Best movies like No One Writes to the Colonel
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Every Friday, the Colonel puts on his only suit and goes to the dock to await a letter announcing the arrival of his pension. But the townsfolk all know that this pension will never come. His wife also knows it, and even he knows it. But he is still waiting, living with the pain of the death of his son.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, France, Spain
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, atmospheric, realistic, psychological, contemplative, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like No One Writes to the Colonel (1999):
Similar in 82%
The Karamazov Brothers (2008)
Plot Summary:
Dostoevsky’s latter-day opus about the siblings and their father is among the masterpieces of world literature. It asks profound questions about ethics and religion. Is there a God? Does the devil exist? Is everything allowed because we live in a world without morality? And if so, does patricide even constitute a crime? One of the most interesting adaptations of the material is The Karamazovs by Czech director Petr Zelenka. We witness a group of thesps from Prague on a trip to Krakow in Poland to stage the novel as a play in a derelict steelworks as part of the Closer to Life Festival. The project, however, is born under the bad sign, apparently doomed from the start. When they arrive, the roof is about to cave in, so that the actors are told to wear safety helmets. Their sole consistent audience is a laborer (Andrzej Mastalerz) who rather follows each dress rehearsal than watching over his seven-year-old son who has suffered a tragic accident in the factory.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Czech Republic, Poland, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, captivating, serious, realistic, emotional, existential, contemplative, gloomy, metafiction
Similar in 83%
The Day I Was Not Born (2010)
Plot Summary:
During a stopover in Buenos Aires on her way to Chile, 31-year-old Maria recognizes a nursery rhyme. Maria doesn't speak a work of Spanish, but without understanding what she is singing, she remembers the Spanish lyrics. Disturbed and thrown off course, she decides to interrupt her journey and wander through the unfamiliar city.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 837
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Argentina
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, captivating, contemplative, sentimental, sincere, serious
Similar in 80%
Secret Sunshine (2007)
Plot Summary:
Sin-ae moves with her son Jun to Miryang, the town where her dead husband was born. As she tries to come to herself and set out on new foundations, another tragic event overturns her life.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, inspirational, sincere, philosophical, thought provoking, independent film, cerebral, bleak
Similar in 88%
The Exchange (2011)
Plot Summary:
A family man becomes obsessed with looking at his own life out of context.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 327
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, realistic, weird
Similar in 81%
The Sensation of Sight (2006)
Plot Summary:
This off-beat drama about man's search for meaning amidst the ache of despair chronicles Finn, an introspective English teacher entering a mid-life crisis impelled by a recent tragedy, as he sets afoot selling encyclopedias to the town locals.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 636
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, contemplative, offbeat, independent film
Similar in 78%
Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987)
Plot Summary:
This suspenseful Italian crime drama is set in a Colombian river town and chronicles the series of events that led up to murder. Based on a novel by distinguished author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the tale begins in the present as a middle-aged doctor returns to the village after a twenty-year absence to investigate the murder that occurred just before he left.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France, Colombia
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
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 87%
Domestic Life (2013)
Plot Summary:
Juliette was simply not sure about coming to live in this residential suburb of the greater Paris metropolitan area. All the women here are in their forties, have children to raise, houses to keep and husbands who return home late at night.Today she has an appointment in Paris that is important for her career, but she also has to run errands and pick up the kids from school. During the course of her day, monopolized by petty, everyday tasks, Juliette can feel the noose of domestic obligations and household chores slowly tightening around her neck.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 424
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspense, suspenseful, psychological, captivating, contemplative, biting
Similar in 82%
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 81%
Paju (2009)
Plot Summary:
A young woman living in the South Korean town of Paju recalls the last 8 years of her life, since a young man on the lam escaped to it from Seoul and married her older sister.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 550
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, sexy, controversial, contemplative
Similar in 77%
Angels Crest (2011)
Plot Summary:
The small working-class town of Angels Crest is a tight-knit community resting quietly in one of the vast and stunningly beautiful valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Ethan, one of the town's residents, is a young father but not much more than a kid himself. He has no choice but to look after his three-year-old son Nate, since mom Cindy is an alcoholic. But one snowy day, Ethan's good intentions are thwarted by a moment of thoughtlessness, resulting in tragedy. A local prosecutor haunted by his past goes after Ethan, and the ensuing confusion and casting of blame begins to tear the town apart.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, psychological, independent film, captivating, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Here and There (2012)
Plot Summary:
Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the US. He finds his daughters older, and more distant than he imagined. His wife still has the same smile. Having saved some earnings from two trips to the US, he hopes to now finally make a better life with his family, and even to pursue his dreams on the side by starting a band: Copa Kings. He cherishes the everyday moments with his family. The villagers think this year's crop will be bountiful. There is also good work in a growing city an hour away. But the locals are wise to a life of insecurity, and their thoughts are often of family members or opportunities far away, north of the border. While working in the fields, Pedro meets and begins to mentor a teenager who dreams of the US. That place somehow always feels very present, practically knocking at the door. "Aquí y Allá" is a story about hope, and the memories and loss of what we leave behind.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Spain, Mexico
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, psychological
Similar in 75%
Orphan (2009)
Plot Summary:
A Chilean family deals with the new values in a quickly changing world.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 207
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, France, Germany
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, sincere
Similar in 85%
Jewel (2001)
Plot Summary:
In the 1940s a 40-year-old woman with five healthy children gives birth to a girl with Down's syndrome.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, UK, USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
The Magnetic Tree (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young boy returns to his birth country, Chile, after a long absence. The house in the country where he lived with his family is up for sale and they all gather to bid the place farewell. Their visit to the "magnetic tree", a local curiosity with strange properties, will awaken almost forgotten feelings and affections in the boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 119
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain, Chile
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: surreal, sentimental, sincere, atmospheric, touching, contemplative, talky, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
Angel's Fall (2004)
Plot Summary:
Zeynep, Tülin Özen works in a hotel as a housekeeper. But she suffers hell on earth because of her father's behavior. She only talks to Mustafa, 'Engin Dogan' who works in the same hotel and he is interested in Zeynep. She is not interested in Mustafa who is younger than Zeynep, but she is not indifferent to him. While Zeynep is trying to make a bonfire of bad situation, Selçuk, Budak Akalin who lives on the other side of city is a voice technician. He feels guilty after his wife's death. The suitcase which has his wife's dresses changes the Zeynep's destiny.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Turkey
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, touching, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
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 81%
Hidden Diary (2009)
Plot Summary:
In the 1950s, Louise left her husband when their children were still little. She was never heard from again. Her daughter Martine stayed in the small seaside town, where she became a doctor. Martine's daughter, Audrey, a thirty-year-old independent woman, returns to visit her parents. By chance, she finds a notebook that belonged to her grandmother, a diary that may at last explain her departure. Will it reveal the things left unsaid, that have altered the relationships within the heart of the family ever since? In it, will Audrey find answers to the questions that she is asking herself about her own future?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 549
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Erratum (2010)
Plot Summary:
Michał jedzie do miasta swojego urodzenia, aby załatwić sprawę o którą prosi go szef i od razu wracać. Sprawy przybierają jednak inny obrót. Michał musi pozostać tu parę dni dłużej. Chodząc po mieście spotyka bliskie mu niegdyś osoby, natrafia na znajome miejsca. Powoli odzywa się w nim coś, o czym dawno zapomniał.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 564
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, contemplative, realistic, psychological, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Rust (2010)
Plot Summary:
In the midst of a midlife crisis of faith, a man finds hope where he least expects it – his hometown. James Moore (Golden Globe nominee Corbin Bernsen) is a former pastor who returns home to discover a family new to the area has been killed in a mysterious fire, and his childhood friend is implicated in the murder. Convinced of his friend’s innocence, James sets out on a mission to find the truth… and in the process, rediscovers his own lost faith. An uplifting drama about faith, family, and the powerful ties that bind a community together.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, contemplative, psychological, captivating, sentimental, serious
Similar in 84%
Phantom Pain (2009)
Plot Summary:
Marc is a passionate cyclist and urban slacker who avoids work and responsibility. Marc's life changes from one moment to the next when he suffers a life-changing accident. He can either wallow in self-pity or tackle the beast called life with the help of love and willpower.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 930
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, psychological, emotional, realistic, gloomy
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 85%
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 85%
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 75%
Cet amour-l? (2001)
Plot Summary:
Cet Amour-là is an intimate portrait of a legendary love affair. Set against the beauty of the Breton seaside, it is also a film that revels in the insights that Marguerite Duras' writing affords.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, sentimental, sincere, serious, captivating, clever, realistic, talky, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Due East (2002)
Plot Summary:
The movie spotlights an intelligent high school senior and National Merit Scholar (Bryant) who has never been part of the "in crowd." She teaches a high school equivalency night class, tends to the needs of her widower father, Jesse (Forster), and pretty much stays to herself. But when she meets a loner who recently moved to the town of Due East, she feels a sense of belonging for the first time in her life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, touching, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Charms for the Easy Life (2002)
Plot Summary:
The story of three women who live in a North Carolina town and defy the traditional roles set forth for them by society.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 481
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, thought provoking, captivating, atmospheric, realistic, sexual
Similar in 77%
The Rising Place (2001)
Plot Summary:
The close friendship of two young women, each of a different race, and their struggle to find purpose in their lives during this time of social injustice and world war.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 208
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 83%
Oxen (1991)
Plot Summary:
In desperation brought on by near-starvation, Helge Roos kills his master's ox and feeds it to his wife and baby daughter. No-one suspects anything until the meat is finished and Helge tries to sell the hide at a local market. He is spotted by the local vicar and, wracked with guilt, confesses. The vicar assures him that if he gives himself up, he'll be treated leniently, but Helge's sentence is far harsher than anyone predicted.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 979
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway, Denmark
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Neon Bible (1995)
Plot Summary:
While on a train, a teenage boy thinks about his life and the flamboyant aunt whose friendship acted as an emotional shield from his troubled family. This film evokes the haunting quality of memory while creating a heartfelt portrait of a boy's life in a rural 1940s Southern town.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Spain
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: stylized, inspirational, serious, emotional, erotic, southern gothic, independent film, sentimental, atmospheric, thought provoking