Best movies like Istanbul
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Housewife Katalin Munk (Johanna ter Steege) has her world torn apart when her lecturer husband János (Andor Lukáts) arrives home to tell her that he’s leaving her for a younger student of his. Katalin falls into a state of shock and wanders about the streets of Budapest in just her dressing gown carrying a pair of scissors. After a series of misadventures, Katalin eventually ends up in Turkey, where suddenly Katalin is awakened and decides to start a new life after meeting local man Hilal (Yavuz Bingol). Meanwhile her son Zoli (Norbert Varga) tries to hunt Katalin down.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 225
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Netherlands, Ireland, Turkey
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Istanbul (2011):
Similar in 84%
The Fire (2015)
Plot Summary:
A couple must hold on to $100,000 for 24 hours as they wait to buy a house. As the time ticks by, the true nature of their love unravels.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 520
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, talky, tense, serious
Similar in 88%
Listen... Amaya (2013)
Plot Summary:
"Book a coffee", is an offbeat library cum coffee shop. It is owned and run by Leela Krishnamoorthy, a middle aged widow. She herself is as interesting and free spirited as the café she runs! Amaya, Leelas only child is a fire-brand 22 year-old writer; quick witted, confident and open-minded. They adore each other as only mother daughter can.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 637
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 80%
Five Hours from Paris (2009)
Plot Summary:
Only 5 flight hours from Paris, in a working-class suburb of Tel Aviv, two people meet. He is a bred-and-born Israeli and she is a Russian immigrant. He is a taxi driver and she is a music teacher. He has no aspirations. She gave up hers long ago. He is afraid of flying and she is about to fly away. What are the odds of them ending up together?.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 186
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
Child (2019)
Plot Summary:
Being the daughter of a prostitute mother, Akca gives up her motherhood in order to give her child a better future. The bride of a wealthy family, Sule promises to be a mother to Akca's baby for a lifetime. She looks at the baby she named Efe and raises him. Things change with the birth of Sule's own child.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 600
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, captivating, realistic
Similar in 77%
Life of Lies (2013)
Plot Summary:
Mentir para vivir is a Mexican telenovela produced by Rosy Ocampo for Televisa. The telenovela is written by Maria Zarattini, who last wrote La Fuerza del Destino. Mayrín Villanueva and David Zepeda star as the protagonists, while Altair Jarabo, Leticia Perdigón and Diego Olivera star as the antagonists.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 75
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 42 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, soap opera, telenovela
Similar in 82%
Dearest (2014)
Plot Summary:
Drawing on remarkable true stories, Peter Chan delivers a moving drama about child abduction in China. Huang Bo stars as a father whose young son disappears in the streets of a big city. He sets out on a search across China, stopping at nothing to find him. In this star-studded cast, Zhao Wei plays the role of a mother from a poor rural area.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, tense
Similar in 80%
Bye Bye Blackbird (2005)
Plot Summary:
A period drama set in the early years of the 20th century. Josef, a former construction worker who delighted in dancing on girders high above the city, who now sweeps up at the circus. Once the big top's owner spots the young roustabout defying gravity on the trapeze, however, he endeavors to pair Josef with his aerialist daughter Alice in a perilous sky-high pas de deux. Offers a romantic view of big top life, with a moth-eaten angel in his feathered, tattered costume.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 260
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria, Luxembourg, Germany, UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, captivating, romantic, serious, stylized
Similar in 76%
Dodson's Journey (2001)
Plot Summary:
A man takes his young daughter on a cross-country fly-fishing trip following the death of his father and his wife's decision to get a divorce.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 78%
Red Roses (2006)
Plot Summary:
Rote Rosen is a German telenovela produced by Studio Hamburg Serienwerft Lüneburg and broadcast by Das Erste since November 6, 2006. The show is a complex telenovela, who tells one love story every season about women in their forties.
IMDB Rating: 3.0
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, sentimental, captivating, serious, telenovela
Similar in 75%
July Rhapsody (2002)
Plot Summary:
Lam Yiu Kwok, a Hong Kong secondary school teacher is facing a mid-life crisis. While he has only his pride and Chinese poetry to fall back on, his peers are successful businessmen and professionals who flaunt their extravagant lifestyles at reunion dinners. After many years, Lam is still living in a modest apartment with his wife, Man Ching and two teenage sons. However financial stagnancy is not his only problem. An old flame of Man Ching (who was the couple's former schoolteacher) returns to Hong Kong and uncovers old wounds. Man Ching feels obliged to help her ex-lover. Meanwhile, Yiu Kwok faces another dilemma: Choy Lam, a precocious student, has a crush on him and the 'forbidden fruit' looks more and more tempting in the light of his wife's 'infidelity'. Will he succumb to young charms and let history repeat itself?.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, sentimental, realistic, gloomy, masterpiece
Similar in 79%
The Adopted (2011)
Plot Summary:
Lisa and Marine live a life of relative companionship together, where the only man permitted into the equation is Lisa’s young son, Leo. However, their simple existence is thrown into disarray when Marie meets and falls in love with Alex, a customer at her bookshop. Lisa is left feeling excluded, and tension develop. But soon an unexpected accident forces all of those involved to reassess the situation and adopt a different position in each other’s lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, sincere, crying, indie film, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 82%
A Family (2010)
Plot Summary:
Ditte owns a gallery, has a loving boyfriend and her dream job in New York is within reach. But Ditte is also the youngest generation of the famous bakery dynasty, Rheinwald, and when her beloved, but dominating father comes down with a serious illness, Ditte is faced with the grueling decision: To pursue her own dreams, or to continue the legacy of her family.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, sincere, realistic, sexy
Similar in 88%
Daybreak (2003)
Plot Summary:
Sweden, shortly before Christmas. Surgeon Rickard is told the job he expected goes to a Dane, because of his substance abuse. It's too late to cancel dinner with his in-laws. The guest couple announces their in-vitro is a success. Then Richard's wife learns he cheated her with Sofie. Meanwhile ugly hag Anita trades drugs to afford a taser to use on her ex Olof and his former physiotherapist. Workaholic builder Anders is disgusted by his grieve-deranged client Knut's plan and decides to spend time on his family, not just money.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, bleak, realistic, serious, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 81%
You (2007)
Plot Summary:
Michèle shares her life with Paul, her husband and work colleague. She has a lover, Thomas, a musician with whom she has been having a passionate affair for some time. Attracted by Thomass non-conformity and lust for life, Michèle abandons her husband, her son and her profession to live this frenzy through to its conclusion. A quest for freedom and change that sends Michèle on a turbulent drift, but remains, nevertheless, intimate and personal.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Emoticon ;) (2014)
Plot Summary:
Elena Gallenti is an anthropology graduate student struggling to complete her thesis on 'modern means of communication.' All that changes when she meets her new boyfriend's teenage kids, who are going through their own journeys of self-discovery. All of them learn to navigate love and intimacy in the digital age.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, psychological, contemplative, independent film, serious
Similar in 85%
Hope for Love (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young woman is faced with a tough decision to stay with her husband and father of her son who is cheating on her. She takes a vacation where she runs into an old flame and begins to rekindle their chemistry. Torn between the two, she intends to make a decision best for her son.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 65
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, realistic, captivating, serious, independent film
Similar in 83%
Missing William (2014)
Plot Summary:
The story follows Abby, a thirty-something artist living in Rhode Island caring for her husband William after he's tragically injured in a bar fight. As she attempts to coax him back to health, James, her childhood sweetheart and unrequited love, attempts to coax her back into living life again herself. The complicated love triangle that ensues is touching, poignant, and concludes with a realization that's as profound as it is beautiful.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 508
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, psychological, sentimental, indie film, touching, serious, independent film
Similar in 87%
Doubt (2003)
Plot Summary:
A gaggle of friends and observers ponder the fate of a relationship as they watch it collapse in this independent drama from the Philippines. Cris (Andoy Ranay) is a documentary filmmaker with a well-regarded body of work and a large community of friends and admirers. Cris is also gay, and possesses a voracious sexual appetite, claiming to have had sex with over 4,000 men during his years of frequent cruising. But Cris has fallen for Eric (Paolo Gabriel), and has sworn off meaningless sex for the pleasures of monogamy. However, while Cris wants Eric and Eric alone, Eric himself isn't so sure he feels exactly the same way, and is both puzzled and annoyed with Cris' rather ironic jealousy. The tensions between the two take a heavy toll on Cris, leading to a suicide attempt, and as his friends watch from a distance, any number of them speculate on what's going on between Cris and Eric. Duda was screened at part of the 2004 New York Asian-American Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, sentimental, captivating, serious, sexual, independent film, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 77%
Expecting Amish (2014)
Plot Summary:
18-year-old Hannah Yoder is ready to become an Amish adult - which means baptism into the Church and marriage to her boyfriend, Samuel. However, her friends convince her to visit Hollywood for Rumspringa where she meets Josh and the two hit it off instantly. When she returns to Amish country, Hannah must make the painful choice of staying with Samuel or return to Josh and risk being shunned forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 845
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
Family Secrets (2001)
Plot Summary:
Autumn 1978 in suburban Sweden. Everything seems to be fine with the middle class Bendrick family with their two teenage children and a younger son, until the mother starts seeing her first love again after 20 years. Just like their badly built house, the family façade starts slowly crumbling into pieces. The daughter, 15, finds her first love, and the boys too are puzzled by their own questions around adolescence and sexuality. The father tries to keep up a happy face, while the youngest son is the first and the most sensitive to realize how the family is heading towards a disaster.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 547
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, captivating, suspense
Similar in 76%
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 87%
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 81%
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 77%
The Truce (2003)
Plot Summary:
Martín Santomé has been woking in an office for the last 50 years, but his life will change when he starts falling in love with a woman named Laura Avellaneda.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, stylized, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Personal Belongings (2006)
Plot Summary:
Young Doctor Ana lives alone because she couldn't bear to leave Cuba when her family sailed away on a raft to the US. Ernesto lives in his car with his belongings in a small case, traveling from embassy to embassy trying to fulfill his dream of leaving Cuba. These Star-crossed lovers long to be together, they are pulled apart by different dreams rooted in different countries. In his directorial debut, Alejandro Brugués offers his personal view on the insistently revisited theme in Cuban art and literature - emigration and the laceration that it implies.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama
Country: Cuba
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 87%
A Day Late and a Dollar Short (2014)
Plot Summary:
When irascible matriarch Viola Price learns that her next asthma attack will likely kill her, she is determined to fix her fractured family before she leaves this world.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 732
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, sentimental, captivating, uplifting, touching, serious
Similar in 83%
Balancing Act (2012)
Plot Summary:
Having cheated on his wife, Giulio, a municipal employee, moves out, but has to find a solution on how to still support his family, and himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 823
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, tense, captivating, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Amnesty (2011)
Plot Summary:
Amnesty is a 2011 Albanian movie directed by Buyar Alimani. It’s a story about two people who meet up in jail when they come for monthly visits of their spouses. They fall in love after becoming witnesses to a wedding in jail but relationship has to end because both their spouses get amnesty from the government. What happens next is shown in usual east european movie style.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Albania, Greece, France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Guilty Hearts (2006)
Plot Summary:
Over the course of this drama's six separate stories, a variety of couples struggle with the infidelity, dishonesty and heartbreak that plagues their varied pasts. In overcoming their challenges, these diverse individuals embrace a brighter future.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 818
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Best Day of My Life (2002)
Plot Summary:
The Best Day of My Life is the story of a dysfunctional family as seen through the eyes of young Chiara (Maria Luisa De Crescenzo) who is about to receive her first communion. The family includes matriarch Irene (Virna Lisi) and her three grown up children.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, sentimental, captivating, serious, emotional, gloomy, sexual, sexy