Marseille.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
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 77%
Little Jerusalem (2005)
Plot Summary:
An orthodox Jewish teen living with her family in France attempts to balance her religious upbringing with her increasingly complex view of the outside world.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 904
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 82%
Belleville-Tokyo (2010)
Plot Summary:
Un couple se dirige vers un train en partance pour Venise. Sur le quai, Julien annonce à Marie qu’il part en rejoindre une autre et s’en va, la laissant seule à Paris, enceinte. Bouleversée, Marie se refuse à être victime de cette situation. Elle trouve du réconfort dans son travail auprès de ses deux « cow-boys » de patrons, Jean-Jacques et Jean-Loup, qui dirigent un cinéma du quartier latin spécialisé dans les films classiques américains….
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 79%
Under the Starry Sky (2013)
Plot Summary:
The debut feature from Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Dyana Gaye charts the interconnected destinies of three far-flung sojourners across three continents. A quiet drama, about the anxieties of negotiating journeying to foreign countries and making a place for oneself in the world.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 92
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, Senegal
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 90%
Automatic (2005)
Plot Summary:
Everyone falls into self destructive habits. Automatic lets us view a small cross-section of the lives of six characters as they struggle to break free from the automatic behavior that drives their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, independent film, crying
Similar in 85%
The Autumn Heart (1999)
Plot Summary:
When a school bus driving woman (Tyne Daly) has a heart attack, she makes one request of her three daughters (Ally Sheedy, Marla Sucharetza, Marceline Hugo) - she wants them to find their long lost brother, who was taken away by their father (Jack Davidson) 16 years ago. What they discover is that while they have struggled, their father has become a wealthy man and their brother is in school at Harvard.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Alpha Male (2006)
Plot Summary:
Drama about a family torn apart after the death of its patriarch. Haunted by their father's death, Jack and Elyssa have a fraught relationship with their remarried mother even now they have come of age.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 345
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, contemplative, psychological, sentimental, sincere, serious
Similar in 79%
Face (2002)
Plot Summary:
Genie, a Chinese-American teenager, develops feelings for a charming African-American DJ, but her grandmother forbids their romance forcing Genie to choose between family and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 350
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, contemplative