Best movies like Lamerica
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Fiore, an Italian conman, arrives in post Communist Albania with Gino, his young apprentice, to set up a shoe factory that will never open. The con requires a native Albanian, so they designate Spiro, an impoverished and confused former political prisoner as chairman of the board. When Fiore returns to Italy to get government funds for the project, Spiro unexpectedly disappears and Gino sets out on a journey to find him. The search leads him to discover Spiro's tragic personal history and witness Albanian poverty firsthand.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: sincere, political, sad, sentimental, serious, realistic, gloomy, road movie, thought provoking, enigmatic
Best tv shows and movies like Lamerica (1994):
Similar in 87%
Goat (2015)
Plot Summary:
Peter "Koza" Baláz is a former Olympic boxer. He and his partner, Misa, live in a dilapidated housing estate, constantly struggling to make ends meet. Misa learns that she is expecting a child and decides to terminate her pregnancy. In order to earn some much-needed cash and possibly change Misa's mind. He and his manager Zvonko embark on a "tour", where success is not measured in victories, but in the amount of blows that Koza can take.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 218
Genere: Drama
Country: Slovakia, Czech Republic
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, touching
Similar in 76%
Inuk (2010)
Plot Summary:
Several years after losing his father, Inuk learns the way of his people again.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 347
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Greenland, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, captivating, melancholic, contemplative, visually appealing, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 75%
America (2010)
Plot Summary:
Lisa, a beautiful young Russian woman, is married to Victor, a Portuguese. Fernanda, the Spanish ex-wife of Victor, taking advantage of the coming wave of illegal immigrants in Portugal, wants to do business with false passports. Since then, and to Lisa's desperation, her home becomes a halfway house for immigrants of various nationalities and different races, all in search of a better future. Among them is Andrei, a young Ukrainian orthopedist who is wanted by the Russian mafia. Andrei falls in love with Lisa, who sees in him the opportunity to get out of that life. But things are not simple.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Russia, Brazil, Spain, Portugal
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, tragicomedy, realistic
Similar in 75%
Les papas du dimanche (2012)
Plot Summary:
The movie tells a story about a family in France, in contemporary times, and its problem such as bittersweet and sincere, breakup, family problems, parents and children.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 86%
Free Rainer (2007)
Plot Summary:
Frustrated, because he is forced to produce bad TV-shows, a manager of a TV-station, enters the station and manipulates the ratings, to initiate a TV-revolution.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Austria, Germany
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: feel good, serious, realistic, controversial, humorous, melancholic, sincere, captivating, suspense, intellectual
Similar in 87%
Me You Them (2000)
Plot Summary:
A true story that comically depicts the relationship between an ordinary woman and her three husbands, who live in the same house in a poor and arid small village of the Brazilian northeast.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: melancholic, light, road movie, talky, stylized, feel good, humorous, semi serious, sentimental, sincere
Similar in 78%
The Stolen Children (1992)
Plot Summary:
Antonio, a policeman (carabiniere), has an order to take two children (Rosetta and her brother Luciano) from Milan to Sicily to an orphanage. Their mother has been arrested for forcing Rosetta (11 years old) to work as a prostitute. First the relation between Antonio and the children is tough, but it relaxes so they become temporary friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy, France, Switzerland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, captivating, road movie, philosophical, spiritual, sad, serious, emotional
Similar in 77%
Mammuth (2010)
Plot Summary:
Serge Pilardosse vient d'avoir 60 ans. Il travaille depuis l'âge de 16 ans, jamais au chômage, jamais malade. Mais l'heure de la retraite a sonné, et c'est la désillusion : il lui manque des points, certains employeurs ayant oublié de le déclarer ! Poussé par Catherine, sa femme, il enfourche sa vieille moto des années 70, une " Mammut " qui lui vaut son surnom, et part à la recherche de ses bulletins de salaires. Durant son périple, il retrouve son passé et sa quête de documents administratifs devient bientôt accessoire.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, uplifting, serious, realistic, road movie, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 85%
The Way We Laughed (1998)
Plot Summary:
Studying to become a teacher in Turin, Italy, Pietro is joined by his older brother, Giovanni, who has moved up from Sicily. While Giovanni is a worker with no schooling, Pietro shows considerable promise in academics, prompting the elder sibling to seek employment to support his brother's academic pursuits. Unfortunately, things don't go well for Giovanni and Pietro, and they face significant hardships as they try to improve their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, juvenile
Similar in 86%
Little Saints (1999)
Plot Summary:
After St. Jude appears in Esperanza's oven, she sets out to find her daughter, who died under mysterious circumstances. The journey forces Esperanza to challenge her own beliefs and face her fears in order to be reunited with her beloved daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 573
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: cult classic, sentimental, uplifting, touching, offbeat, humorous, serious, emotional, realistic, soap opera
Similar in 80%
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 76%
Alila (2003)
Plot Summary:
Life in a flimsy Tel Aviv apartment complex is a sour urban mosaic whose seedy characters, try as they might, can't get out of one another's faces. The character's lives overlap and collide. Gabi, a bobbed haired sexpot, and her lover Hezi—who's older, balding and married—rent a room to have an affair, while Ezra, a pot bellied divorcee, supervises an illegal construction site next door. All this racket drives Schwartz, a Holocaust survivor, to a mental breakdown. Other characters include illegal immigrants, a teenage boy who's afraid to serve in the army, and a corrupt police officer. In each scene the camera moves through walls, over desks, and around rooms in order to keep focused on the character it's following, in moments of drama as well as in moments of mudane daily activity.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, avant garde
Similar in 90%
The Human Resources Manager (2010)
Plot Summary:
A tragic comedy centered on the HR manager of Israel's largest industrial bakery, who sets out to save the reputation of his business and prevent the publication of a defamatory article.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, Germany, France, Romania
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tragicomedy, sincere, road movie, humorous, captivating, touching, serious, realistic, grotesque
Similar in 86%
Someone Else's America (1995)
Plot Summary:
This tale takes place in a bar. The Spanish Alonso and his blind mother run this place. Bay, who is Alonso's friend live here too. This story tells something about Alonso and Bay and the "American Dream".
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 715
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, UK, France, Germany, Greece
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 88%
The Piano in a Factory (2010)
Plot Summary:
Steelworker Chen has a passion for music and plays the accordion in a local band with a close group of friends. When his estranged wife returns one day after years of absence, she demands a divorce and sole custody of their daughter. Chen is at a loss. He doesn't mind divorcing a woman who has become a stranger, but he can't bear to part with his daughter. Chen has worked hard to give her a respectable life and has taught her his love of music. When asked if she'd rather stay with her father or go with her mother, the girl gives a practical, devastating answer: she'll go with whomever can provide her with a piano. Chen cannot afford such a luxury item, but the piano becomes his last hope to save what little is left of his family. With the help of his loyal friends and the support of his lover - the singer in his band - Chen concocts several plans to fulfill his daughter's wish.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: China
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, touching, realistic, artsy, art film
Similar in 89%
Abraxas (2010)
Plot Summary:
Former punk rocker Jonen, now a Buddhist priest, seems to have lost the meaning of his life. His manic depression handicaps him further. Music seems to be the only solution for him to exorcise his demons, against all obstacles and sound volume controllers.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Japan
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, uplifting
Similar in 90%
Firelight (2012)
Plot Summary:
Incarcerated women join a band of volunteers who battle forest fires and assist during natural disasters.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 631
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, sincere, touching, serious, psychological, captivating
Similar in 79%
Cookie (2013)
Plot Summary:
Adeline's Chinese housekeeper suddenly disappears, leaving behind a little boy who doesn't speak a word of French. Helped by her sister, she takes care of the child and proceeds to locate the mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 320
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 86%
The Happiest Girl in the World (2009)
Plot Summary:
Delia, a young Romanian girl, comes to Bucharest with her parents to collect a prize she has won in a contest organized by a soft-drinks company. The prize is a beautiful new car. All Delia has to do now is appear in front of the camera in a commercial. All goes well until it becomes clear that Delia and her parents have very different ideas about what to do with the new car. Meanwhile, the contest's sponsor needs a radiant prize-winner with a gleaming smile. A wicked satire and a psychological portrait of a society perverted by its slavery to capitalism and consumerism.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Romania, Netherlands, France, Japan
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Le Havre (2011)
Plot Summary:
Marcel Marx, a former bohemian and struggling author, has given up his literary ambitions and relocated to the port city Le Havre. He leads a simple life based around his wife Arletty, his favourite bar and his not too profitable profession as a shoeshiner. As Arletty suddenly becomes seriously ill, Marcel's path crosses with an underage illegal immigrant from Africa, who needs Marcel's help to hide from the police.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Finland, France, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, atmospheric, surreal, uplifting, touching, dark comedy, thought provoking, inspirational, philosophical
Similar in 76%
Looking for Miguel (2007)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy Columbian politician blinded by his own privilege is forced to walk a mile in the shoes of the people he despises most after falling victim to a violent attack and subsequently losing his memory. Miguel was a man of fine stock, a politician who has led a charmed life since the day he was born. But Miguel has no appreciation for his lot in life, and scoffs at the everyday people who must struggle just to survive. One day, after being assaulted on the street and left for dead, Miguel awakens with no memory of the past. He has forgotten his distain for the dumpster divers, petty thieves, and wandering transients who crowd the city streets, and now their warmth and solidarity is the only thing keeping him alive. As Miguel forges a friendship with a pious but promiscuous drag queen, the fragments of the past gradually become illuminated in his mind, prompting him on a desperate quest to reclaim his identity and atone for the sins of his past.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 117
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Colombia
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, bleak, contemplative
Similar in 90%
The Dust of Time (2008)
Plot Summary:
A, an American film director of Greek ancestry, is making a film that tells his story and the story of his parents. It is a tale that unfolds in Italy, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the USA. The main character is Eleni, who is claimed and claims the absoluteness of love. At the same time the film is a long journey into the vast history and the events of the last fifty years that left their mark on the 20th century. The characters in the film move as though in a dream. The dust of time confuses memories. A searches for them and experiences them in the present.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Italy, Germany, Russia, France
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, postmodern, slow cinema, aesthetic, epic, realistic
Similar in 86%
Work Hard, Play Hard (2003)
Plot Summary:
Philippe Seigner starts his career in business consulting at the posh Paris seat of McGregor. His first serious task is delicate: An audit at a factory, which is about to be taken over. As he soon realizes, this will mean sacking about 80 employees. However, his girl friend reproaches him collaborating with ruthless capitalism, as if any of the downsizing could be mitigated by him bowing out.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 600
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, captivating, humorous, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Discount (2014)
Plot Summary:
To fight against the introduction of automatic checkouts that threaten their jobs, staff members at Hard Discounts secretly create their own "Alternative Discount" outlet by salvaging products that would otherwise have been wasted.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting
Similar in 83%
Foreign Letters (2012)
Plot Summary:
A bittersweet coming-of-age film, Foreign Letters is itself a love letter to the unshakeable bond between friends. Set in the pre-email era of the 1980s, young Ellie, newly arrived to the US from Israel, anxiously waits for letters from her best friend back home. Suffering from homesickness, language difficulties and rejection at school, life brightens when she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age. As the two bond and become inseparable, they eventually hurt each other, and Ellie must find a way to restore their trust. Based on director Ela Thier's personal immigration experience, Foreign Letters is a film about poverty, prejudice, shame, and the healing power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
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 86%
Intrepido: A Lonely Hero (2013)
Plot Summary:
A middle-aged man tries to get by in Milan while trying to retain his dignity.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 738
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, touching, realistic, light, feel good
Similar in 76%
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 90%
Crossing Borders (2006)
Plot Summary:
Spain 1960, the dawn of the country's economic development. Industrial "reorganization" means that many workers have lost their jobs and are forced to emigrate. Martin is one of them. Martin, his wife Pilar and their son Pablito live with Martin's parents in a basement apartment that comes with their job as superintendents of the building. Encouraged by Marcos, his friend and co-worker, Martin decides to emigrate to Switzerland. The whole family has to admit that for the time being this is the most promising plan. Unable to obtain a work contract from the Swiss Consulate, Martin and Marcos decide to go anyway, pretending they are tourists to get past the border police. Pablito will experience drastic changes in a short period of time: his father's departure, a new way of life in a different country with a different environment and learning another language. But afterwards, in Switzerland, they will face new experiences which will allow them to live with renewed happiness.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, semi serious, humorous, feel good, intercultural
Similar in 82%
Intimate Stories (2002)
Plot Summary:
Three people and a baby set off on separate journeys, along the same road; their disparate dreams and stories intertwine amidst the breathtaking deserted Patagonic route.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Argentina, Spain
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: road movie, sentimental, humorous, realistic, sincere, touching, semi serious, anthology