Best movies like House of Sand
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A woman is taken along with her mother in 1910 to a far-away desert by her husband, and after his passing, is forced to spend the next 59 years of her life hopelessly trying to escape it.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sentimental, psychological, serious, emotional, inspirational, depressing, family saga, saga, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like House of Sand (2005):
Similar in 84%
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 90%
Once Upon a Time Veronica (2012)
Plot Summary:
A finely tuned, emotionally raw portrait of a woman’s conflicted entry into adulthood, Once Upon a Time Veronica is a thoroughly modern anti–fairy tale. Director Marcelo Gomes shows a rare ability to get under the skin — and cut close to the bone — of his emotionally vulnerable but resilient main character. Anchored by a tour de force performance from the fearless Hermila Guedes, this sensual, psychologically complex character study charts the personal and professional growth of one young woman in Recife.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 712
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Desert Dream (2007)
Plot Summary:
This film takes place in a remote area, a desert region situated somewhere between the Mongolia and Chinese border. The town has become nearly void of all inhabitants except for Hangai, who works obsessively to plant trees in the desert area. Hangai’s own wife has recently left him, as their daughter became increasingly ill. While Hangai wallows in solitude, a North Korean refugee arrives at his doorstep with her son. They ask for shelter and Hanghai obliges. Although the trio can’t even speak a common language, they are able to communicate nonethless and work together to plant trees. It seems Hanghai is attracted to Soon Hee, but she doesn’t feel quite the same way. Then a Mongolian soldier stationed at a nearby camp, befriends the trio and the dynamics of their relationship start to change.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 243
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea, France, Mongolia
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, psychological, atmospheric, touching, serious
Similar in 85%
They Don't Wear Black Tie (1981)
Plot Summary:
Otavio is an idealistic union leader trying to organize workers at a factory to resist the company's exploitative practices. His son, Tião, one of the employees, is more of a realist and doesn't want to risk losing his job by striking. This clash of perspectives puts the father and son at odds. Fortunately, Tião's mother, Romana, is on hand to act as a moderator between the two opinionated men.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: political, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
Three-Step Dance (2003)
Plot Summary:
Four separate-but-interconnected stories - one for each season - about life in Sardinia.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 267
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
Spiral (2008)
Plot Summary:
Their men went to the North in search of their destiny, while they stayed.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, student film
Similar in 86%
Ritual (2000)
Plot Summary:
A disillusioned filmmaker has an encounter with a young girl who has a ritual of repeating "Tomorrow is my birthday" everyday. He tries to communicate with her through his video camera.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, inspirational, bleak, realistic, cynical, independent film, biting, suspense
Similar in 80%
Wajma, an Afghan Love Story (2013)
Plot Summary:
It’s snowing in Kabul, and gregarious waiter Mustafa charms a pretty student named Wajma. The pair begin a clandestine relationship—they’re playful and passionate but ever mindful of the societal rules they are breaking. After Wajma discovers she is pregnant, her certainty that Mustafa will marry her falters, and word of their dalliance gets out. Her father must decide between his culturally held right to uphold family honor and his devotion to his daughter.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 464
Genere: Drama
Country: Afghanistan, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, psychological, atmospheric, emotional, sentimental, inspirational, sincere, serious
Similar in 86%
I Love You (1981)
Plot Summary:
Man meets woman, and invites her home. The two start an intense relationship in order to shield themselves from loneliness.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 670
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: pornochanchada, psychological, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, weird
Similar in 83%
So Hard to Forget (2010)
Plot Summary:
Julia is a 35-year-old English Literature teacher struggling with depression as she tries to get her life back together again after her long, intense love affair with Antonia. Feeling totally abandoned after she and her enigmatic girlfriend broke up, Julia is thrown into a desperate, painful process. Her life and her values have been tinged with unbearable melancholy and her life's measure seems reduced to out-of-focus fragments of her memories. Her inner turmoil and conflicts hamper a process now made necessary - that of readapting to her new life. It is impossible for her to disguise her pain when she attempts to narrate emotions.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 519
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, captivating, deep, sincere, realistic, gloomy, queer cinema, gay cinema
Similar in 79%
Silent Waters (2003)
Plot Summary:
Ayesha is a widow with a secret past, living with her beloved son Saleem in a small town in Pakistan close to the Indian border. When the fires of Islamic nationalism invade their tranquil lives, Saleem and a few of the town's other young men are soon gripped by a religious fervour, and they attempt to bring radical Islamic law to their friends and neighbours. After a group of Sikh pilgrims arrive in town, tensions reach boiling point as Ayesha's haunted past comes rushing back.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Pakistan, France, Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic, poignant
Similar in 90%
Richness of Internal Space (2012)
Plot Summary:
Locked up and isolated, constantly exposed and threatened to be killed, for the first time in his life Lazaro understood that he was a free man.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 262
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, uplifting, serious, emotional, tense, realistic
Similar in 89%
Paper Covers Rock (2008)
Plot Summary:
Samantha is recovering from a suicide attempt and ready for a fresh start in life. She has to fight for the custody of her daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 167
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, psychological, touching, emotional, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
A Quiet Little Marriage (2008)
Plot Summary:
A Quiet Little Marriage is the love story of Dax and Olive, who manage to find harmony even as they juggle family, romance and intimacy, but that all changes the night she asks him for a baby. Writer/director Mo Perkins’ intense and profound, raw feature debut is laced with sly humor, exquisitely rendered characters, and a pitch-perfect emotional honesty.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 361
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, captivating, sincere, serious, talky, independent film
Similar in 81%
The King Is Alive (2000)
Plot Summary:
Stranded in the heat of a barren African desert, eleven bus-passengers shelter in the remnants of an abandoned town. As rescue grows more remote by the day and anxiety deepens, an idea emerges: why not stage a play. However the choice of King Lear only manages to plunge this disparate group of travelers into turmoil as they struggle to overcome both nature's wrath and their own morality.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, South Africa, Norway, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, stylized, melancholic, atmospheric, psychological, independent film, offbeat, serious, realistic, road movie
Similar in 90%
The Auction (2013)
Plot Summary:
Gaby owns a farm on which he raises lambs: Bouchard & Sons Farm. But he has no sons. Rather, he has two daughters that he raised like princesses and who live far away, in the big city. One day, the oldest asks him for some financial support so she doesn't end up losing her house.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 759
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, serious, contemplative, psychological, captivating
Similar in 86%
Stay (2013)
Plot Summary:
A woman finds out she's pregnant and returns home when the expected father wants nothing to do with her.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 819
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Ireland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating, teen, sincere
Similar in 85%
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 77%
First Winter (2012)
Plot Summary:
When winter begins, life is serene for a group of new-age Brooklynites living in a remote country farmhouse. Sex, drugs, yoga, and organic cooking absorb their days, safely tucked away from the stresses of urban life. But when a blackout of apocalyptic proportions strands them with no heat and no electricity during the coldest winter on record, their utopian commune is breached by anxiety and their idyllic harmony begins to lose its tune. As time wears on and the food supply dwindles, power struggles, jealousy, and desire threaten the group's ability to work together in order to survive.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 258
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, mumblecore, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 88%
Rosetta (1999)
Plot Summary:
Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, bleak, art house, realistic, contemplative, emotional, spiritual, suspense, social, sad
Similar in 89%
Confetti Harvest (2014)
Plot Summary:
Dorsvloer vol Confetti tells the story of young Katelijne, who grows up in a religious family in the countryside in Zeeland. Based on the novel by Franca Treur.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 605
Genere: Drama
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, psychological, captivating, sentimental, touching, serious
Similar in 75%
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 84%
Flying Lessons (2010)
Plot Summary:
With her life at a crossroads, 25 year old Sophie Conway returns home to the small town she always wanted to forget. Once home, she is faced with the friends and lovers she left behind, a tangled relationship with her Mother, and Harry Pleasant, an Alzheimer's Disease patient who, in an opposing way, shares Sophie's struggle to remember.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 441
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, serious, inspirational
Similar in 78%
Back to School Mom (2015)
Plot Summary:
Mary Thomas, a free-spirited musician, has spent the past two decades traveling the world, but at age 41 she decides to go back to college and finish her degree so that, for once, she can finally finish something she started. Back at her old university, she becomes close friends with her popular and charming "peer tutor" -- only to learn that he is actually the son she gave up 20 years earlier.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 162
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, touching, sincere, captivating
Similar in 80%
Mending Fences (2009)
Plot Summary:
When big-city TV journalist Kelly Faraday (Laura Leighton) gets fired, she moves back to her Nevada hometown, where a severe drought may force her aging mother, Ruth (Angie Dickinson), to sell the family farm to a casino developer. As Kelly and Ruth sort out old differences, the erstwhile reporter and her ex-beau Walt (David Lee Smith) begin to suspect the casino of manipulating the town's water supply. Stephen Bridgewater directs this drama.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, captivating, touching, serious
Similar in 78%
The Deserted Station (2002)
Plot Summary:
On a pilgrimage to Mashad from Tehran, a couple's transportation breaks down, far from any major town. The husband, a photographer, seeks help at a nearby village and encounters a teacher who offers to help. Whilst the husband and teacher go off to find a spare part, the wife, who used to be a teacher, takes over the teaching lessons in the village. It is clear that the children live there, in this strange deserted place, without any men, save the teacher and an old signal guard. As the day draws on, the children help to bring a new hope and life into the wife's heart.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 649
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, islamic, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Soda Springs (2012)
Plot Summary:
The story of a man's struggle to claim his future by confronting his past. The road is not an easy one as old demons resurface to threaten everything Eden has fought to overcome.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 470
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 77%
Central Station (1998)
Plot Summary:
An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, emotional, road movie, realistic, art house, art film, crying, spiritual, mesmerizing
Similar in 76%
The Untouchable (2006)
Plot Summary:
After learning from her mother that her father lives in India, a young woman goes there to meet him for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, psychological, sentimental, sincere, serious
Similar in 76%
Hide Away (2011)
Plot Summary:
A successful businessman attempting to resurrect his life buys and boards a dilapidated sailboat.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, emotional, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, serious, independent film