Best movies like Muddy River
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Two boys, whose parents ply their trade by the mouth of a muddy river in Osaka, become close friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Muddy River (1981):
Similar in 83%
Platonic Sex (2001)
Plot Summary:
When Aoi is gang-raped by her classmates and kicked out of her home by her own parents she sees no reason to continue living. Before she commits suicide, however, she receives an email on her cellphone from a man named Toshi addressed to a girl named Ai. The message simply thanks the girl for being alive, but this specific message has an effect on Aoi and she decides to keep on living. Without many options, Aoi resorts to everything from paid dating to porn to earn money and meets a lot of less than reputable characters. Throughout it all though she looks toward Toshi as her hope for happiness and the two form a relationship.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 383
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sad
Similar in 80%
Gregorio (1984)
Plot Summary:
Gregorio, a boy from the impoverished countryside of Peru emigrates to Lima, the capital city. Experiencing a cultural shock due to the chaotic nature of the city, he must challenge himself to learn Spanish, since his native tongue is Quechua, and survive in this whole prejudiced new world. A hostile world for poor immigrants.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Drama
Country: Peru
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
If I Had a Gun (1971)
Plot Summary:
Vlado, an intelligent boy living in a small village, has fantasies that take him away from his humdrum life. But as the Nazi occupation begins to encroach on the townsfolk his fantasies and reality begin to merge.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 197
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Reach for Glory (1962)
Plot Summary:
During World War II, teenage boys in a small English town are consumed with jingoism and brutal war games, hoping dearly that the war won't end before they can fight in it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 182
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
I Am Maria (1979)
Plot Summary:
A story about a strange friendship between 11 years old Maria and an older man Jon.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 109
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sexual, sexy
Similar in 87%
Liten Ida (1981)
Plot Summary:
Little Ida's mother is working for the Germans during WW2, and she is also having a relationship with a German SS-officer. Ida is experiencing the problems of having a mother who is involved with the enemy, without being old enough to understand what is actually going on.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Sweden
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Orphans (1977)
Plot Summary:
A story about a group of Russian boys who have lost their fathers in the World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 415
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Path (2022)
Plot Summary:
Fleeing from the Nazis, two children, a journalist father, and a dog must make their way through the hazardous Pyrenees mountain range.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Spain
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Venice (2010)
Plot Summary:
An atmospheric coming-of-age story featuring an imaginative young boy named Marek who dreams of escaping an increasingly dangerous Poland on the eve of war for beautiful Venice.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 524
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychological, inspirational, captivating, pre war
Similar in 89%
Misunderstood (1966)
Plot Summary:
Andrew's brave front convinces his father that he is unaffected by his mother's death. Playmate and protector of his little brother Miles, he is often blamed when mischief goes wrong. Only when tragedy strikes does his father recognize Andrew's true qualities.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: modern day adaptation
Similar in 84%
Everyone Dies Alone (1976)
Plot Summary:
When they start losing family members and neighbors due to WWII and the Nazi government's policies, a quiet married couple becomes disillusioned and begins spreading leaflets against the government - a crime punishable by death.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 262
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Abel, Your Brother (1970)
Plot Summary:
Karol is a newcomer to the class and instantly called "sissy". He tries to make friends with class bully called Balon, and eventually succeeds. The group uses him to steal lollipops and later for an assault on a small child. The victim's mother seeks out the responsible and Karol is identified. He eventually confesses to his mother and names his accomplices. Branded now as a "squealer" he is avoided by his former friends.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 146
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Hotel Pacific (1975)
Plot Summary:
Set in the early 1930s, a young man finds a job as a dishwasher in a hotel and quickly works his way up the ladder. Loosely based on the novel by Henryk Worcell.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland, Czechoslovakia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Jasper's Ghost (1992)
Plot Summary:
11-year-old Jasper may just be starting puberty, but so far he has experienced a lifetime of emotions. On the day his beloved grandfather dies, he is charged with taking care of the elder's pet cat. The local town bully, Mourids however, has his own ideas on how to take care of the frisky feline and wastes no time with showing Jasper just what he thinks of cats. Enter Far, a significantly more mature girl who Jasper is attracted to. It's love at first sight for Jasper, but will Far return the puppy love or will Jasper find out the hard way that she is actually Mourid's girlfriend?.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 243
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Watch Me Fly (1996)
Plot Summary:
A story about friendship and sticking together through tough times. The movie shows how two young girls and their families cope with their differences, how they are brought together and torn apart and how they are changed by the injury of a racing pigeon. But when the girls take it upon themselves to heal the pigeon, its recovery can bring them all hope.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
A Night Too Young (2012)
Plot Summary:
On New Year's Day, two preteen boys wind up in the apartment of Katerina, a teacher from their school, along with her friends, Stepan and David. As the older trio bickers, drinks and flirts, the boys gain eye-opening insight into the adult world.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic, Slovenia
Duration: 65 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, serious, suspenseful, suspense
Similar in 75%
My Good Enemy (2010)
Plot Summary:
Sensitive 12-year-old Alf is the low man on his class' totem pole, and he's sick of it. Forming a secret, Machiavellian alliance with another student who also has grown weary of being bullied, he hatches a plan to throw a wrench into the well-oiled gears of the school social order. Everything seems to go according to plan, until Alf discovers that turning the tables on his tormentors has its own dire consequences.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 421
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Sea and Poison (1986)
Plot Summary:
Downed American fliers in WW II are vivisected by Japanese surgeons in medical experiments.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 309
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: retro
Similar in 88%
Madame Rosa (1977)
Plot Summary:
Madame Rosa lives in a sixth-floor walkup in the Pigalle; she's a retired prostitute, Jewish and an Auschwitz survivor, a foster mom to children of other prostitutes. Momo is the oldest and her favorite, an Algerian lad whom she raises as a Muslim. He asks about his parents; she answers evasively. As she ages and takes fewer children, Momo must do more for her; as money is tight, he tries to earn pennies on the street with a puppet. He's a beautiful man-child, and Madame Rosa makes him promise never to sell himself or become a pimp. A film editor, Nadine, befriends him, and his father appears as well. Madame Rosa reaches her last days in fear of hospitals, and Momo must act.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
The Plouffe Family (1981)
Plot Summary:
The lives of the average Quebecois Plouffe family during the final years of the depression and through World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 476
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 227 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Mamma Roma (1962)
Plot Summary:
After many years working in the streets of Roma, the middle-age whore Mamma Roma (Anna Magnani) saves money to buy an upper class apartment, a fruit stand and retires from the prostitution. She brings her teenage son Ettore (Ettore Garofolo), who was raised alone in the country, to live with her, and Ettore becomes her pride and joy. However, the boy that does not want to study or work, joins to idle friends, has a crush on a bitch, and Mamma Roma uses her best but limited efforts to straight Ettore and make him an honest man. However, her past haunts her with tragic consequences.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: neorealism, serious, realistic, art house, sad, emotional, social, gloomy, independent film, road movie
Similar in 79%
The Climb (1997)
Plot Summary:
Baltimore, 1959. Danny's dad is the only man in the neighborhood who didn't fight in World War II. Danny, who's 12, gets teased and folks make nasty cracks about cowards. An old radio tower on a nearby hill is about to be torn down, and Danny decides to climb it to prove his courage. Help comes from an aging neighbor, Old Man Langer, a former construction foreman who's dying of cancer and wants Danny to help him commit suicide. Langer rigs pulleys and weights to help the lad make the climb. Meanwhile, an aggressive and angry neighbor (an army vet) regularly gets drunk and shoots off his rifle, and Danny's dad must confront him. It all comes to a head one stormy night.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 422
Genere: Drama
Country: France, New Zealand, Canada
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 77%
Stray Dogs (2004)
Plot Summary:
Two children are orphaned in post-Taliban Afghanistan.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 695
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
No One's Child (2014)
Plot Summary:
The movie is based on the fascinating, true story of a feral boy whom hunters found among wolves in a forest in the mountains of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) in the mid-1980s. The boy was sent to the institution for children in an attempt to socialize him and got the Muslim name – Haris. Contrary to most predictions, he was developing and making friends quickly. When the war in BiH broke out in 1992, Haris got the letter from local Bosnian authorities which asked for his immediate return. Upon returning to BiH, he had nowhere to go. While wandering aimlessly, he came across a group of soldiers that gave him a gun and took him with them.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Serbia, Croatia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 76%
Not by Bread Alone (2005)
Plot Summary:
During the post-WW2 reconstruction in Russia, bald-headed technocrat Drozhdov equates communism with the empowerment of the ordinary man over the arrogant "specialness" of genius. Dedicated scientist Lopatkin takes refuge in Moscow with the potty, brilliant old inventor Busko. Lopatkin works tirelessly on his invention, embarking on a roller-coaster of rejection and acceptance, his work vilified, plucked apart and plagiarized by colleagues, particularly by his nemesis Drozhdov. Drozhdov's wife Natasha, alienated from her cold, controlling husband, is increasingly drawn to Lopatkin, whom she knew when they both taught at the same school. Soon she runs away from her husband and happily keeps house for the two absent-minded ex-professors Lopatkin and Busko. Natasha is ready to give Lopatkin her own life, love and faith. Lopatkin is eager to sacrifice his life for the idea, doing the utmost for his motherland.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 146
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 84%
The Boys of Paul Street (1968)
Plot Summary:
In Budapest, two rival gangs of young boys lay claim to a vacant lot. The hostilities escalate yet never quite boil over into actual violence. Just when things do get out of hand, however, the problem is "solved" by the city government, which takes over the lot for future development.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Pelle the Conqueror (1987)
Plot Summary:
The end of the 19th century. A boat filled with Swedish emigrants comes to the Danish island of Bornholm. Among them are Lasse and his son Pelle who move to Denmark to find work. They find employment at a large farm, but are treated as the lowest form of life. Pelle starts to speak Danish but is still harassed as a foreigner. But none of them wants to give up their dream of finding a better life than the life they left in Sweden.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark, Sweden
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: emotional, atmospheric, meditative, disturbing, compassionate, touching, serious, stylized, depressing, sad
Similar in 78%
Ratcatcher (1999)
Plot Summary:
James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, crying, depressing, art house, atmospheric, stylized, controversial, independent film, inspirational
Similar in 82%
The Runner (1984)
Plot Summary:
Amiro is a young boy who has lost his home during the war. He spends his days by working odd jobs, until he realizes that the only way that he can realize his dreams is by enrolling in school. In school, he has conflict with other students. Finally there is a competition to see who can say the whole alphabet in one breath.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Simon & the Oaks (2011)
Plot Summary:
Epic story about two families and their friendship and common destiny in Sweden's Gothenburg in the 1940s and 1950s. Told from the perspective of young Simon Larsson, who learns that he's an adopted child who has a Jewish father from Germany. After WWII Simon travels to explore his roots - a journey that leads to the basic mysteries of the human life. After the bestselling novel by Marianne Fredriksson.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, touching, psychological, captivating, contemplative, bleak, serious, romantic drama