Best movies like Small Voices
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Melinda is a new substitute teacher at the Malawig Elementary School, located in a poor remote barrio. A young university graduate, her family expects her to look for work abroad, but in her idealism she takes on a challenging job in the provincial public school, which lacks resources and has corrupt personnel. The heavy monsoon rains and the nearby NPAs also add to her difficulties. The children are indifferent to their studies, having been affected by the hopelessness around them. Melinda tries to motivate them by capitalizing on their interest and talent in singing. She takes advantage of a funding opportunity to enter them in a choral contest. She encounters some resistance, however, from the school administration and from the parents of her students. Furthermore, the death of one of the choral group’s members at the hands of the Armed Forces of the Philippines casts a pall on their once joyful preparations. Melinda, however, constantly tries to rise above these challenges.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Small Voices (2002):
Similar in 87%
Spare the Rod (1961)
Plot Summary:
It is London in the year 1960 and John Saunders enthusiastically begins his new teaching career at a tough slum-area school. His class are bored pupils in their last term before leaving. Will he handle the grave problems that lie ahead?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 242
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: independent film, black and white
Similar in 81%
Ramdhanu-The Rainbow (2014)
Plot Summary:
Mitali was a worried mother. This time, once again, her 5 year old son Gogol had failed to pass the admission test in a reputed school. Mitali was determined to get her son admitted into a reputed school. Gogol loved the song of birds, the flight of the kites, the rustling of the leaves, the wide expanse of the blue sky. Laltu Dutta, her husband, owned a chemist's shop. Mitali's desperation worries Laltu & he decide to approach a tout and is willing to pay him a handsome amount for his son's admission. Mitali decides to enroll herself along with Laltu in a school that coaches parents to conduct themselves at interviews. Laltu is very reluctant at first, but finally gives in to his wife's persuasions.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 313
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Birth of a Nation (1983)
Plot Summary:
A new teacher at a highly problematic comprehensive school feels that corporal punishment may just be inflaming the problems, and so begins to campaign against it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
A Thousand Months (2003)
Plot Summary:
1981, Morocco. A village in the Atlas mountains. A city in the distance. A child. A family facing its destiny.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, Morocco, Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Evergreen Tree (1961)
Plot Summary:
Yeong-shin (played by the Choi Eun-hee–Shin Sang-ok’s wife) and Dong-hyeok (Shin Yeong-gyun) graduate from college with a cause. They plan to bring education and modernization to farmers living in the rural area of their birth. When they arrive, the pair immediately gets to work, Dong-hyeok builds a village hall and starts aiding the farmers while Yeong-shin tries to gather the children to form a school. However, the villagers at first resent and resist the pair. It is not until one child, Ok-bun, takes the inititive and and learns to read under Yeong-shin’s care that the villages trust the pair and allow their children to be taken from the fields and taught reading, writing and math.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
The Evening Dress (2009)
Plot Summary:
Like many of her classmates, 12 year old tomboy Juliette has a crush on Mrs. Solenska, a teacher distinguished by stylish attire and an uninhibited, provocative classroom demeanor. Juliette's fascination turns into all-consuming obsession, forcing revelations from both the girl and her teacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Minor (2013)
Plot Summary:
High school student Jen Guilarman lives in misery with her abusive mother and her mom's lesbian lover. Looking for some escape, she aims to join an all-girl gang which first requires her to undergo a sexual rite. Jen only has one man in mind, and that is her teacher Ariel Basco who has always been sympathetic with her. Suddenly, Jen cries rape and gets her teacher arrested. But behind her tragic fate is a dark truth.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sexy, touching, unusual plot structure, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Elementary (2016)
Plot Summary:
Florence is a school teacher devoted to her students. When she encounters young Sacha, a child with problems, she will do everything she can to help him, even to the point of neglecting her own children, her own life, and of questioning her vocation. Little by little Florence realizes that we learning has no age limit.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 516
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Come Home Raquel (2011)
Plot Summary:
Raquel, a 13 year old living in Queens, NY, struggles to make sense of her life after the deportation of her parents. Things quickly change upon the arrival of a new teacher and the return of her young uncle.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 41
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, tense, sincere, captivating, contemplative
Similar in 83%
The Red and the Blue (2012)
Plot Summary:
The story of a teacher and his students, set in an Italian high school.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 738
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing
Similar in 88%
All the Little Things We Kill (2019)
Plot Summary:
A college professor takes her students hostage to force the passage of a bill that bans semi-automatic weapons.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 67
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating
Similar in 89%
One for All (2020)
Plot Summary:
A substitute teacher takes on a job as a year 6 class teacher in a village he does not know. He has to help a student adjust back into school, although none of his classmates want him there.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 733
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, social
Similar in 79%
Clockwork Mice (1995)
Plot Summary:
When new teacher Steve Drake joins the faculty at a school for special-needs students, his unorthodox instruction methods raise eyebrows. But attitudes begin to change when he makes a connection with a particularly unruly student.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 82%
The Violation of Sarah McDavid (1981)
Plot Summary:
Sarah McDavid, an idealistic young teacher, takes a job in a rough high school where she is eventually attacked and raped in her classroom after school hours and decides to buck the school system in an attempt to make schools safer for students and teachers alike, against the advice of the school's principal, Dr. Keys, who tries to gloss over the hazardous conditions and the incident itself to avoid bad publicity and decreased enrollment.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Not One Less (1999)
Plot Summary:
Teacher Gao loves the students in his poor village and is devoted to educating them in the hope of their greater futures. When he is called away to tend to his dying mother for a month, the Mayor calls in an inexperienced 13 year-old replacement, Wei Minzhi; much to Teacher Gao's dismay. Teacher Gao cannot stand the thought of losing anymore students: he has already lost twelve to ever-increasing attrition, and he promises Wei an extra 10 yuan if she succeeds in ensuring that upon his return, there will be not one less. Wei's difficult mission to fulfill Teacher Gao's wish and her own concern for the welfare of the children begins.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: inspirational, road movie, touching, realistic, sad, art film, informative, sincere, feel good, humorous
Similar in 78%
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 90%
The Class (2008)
Plot Summary:
Teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: sincere, melancholic, psychological, realistic, talky, independent film, political, art house, mesmerizing, intellectual
Similar in 82%
Behavior (2014)
Plot Summary:
Meet Chala, an eleven year-old boy with a hard life and strong respect for Carmela, his sixth grade teacher. The pair develops a solid bond, but after Carmela suffers an accident, things get complicated….
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Cuba
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, inspirational, bleak, biting, suspense
Similar in 87%
Up the Down Staircase (1967)
Plot Summary:
Sylvia Barrett is a rookie teacher at New York's inner-city Calvin Coolidge High: her lit classes are overcrowded, a window is broken, there's no chalk, books arrive late. The administration is concerned mainly with forms and rules (there's an up and and a down staircase); bells ring at the wrong time. Nevertheless, she tries. How she handles the chaos and her despair in her first semester makes up the film: a promising student drops out, another sleeps through class, a girl with a crush on a male teacher gets suicidal, and a bright but troublesome student misunderstands Sylvia's reaching out. A discussion of Dickens, parents' night, and a mock trial highlight the term. Can she make it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: esoteric, independent film, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Won't Back Down (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two determined mothers, one a teacher, look to transform their children's failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, realistic, serious, emotional, inspirational
Similar in 89%
To Sir, with Love (1967)
Plot Summary:
Idealistic engineer-trainee and his experiences in teaching a group of rambunctious white high school students from the slums of London's East End.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, educational, sentimental, realistic, social, retro, political, hood, black and white
Similar in 75%
Knights of the South Bronx (2005)
Plot Summary:
A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, spiritual
Similar in 75%
Half Nelson (2006)
Plot Summary:
Despite his dedication to the junior-high students who fill his classroom, idealistic teacher Dan Dunne leads a secret life of addiction that the majority of his students will never know. But things change when a troubled student Drey makes a startling discovery of his secret life, causing a tenuous bond between the two that could either end disastrously or provide a catalyst of hope.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 91000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: depressing, independent film, talky, emotional, serious, inspirational, feel good, melancholic, intense, indie film
Similar in 83%
Lean on Me (1989)
Plot Summary:
When principal Joe Clark takes over decaying Eastside High School, he's faced with students wearing gang colors and graffiti-covered walls. Determined to do anything he must to turn the school around, he expels suspected drug dealers, padlocks doors and demands effort and results from students, staff and parents. Autocratic to a fault, this real-life educator put it all on the lin.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: inspirational, feel good, hood, realistic, motivational, political, non fiction, sincere, atmospheric, rough
Similar in 79%
Phoebe in Wonderland (2008)
Plot Summary:
The fantastical tale of a little girl who won't - or can't - follow the rules. Confounded by her clashes with the rule-obsessed world around her, Phoebe seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher, even as her brilliant but anguished mother looks to Phoebe herself for inspiration.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, emotional, sincere, sad, uplifting, thought provoking, depressing, spiritual, atmospheric
Similar in 76%
Gifted (2017)
Plot Summary:
Frank, a single man raising his child prodigy niece Mary, is drawn into a custody battle with his mother.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 127000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, emotional, sweet, light, entertaining, scenic, sad, motivational, offbeat
Similar in 89%
Conrack (1974)
Plot Summary:
A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: deep, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
The Ron Clark Story (2006)
Plot Summary:
Matthew Perry is real-life inspiration Ron Clark, a passionate and innovative teacher who leaves his small hometown to teach in one of Harlem's toughest schools. But to break through to this students, Clark must use unconventional methods, including his ground-breaking classroom rules, to drive them toward their potential.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, inspirational, touching, teen, indie film, learning
Similar in 87%
Detachment (2011)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: depressing, psychological, bleak, thought provoking, touching, sad, independent film, serious, inspirational, emotional
Similar in 77%
The Emperor's Club (2002)
Plot Summary:
William Hundert is a passionate and principled Classics professor who finds his tightly-controlled world shaken and inexorably altered when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, walks into his classroom. What begins as a fierce battle of wills gives way to a close student-teacher relationship, but results in a life lesson for Hundert that will still haunt him a quarter of a century later.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, inspirational, emotional, contemplative, sincere, serious, educational, philosophical, feel good