Best movies like Ossos
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After a suicidal teenage girl gives birth, she misguidedly entrusts her baby’s safety to the troubled, deadbeat father, whose violent actions take the viewer on a tour of the foreboding, crumbling shantytown in which they live.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France, Denmark
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: contemplative, slow cinema, bleak, philosophical, art house, aesthetic, tense, sincere, serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Ossos (1997):
Similar in 80%
Stray Dogs (2013)
Plot Summary:
A father and his two children wander the margins of modern day Taipei, from the woods and rivers of the outskirts to the rain streaked streets of the city. By day the father scrapes out a meager income as a human billboard for luxury apartments, while his young son and daughter roam the supermarkets and malls surviving off free food samples. Each night the family takes shelter in an abandoned building. The father is strangely affected by a hypnotic mural adorning the wall of this makeshift home. On the day of the father's birthday the family is joined by a woman - might she be the key to unlocking the buried emotions that linger from the past?.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan, France
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, bleak, contemplative, art house, aesthetic, avant garde, masterpiece
Similar in 89%
Almanac of Fall (1984)
Plot Summary:
In this dense setting, the inhabitants of a large, claustrophobic apartment reveal their darkest secrets, fears, obsessions and hostilities.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, intellectual, neo noir, avant garde, powerful, aesthetic, psychological thriller, psychological, tense, bleak
Similar in 85%
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 89%
Freedom (2000)
Plot Summary:
A few fugitives... And a very, very long way to freedom.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 352
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal, Lithuania
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, atmospheric, realistic, slow cinema, aesthetic, stylized, gloomy, avant garde
Similar in 84%
Raven's End (1963)
Plot Summary:
In the middle of this film, about the working class in pre-world war II Sweden, is Anders who wishes to become an author. His father who is a notorious dreamer and liar, and his mother, who struggles to keep their family alive.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Elisa (1995)
Plot Summary:
Marie has had a tough childhood ever since her mother Elisa committed suicide. She has spent most of her life in an orphanage and now makes a living as a small time criminal in Paris. Now she wants to unravel her past and find her father whom she blames for her mother's death.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: anthology, tense, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Just the Wind (2012)
Plot Summary:
Drawing inspiration from the death-squad murders of several Gypsy families in Hungary in 2008, director Bence Fliegauf's chilling and unforgettable real-life horror story follows a family whose dreams of emigration and escape are suddenly, horribly destroyed.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Germany, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, serious, realistic, thought provoking, slow cinema, aesthetic, tense
Similar in 85%
In Vanda's Room (2000)
Plot Summary:
With the intimate feel of a documentary and the texture of a Vermeer painting, In Vanda’s Room takes an unflinching, fragmentary look at a handful of self-destructive, marginalized people, but is centered around the heroin-addicted Vanda Duarte.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, emotional, semi documentary, contemplative, bleak, art house, slow cinema, serious, gloomy
Similar in 75%
A Brother's Kiss (1997)
Plot Summary:
Two brothers, Lex and younger Mick, are living in Harlem. Mick is a policeman, and Lex, who spent youth years in reformatory because of injustice after he confronted the cop who tried to sodomize Mick on the street, is living with his wife Debbie trying to make ends meet and failing. One day Lex calls Mick - he has a problem.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 412
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, rough, bleak, erotic, independent film, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
The Delay (2012)
Plot Summary:
Agustín forgets things; he is aging and he knows it. María is never alone: she watches over everyone, sleeps very little, and works too much. She’s increasingly overwhelmed. One day, on impulse, María decides to abandon Agustín. The tightening grip of old age and the guilt of familial responsibility loom over this absorbing drama from rising director Rodrigo Plá. With an exacting gasp of the internal and external struggles María must endure, Plá explores the challenges of a timeless issue and society’s conflicted responses to life’s central questions. (Hamptons International Film Festival).
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Drama
Country: Uruguay, Mexico, France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
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 89%
Horse Money (2014)
Plot Summary:
While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, touching, emotional, postmodern, contemplative, experimental, art house, independent film, visual
Similar in 78%
Lana's Rain (2002)
Plot Summary:
This powerful, hard-edged crime drama explores the dark side of the American immigrant experience and dares to ask, "How far would you go to survive?" Lana’s only chance to escape the war-torn Balkans is her long-lost brother, Darko, a street-smart gangster with enemies intent on revenge. Isolated at first by her inability to speak English, Lana desperately hopes that she and her brother can achieve the American dream that she can only glimpse. But her illusions are shattered as she is forced to survive by any means possible on the mean streets of Chicago. As she gets pulled deeper and deeper into her brother’s criminal world while a steely determination grows in her heart, Lana must risk her own life to overcome Darko and his pursuers if she hopes to finally realize her dream.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, bleak, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 76%
The Bed You Sleep In (1993)
Plot Summary:
Times are hard for Northwestern lumber-mill operators like Ray and his wife Jean. Ray and Jean's lives are thrown into chaos when their daughter writes home from college.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 285
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: independent film, atmospheric, bleak, serious, realistic, experimental, disturbing, contemplative, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 86%
The Ditch (2010)
Plot Summary:
The film focuses on the suffering of Chinese who were imprisoned in a forced labor camp called Jiabiangou in the Gobi Desert in winter 1960 under Mao Zedong on the grounds that they were "rightist elements". The film tells of the harsh life of these men, who coped with physical exhaustion, extreme cold, starvation and death on a daily basis.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 526
Genere: Drama
Country: Hong Kong, France, Belgium, South Korea, Netherlands
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, disturbing, bleak, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, captivating, realistic, crying
Similar in 75%
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 84%
Gebo and the Shadow (2012)
Plot Summary:
Despite his age and general weariness, Gebo keeps on working as an accountant to provide for his family. He lives with his wife, Doroteia, and his daughter-in-law, Sofia, but it is the absence of João, son and husband, that worries them.Gebo seems to be hiding something, especially to Doroteia, who is anxiously waiting to see her son again. Sofia is also waiting for her husband to come home, and yet she fears him. All of a sudden, João arrives and everything changes..
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 691
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, bleak, suspense, tense, realistic
Similar in 88%
71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994)
Plot Summary:
71 scenes revolving around multiple Viennese residents who are by chance involved with a senseless gun slaughter on Christmas Eve.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria, Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, sincere, thought provoking, serious, tense, art house, intellectual, social, controversial
Similar in 86%
Small Faces (1995)
Plot Summary:
Three teenage brothers, gang-member Bobby, troubled mama's boy Alan and self-assured prankster Lex, reside in a downtrodden section of Glasgow, Scotland, circa 1968. But while Bobby and Alan are beginning to experience the power of raging hormones, the story focuses on Lex, who begins a downward spiral after he accidentally shoots the leader of Bobby's gang. Lex's cockiness and immaturity unfortunately prevent him from understanding the effect his subsequent crimes will have on both himself, and on those around him.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: bleak, realistic, independent film, tense, rough, serious, road movie, thought provoking, clever, brutal
Similar in 86%
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 80%
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 77%
Anne B. Real (2003)
Plot Summary:
ANNE B. REAL is the coming of age story of a young female rapper, who finds her inspiration by reading the Diary of Anne Frank.
IMDB Rating: 2.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Mina Walking (2015)
Plot Summary:
Saddled by a senile grandfather and a neglectful father, Mina, an impulsive twelve-year-old Afghan street seller sees her future slipping away when she is forced to neglect her education and walk the streets of Kabul to support her fragmented family. In the seven days that follow her life, Mina’s quest to emancipate her father from the claws of a local drug dealer and her attempt to secretly attend school underlines the current struggle of a young generation of Afghans trying to shake off the echoes of oppression from the Taliban era that continues to haunt those who bore witness to it.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 90
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Afghanistan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, realistic, rough, social, bleak, serious
Similar in 82%
The Turin Horse (2011)
Plot Summary:
A monumental windstorm and an abused horse's refusal to work or eat signals the beginning of the end for a poor farmer and his daughter.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, France, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 155 min
Plot tags: bleak, atmospheric, slow cinema, contemplative, thought provoking, serious, existential, black and white, art house, experimental
Similar in 80%
Rosetta (1999)
Plot Summary:
Young and impulsive Rosetta lives with her alcoholic mother and, moved by despair, she will do anything to maintain a job.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, bleak, art house, realistic, contemplative, emotional, spiritual, suspense, social, sad
Similar in 90%
It All Starts Today (1999)
Plot Summary:
Set in a forlorn mining town near Valencienne in the north of France, the story is about one man's struggle to bring life to his once prosperous village and its inhabitants. Philippe Torreton, who won a César for Best Actor with his title role in Capitaine Conan, plays Daniel, the head teacher of a nursery school in a town demoralized by unemployment. Daniel is determined against all odds to bring life to the community. When a parent who has come to pick up her children collapses at the school grounds due to alcohol abuse, and social services turns a deaf ear to all pleas for help, Daniel decides to take the law into his own hands. Despite resistance from the townspeople, in the long run his efforts are not fruitless.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: social, sincere, thought provoking, touching, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Aurora (2010)
Plot Summary:
An apartment kitchen: a man and a woman discuss Little Red Riding Hood, their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping next room. Waste land on the city outskirts: behind a line of abandoned trailers, the man silently watches what seems to be a family. The same city, the same man: driving through traffic with two hand-made firing pins for a hunting rifle. The man is 42 years old, his name - Viorel. Troubled by obscure thoughts, he drives across the city to a destination known only to him.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania, France, Switzerland, Germany
Duration: 181 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, bleak, serious, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere, realistic, enigmatic
Similar in 84%
Satantango (1994)
Plot Summary:
Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 439 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, art house, contemplative, black and white, dark comedy, poetic, philosophical, psychedelic, intellectual, depressing
Similar in 90%
Colossal Youth (2006)
Plot Summary:
After the Portuguese government demolishes his slum and relocates him to a housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, 75-year-old Cape Verde immigrant Ventura wanders between his new and old homes, reconnecting with people from his past.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France, Switzerland
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: contemplative, sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, slow cinema, bleak
Similar in 84%
The Promise (1996)
Plot Summary:
In this acclaimed and gripping social portrait of immoral lives in need of rescue, Igor (Jérémie Renier), aged 15, and his father Roger (Olivier Gourmet) deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Tunisia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, slow cinema, inspirational, thought provoking, art house, aesthetic, mesmerizing, tense, touching, serious