Best movies like Laila's Birthday
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
"At eight o'clock, it's Laila's birthday, okay?" Palestinian judge turned cab driver Abu Laila's wife reminds her husband. But on his young daughter's birthday, like any day, Abu faces a nerve-wracking shift in a Ramallah yellow cab armed only with an ex-jurist's misplaced pride, a father's loyalty, and a sticker reminding passengers that smoking and carrying AK-47s are prohibited. Rather than address politics or document holy war heroics and villainy, Laila's Birthday focuses on the toll that the unending Palestinian-Israeli conflict extracts from civilians clinging to both employment and a semblance of normal life amidst chaos and corruption, missile attacks and bursts of gunfire.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 510
Genere: Drama
Country: Tunisia, Netherlands
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, atmospheric, captivating, humorous, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like Laila's Birthday (2008):
Similar in 81%
A Way Back Home (2013)
Plot Summary:
Famous country singer Trey Cole is finally returning home after cruelly abandoning the town many years ago and never looking back, even when his brother died serving in the military. Now, realizing he's lost himself along the way, Trey remembers getting his first haircut in the cracked brown leather chair in Charlie's shop, and hopes to find guidance from the man who was a father to him when his own dad, General Wes Cameron, was coldly absent during his childhood.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, captivating, emotional, humorous, stylized, semi serious
Similar in 80%
Giraffada (2013)
Plot Summary:
Yacine is the veterinarian of the only zoo remaining in the Palestinian West Bank. He lives alone with his 10-year old son, Ziad. The kid has a special bond with the two giraffes in the zoo. He seems to be the only one to communicate with them. After an air raid in the region the male giraffe dies. His mate, Rita, won’t survive unless the veterinarian finds her a new companion. The only zoo that might provide this animal is located in Tel Aviv.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 279
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Germany, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Lost Kisses (2010)
Plot Summary:
A 13-year-old girl in the deprived outskirts of a sprawling Sicilian city becomes a local celebrity to her needy community when word spreads that she just might be able to perform miracles.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 138
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sincere, touching, captivating, clever, humorous, realistic, cynical, biting, suspense
Similar in 75%
Everyone's Going to Die (2013)
Plot Summary:
Melanie's life in a seaside town is going nowhere until she meets Ray, back in town with a shady job to do. A moment's escape becomes a chance to save themselves, and each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 325
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, atmospheric, contemplative, emotional, humorous, talky, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Walker Payne (2006)
Plot Summary:
A small-town father is forced to make difficult, heartbreaking decisions in order to save his two daughters.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 473
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 90%
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 81%
Three Dollars (2005)
Plot Summary:
Eddie is a principled man, with a wife, a daughter and a mortgage and leads a seemingly stable and happy life as a government land assessor. Yet when the forces of economic and social change threaten this, he realises just how fragile his reality and security is. After losing his job, he checks his bank balance and finds he has only 'three dollars' to his name.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 737
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, captivating, psychological, emotional, realistic, gloomy, semi serious, psychological thriller, psycho film
Similar in 78%
Girl$ (2010)
Plot Summary:
Four young women are tempted by the money that can be earned in prostitution. They have to learn in their own way that nothing comes without a price.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 383
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sexy, realistic, semi serious, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, erotic, touching, humorous, sexual
Similar in 89%
Tales (2014)
Plot Summary:
Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Rakshan Banietemad ends her eight-year hiatus from feature filmmaking with this ingenious, mosaic-like narrative, which knits together the stories of seven characters to create a microcosm of Iranian working-class society.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, bleak, serious, gloomy, surprise ending
Similar in 75%
Choco (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young woman raising alone her children while her husband gets drunk but when she breaks free nothing will be the same.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 292
Genere: Drama
Country: Colombia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, touching, gloomy
Similar in 85%
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 84%
Those Who Remain (2007)
Plot Summary:
Bertrand (Vincent Lindon) dutifully visits his terminally ill wife every day, braving the long train and bus ride to and from the hospital. Lorraine (Emmanuelle Devos) not so willingly visits her boyfriend who was diagnosed with colon cancer. They bump into each other during one of their visits and begin to meet for coffee. Coffee turns into Lorraine offering to drive Bertrand to the train station and the two turn to each other in their time of grief and confusion.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 623
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Last Winter (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young farmer in Central France tries to sustain his spiritual connection to the land amid the crushing pressures of modern agriculture in this brooding drama.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 187
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 79%
The Dollmaker (1984)
Plot Summary:
Jane Fonda gives an Emmy-winning performance as Gertie Nevels, a pioneer woman and the mother of five from the Kentucky hills who is forced to uproot her children to follow her husband Clovis (Levon Helm) to Detroit when he finds work during World War II. One setback follows another and shattering tragedy strikes the family. It's all up to Gertie to find new strength, courage and determination to keep her family together and strong.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 946
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 88%
Liverpool (2008)
Plot Summary:
A sailor takes a short leave to visit his hometown and see if his mother is still alive.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France, Netherlands, Germany, Spain
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, contemplative, psychological, captivating, road movie, dread, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere
Similar in 77%
Everywhere and Nowhere (2011)
Plot Summary:
Ash is a man torn between two worlds, that of his family and friends and the other, of his dreams. This is his story set across London with it's fast paced nightlife and run ins with the law all caught on camera from the Director of Kidulthood.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 329
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, psychological, atmospheric, erotic, multicultural, sincere, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Lovelorn (2005)
Plot Summary:
A retired teacher who returns to Istanbul after years away, Nazim tries to reacquaint himself with his hometown, which has changed significantly. While waiting for his pension to begin, Nazim takes a temporary job as a taxi driver and frequently ends up in the seedier parts of the city. ….
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: semi serious, realistic, touching, captivating, contemplative, art house, islamic
Similar in 81%
Underdog (2014)
Plot Summary:
23-year-old "Dino" (Bianca Kronlöf) dreams of a different life. Like an abundance of Swedes her age, she has fled the mass unemployment of her home country in search of a more worthwhile existence in a nouveau-riche Oslo. But her new life is caught in deadlock - Dino finds herself stuck in a destructive loop of temporary jobs, financial trouble and hard partying. A broken arm incidentally leads to a position as a housekeeper in a Norwegian middle-class home. Dino is thrown into a reality very far from her own. During a few sultry summer weeks she ends up the centre of an odd love triangle, an unpredictable struggle for affection as well as dominance. "Underdog" is a tender and raw story of privilege and longing, yet at the same time a humorous and unmerciful observation of the shifted power balance between Sweden and Norway - an actuality where Swedes have become the Norwegians' servants.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 882
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, touching, serious
Similar in 85%
Wedding Dress (2010)
Plot Summary:
Overly obsessive compulsive and too premature, Sora is easily distanced by her friends. Growing up without a father is something she would like to be fussy about with her mom, but Sora is still the one and only daughter of and the biggest support to Go-woon. Once she finds out about her mom’s dying condition, this mature 9-year-old learns to overcome her difficulty in sharing food with others and asks her classmates to be her friends to make sure her mom feels at ease.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 799
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: semi serious, sad, psychological, sentimental, captivating, contemplative, humorous, realistic
Similar in 88%
Everyday (2012)
Plot Summary:
This film charts the relationship between a man imprisoned for drug smuggling and his wife and is being shot over the course of five years, a few weeks at a time.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 834
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, independent film, sincere, touching
Similar in 83%
Hard Times (2005)
Plot Summary:
When the troubled son of an NGO worker refuses to take a test and announces that he is not leaving his room, his concerned mother asks one of her clients, a Cuban exile, for help in setting the boy straight. Gonzalo has decided to drop out of school, and his mother Ana isn't sure how to convince the boy that he's making a crucial mistake. Ana's client Carlos is a Cuban exile who makes his living selling cigars and artwork on the black market. When Carlos learns of Ana's dilemma, he calls on recently released convict Mikel to teach the boy how to play chess. Perhaps is young Gonzalo can master the game, he can learn to start living again. As the lessons get underway, each of these characters learns that in order to truly move on with their lives they much first break free of the bonds that prevent them from being who they really are.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, touching, sentimental
Similar in 76%
Live-In Maid (2004)
Plot Summary:
Buenos Aires is in a deep recession. As the money runs out, the relationship between an employer and her live-in maid changes dramatically.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 991
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Spain
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, semi serious, touching, realistic
Similar in 87%
Same Same But Different (2009)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of Benjamin Prufer and Sreykeo Solvan. The unexpected and uncertain love story of Sreykeo, a 21 year old bar girl in Phnom Penh and Ben, a young German student traveling to Cambodia on a post graduation summer trip. When Ben returns home to Germany he discovers that Sreyko is sick and he takes on the responsibility to save her. On the way he discovers a world where not everyone is dealt the same cards and where motivations are not always pure.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, touching, realistic, sincere, offbeat, serious, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Love Chronicles: Secrets Revealed (2010)
Plot Summary:
Love Chronicles, a romantic “dramedy”, is set at Los Angeles radio station KLUV, where callers air their dirty laundry over the airwaves for all to hear. Over the course of one crazy day, show host and "relationship expert" Darren (Rockmond Dunbar) and Janet (Vivica Fox) have had another one of their epic fights that threatens to end their marriage and make a joke of Darren's career. At the radio station, street author Thomas Black (Mike Epps) advises cougar Monique (Elise Neal) how to stay married while DJ Mike V (Ving Rhames) helps out the good girl who falls for bad boy from the other side of the tracks.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: semi serious, talky, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, humorous, realistic, independent film
Similar in 83%
The Obama Effect (2012)
Plot Summary:
A serious health scare ignites John Thomas, an insurance salesman in his 50s, to take a closer look at his life. Motivated by a misguided obsession with getting Barack Obama elected, John takes an overwhelming involvement in the Presidential campaign. While John becomes obsessed with the ideal of change that Obama represents for Americans, he has in turn neglected to create positive change in his own life, particularly with regard to his health and familial relationships. John hides his health problems from his strong, yet supportive wife, Molly, creating a strain on their marriage. John seeks the support of a Republican relative, MLK, who initially starkly resists supporting a Democratic candidate. John's son, Kalil, rebels against his father's avid support of Obama by supporting the Republican candidate as well. John neglects to support his daughter, Tamika, at a crucial moment in her life.
IMDB Rating: 2.0
IMDB Votes: 453
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sentimental, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 85%
Aviva, My Love (2006)
Plot Summary:
Aviva, a hard-working hotel cook in the small northern Israeli town of Tiberias, is on the brink of finally fulfilling her lifelong dream. For years she kept her remarkable writing abilities under wraps, until her sister, Anita, introduces her to Oded, an accomplished novelist. Immediately recognizing Aviva's talent, Oded takes her under his wing, promising to help her achieve greatness. But the journey to greatness effects her life and the lives of her family - her unemployed husband, her trouble children, her unstable mother, and primarily her sister, a funny and sensitive woman who have her own dreams. When Aviva discovered that Oded has other plans for her work, her world collapses.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, captivating, psychological, sentimental, semi serious
Similar in 86%
Common Ground (2002)
Plot Summary:
In Buenos Aires, a few days before traveling to Spain with his beloved wife Liliana Rovira to visit their son Pedro, the leftist Literature professor Fernando Robles is compulsory retired in the University, and he concludes that it is impossible to live with his pension. The crisis in Argentina does not allow Fernando to get a new job, and his wife decides to sell her family's apartment and move to a small farm near Villa Dolores to reduce their expenses. Fernando comes up with the idea to grow lavender and sell the oil to the perfume industry.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Argentina
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, clever, touching, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 84%
Of Boys and Men (2008)
Plot Summary:
Robert Townsend stars as the patriarch of a family devastated when his wife is killed in a senseless auto accident. Reeling with grief, each family member must find courage and vision to carry on, ultimately eager to do the mother proud.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, touching, serious, independent film
Similar in 81%
The Role of Her Life (2004)
Plot Summary:
Freelance writer in a fashion journal, Claire meets Elisabeth Becker, a movie star. Everything separates them, their characters, their relationships with men, and of course money. Claire is hired as Elisabeth's personal assistant.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 563
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, semi serious, captivating, humorous
Similar in 75%
Whatever (1998)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1980s, Anna, a New Jersey teenager faces her impending adulthood, dreaming of a life as a successful New York artist. When she gets caught up in the carefree sport of pre-AIDS sex and drugs, Anna's future becomes less certain.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: realistic, independent film, sentimental, touching, humorous, gloomy, semi serious, erotic, sexy, feel good