Best movies like Katzelmacher
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In this unflinching German drama by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a group of young slackers, including the couple Erich and Marie, spend most of their time hanging out in front of a Munich apartment building. When a Greek immigrant named Jorgos, moves in, however, their aimless lives are shaken up. Soon new tensions arise both within the group and with Jorgos, particularly when Marie threatens to leave Erich for the outsider.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, contemplative, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, biting
Best tv shows and movies like Katzelmacher (1969):
Similar in 83%
The American Soldier (1970)
Plot Summary:
Ricky returns to Munich from Vietnam and is promptly hired as a contract killer in Fassbinder’s subversive and experimental gangster movie.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: art house, neo noir, noir, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 84%
Gods of the Plague (1970)
Plot Summary:
A man is released from prison and finds the society on the outside less than appealing. With several women as well as the police on his tail, he sets out to find an old friend.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: art house, offbeat, serious, realistic, stylized, neo noir
Similar in 78%
Eden Is West (2009)
Plot Summary:
Elias (Riccardo Scamarcio) is an immigrant in his twenties who tries to get to Europe by a boat along with other illegal immigrants. When the boat is near the Greek shores and they hope they will soon disembark, a marine patrol approaches and Elias jumps into the sea in order to avoid arrest. So do the other people in the boat. He wakes up next morning in a shore with nudists, which is not so bad after all, since he has lost some of his clothes while he was swimming for quite a few hours. He pretends to be a nudist himself, steals some clothes and he pretends he is an employee of the hotel “Eden Club-Paradise”.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Greece, Italy
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, atmospheric, political, humorous, sexual, sexy, political drama
Similar in 77%
Palermo or Wolfsburg (1980)
Plot Summary:
Palermo or Wolfsburg (German: Palermo oder Wolfsburg) is a 1980 film by Werner Schroeter. It tells the story of an Italian immigrant who comes to West Germany in search of work.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 261
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 173 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, avant garde, grotesque, baroque
Similar in 84%
Whity (1971)
Plot Summary:
"Whity" is the mulatto butler of the dysfunctional Nicholson family in the American southwest in 1878. The father, Ben Nicholson, has an attractive young wife Katherine, and two sons by a previous marriage; the homosexual Frank, and the retarded Davy. Whity tries to carry out all their orders, however demeaning, until various of the family members ask him to kill some of the others.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Western
Country: West Germany
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: art house, thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 85%
The Sea Is Behind (2014)
Plot Summary:
Tarik lives in a land without colour, a land where water is contaminated by a strange phenomenon of “water bugs”. Tarik wears make-up and dresses up as a woman. He dances on a cart that is drawn by a dying horse and his father has practically abandoned him. One day, Tarik’s horse Larbi stops in the middle of a procession and refuses to take another step forward. Tarik will have to learn to live again and surrender to the colours of his life, which is the only way to escape the dullness of the world around him.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: Morocco, France, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, disturbing, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Effi Briest (1974)
Plot Summary:
A German-made film based on one of the most famous German novels by Theodor Fontane. Effi Briest (Hanna Schygulla) is a socially ambitious, 17-year-old German girl who accepts a proposal of marriage from Baron Geert Von Instetten, a much older diplomat. Unfortunately, neither the Baron's family nor anyone in the secluded town she now calls home accept Effi as an equal. Starved for companionship, Effi begins an innocent friendship with a well-known womanizer that may jeopardize her position as the Baron's wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: West Germany
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: art house, black and white, postmodern, costume drama, serious, realistic, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Stories of Our Lives (2014)
Plot Summary:
Created by the members of a Nairobi-based arts collective — who have removed their names from the film for fear of reprisal — this anthology film that dramatizes true-life stories from Kenya’s oppressed LGBTQ community is both a labour of love and a bold act of militancy.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Drama
Country: Kenya, South Africa
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, stylized, contemplative, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975)
Plot Summary:
Frau Kusters is preparing dinner late one seemingly ordinary afternoon in her seemingly ordinary kitchen in Frankfurt, Germany. Mrs. Kusters wants to add canned sausages to the stew, her annoying daughter-in-law thinks otherwise. The point, we soon find out, is moot: Mr. Kusters has murdered the personnel director at the soap factory where he works before committing suicide.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: art house, black comedy, thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, controversial, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 86%
The Merchant of Four Seasons (1972)
Plot Summary:
Hans is a street fruit peddler and born-loser. His choice of career upsets his bourgeois family, causing him to turn to drinking and violence. After recovering from a debilitating heart attack, his business finally begins to take off. However the more he becomes a credit to his family, the more depressed he becomes.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, philosophical, depressing, neo noir, sad, sincere, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (1970)
Plot Summary:
Herr Raab is a technical draftsman. His wife pushes him to seek a promotion, which may be a long shot after he gives a dull and tipsy toast at an office dinner. But why would Herr Raab run amok?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, controversial, existential, cult classic, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 89%
The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
Plot Summary:
Near the end of World War II, Maria marries Hermann, who is immediately sent off to battle. When the war concludes, Maria believes that Hermann is dead. She starts working at an Allied bar, where she meets American soldier Bill. They start a relationship that is interrupted when Hermann returns alive. During a scuffle between the men, Maria accidentally kills Bill. Hermann takes the blame and goes to jail, while Maria begins a hard new life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, touching, serious, realistic, surreal, art house, thought provoking, retro, neo noir
Similar in 90%
Dealer (2004)
Plot Summary:
In an impressive follow up to his debut film Forest, Benedek Fliegauf tells the uncompromising story of a day in the life of a drug dealer. His clients include the leader of a religious sect, a friend who needs a final fix, a former lover who has had his child, a student, and a black marketeer. Fliegauf's film recreates life in a city that resembles a ghost town, an alienated world with its own priorities and realities. It is, he says '. an imaginary city with a strongly spiritualist atmosphere. This necropolis is the film's real protagonist'.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, stylized, contemplative, experimental, avant garde, cult classic, bleak, realistic
Similar in 85%
Letter to the King (2014)
Plot Summary:
In Letter to the King we meet a group of refugees, all with their own agendas, on an excursion to Oslo. A young man about to be deported visits his former employers to collect his off-the-books salary, a martial arts expert is looking for work, a young woman is haunted by the past and out for vengeance and an old man named Mirza is busy writing a letter to the king to get his final wish granted. An altogether urgent and nuanced portrait of a motley group of individuals, too often regarded as a homogeneous group.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 255
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, anthology, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 81%
The Town Is Quiet (2000)
Plot Summary:
A dark tale of working-class life in Marseilles, a city in crisis. Interesting characters include a hard-bitten but compassionate fish market worker with a drug addicted daughter and a moody bartender with a shocking secret life.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, touching, bleak, captivating, realistic, disturbing, neo noir, anthology, psychological
Similar in 77%
Dance Town (2010)
Plot Summary:
A North Korean refugee, Jung-Nim, is trying to find a new life in South Korea, with people suspecting that she is a spy.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, touching, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Fratricide (2005)
Plot Summary:
Two young Kurdish refugees, recently arrived in Germany struggle to make their way through the harshness of the occidental city. Their encounter with a gang of Turks will rapidly led them into an inevitable tragical spiral filled with death and revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: Luxembourg, Germany, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, bleak, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Goodbye (2011)
Plot Summary:
Without her husband and without her lawyer’s licence, which has been withdrawn, Noora is left pregnant and alone in her apartment. Her attempt to leave Iran turns into a fight with male chauvinism. A personal, nerve-wracking and infuriating film by Rasoulof, who was himself convicted for his films in Iran. Goodbye is a sober, frightening portrait of a society that is stooping under the continual control and threats of its religious regime. Noora, a young, pregnant lawyer in Tehran whose husband has been sent to work in the desert because of his critical journalistic activities, continually faces opposition from the regime and decides to leave the country. That turns out to be very difficult. Because Rasoulof was already banned from making films, Goodbye was shot partly in secret in the winter of 2010/2011. The result is a disquieting film that makes impotence and the desire for freedom painfully tangible in all its simplicity.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 814
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, thought provoking, contemplative, islamic, bleak, interesting
Similar in 85%
Blackbird (2012)
Plot Summary:
This is a film about a troubled teen, Sean Randall, who is falsely accused of planning a Columbine shooting scenario. It all begins when an unlikely bond forms between Sean (Connor Jessup) and a preppy teenage girl named Deanna Roy (Alexia Fast). Deanna's boyfriend is deeply threatened by Sean and Deanna's friendship, resulting in a violent confrontation. Seeking to protect himself, Sean issues a death threat online - and is swiftly arrested. When the police raid Sean's home, they find rifles, shotguns, knives and ammunition - all property of Sean's father Ricky (Michael Buie), an avid hunter. They also find a supposed "hit list" with twenty names of people who have tormented Sean. The authorities and the media proclaim another Columbine has been narrowly averted, and soon Sean faces a terrifying imprisonment in a youth detention facility. Sean's only hope is to overcome his dark image, and prove his innocence to Deanna and to his community.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, realistic, thought provoking, serious, captivating, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Macondo (2014)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on an 11-year-old Chechnyan refugee living in Vienna whose life is thrown into disarray when a friend of his deceased father materializes.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
In a Year with 13 Moons (1978)
Plot Summary:
This drama follows the last few days in the life of Elvira (formerly Erwin) Weisshaupt. Years before, Erwin told a co-worker, Anton, that he loved him. "Too bad, you aren't a woman," he replied. Erwin took Anton at his word. Trying to salvage something from the wreckage love has made of his life, he now hopes that Anton will not reject him again.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: disturbing, philosophical, depressing, controversial, art house, psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Blood Done Sign My Name (2010)
Plot Summary:
A drama based on the true story in which a black Vietnam-era veteran is allegedly murdered by a local white businessman who is later exonerated. The plot focuses on the role of a local high school teacher and the civil unrest that followed the acquittal.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 635
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: disturbing, serious, captivating, realistic, thought provoking, tense, bleak, contemplative, entertaining
Similar in 76%
Home Again (2012)
Plot Summary:
Returning to a "home" they hardly know after being deported from their adopted countries for minor criminal offenses, three people from very different backgrounds try to make a new life for themselves, in Jamaica in this gutsy drama from writer-director Sudz Sutherland. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 428
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 84%
Jew-Boy Levi (1999)
Plot Summary:
Benjamin Levi (Bruno Cathomas) is a Bavarian cattle dealer traveling to pre-World War II Germany on his annual trip to a remote farming village. Levi hopes to do some business and, more importantly, win the hand of the lovely Lisbeth (Caroline Ebner). But Nazi propaganda has gripped the small community and poisoned it forever. Now, Levi and Lisbeth are targets of hate in this provocative and shocking drama.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 199
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Switzerland, Austria
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, biting, suspense
Similar in 90%
The Garden (1990)
Plot Summary:
A nearly wordless visual narrative intercuts two main stories and a couple of minor ones. A woman, perhaps the Madonna, brings forth her baby to a crowd of intrusive paparazzi; she tries to flee them. Two men who are lovers marry and are arrested by the powers that be. The men are mocked and pilloried, tarred, feathered, and beaten. Loose in this contemporary world of electrical-power transmission lines is also Jesus. The elements, particularly fire and water, content with political power, which is intolerant and murderous.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Japan
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, art house, disturbing, cult classic, experimental, independent film, clever, offbeat
Similar in 85%
Once They Marched Through a Thousand Towns (1981)
Plot Summary:
A dramatization of the controversial trial concerning the right for Neo-Nazis to march in the predominately Jewish community of Skokie.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 409
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 83%
Mothers (2010)
Plot Summary:
Two nine-year-old girls report a flasher to the police even though they never saw him. Three filmmakers meet the only residents of a deserted village - an elderly brother and sister who have not spoken to each other in 16 years. Retired cleaning women are found raped and strangled in a small town. The fiction slowly turns into a documentary.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 804
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Bulgaria
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, disturbing, psychological, thought provoking, serious, anthology, emotional, contemplative, entertaining
Similar in 82%
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972)
Plot Summary:
Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: West Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: art house, sexual, erotic, philosophical, sexy, depressing, surreal, avant garde, stylized, postmodern
Similar in 86%
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
Plot Summary:
Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: West Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: art house, atmospheric, political, emotional, stylized, serious, realistic, black and white, bleak, contemplative
Similar in 78%
I Only Want You to Love Me (1976)
Plot Summary:
The story of the young man Peter, who grew up during the economic miracle, bereft of parental care and love. Learning early on that interpersonal relationships are based on the principles of exchange or purchase, he abides by these rules and gives generous presents to his family and his wife Erika. But when he is unable to keep up this life-style, his story takes a horrendous turn.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy