Best movies like The 40th Door
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Fourteen-year-old Rustam lives with his mother in a village; his father was killed by the Russian mafia. After his father's death, Rustam tries to provide for himself and his mother without resorting to illegal money-making schemes. But his dream is to join a music band. The title of the film refers to an Azerbaijani fairy tale about saving a princess from a house with 40 doors; no one has succeeded in opening the last door, and thus its secret remains hidden. The villagers have named their village the 40th door as well.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: Azerbaijan
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: fairy tale
Best tv shows and movies like The 40th Door (2009):
Similar in 80%
A Long Journey (1967)
Plot Summary:
A child from the slums of Santiago tours the city.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile, Argentina
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: neorealism
Similar in 81%
Mai Ratima (2012)
Plot Summary:
Actor Yoo Ji-Tae’s directorial debut feature film is one part melodrama, one part comingof-age story about Soo-young, a miserable thirtysomething man and Mai-Ratima, a 22-year-old Thai girl who accepts a mail order marriage in order to realize her Korean Dream. Into their relationship comes Young-jin, a hostess, slowly turning it into a love triangle.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 72
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: erotic
Similar in 84%
Special Education (1977)
Plot Summary:
Educator and those educated in a home for juvenile delinquents in the same test: approach, take a peek into his soul to become a man. The story of a minor, neglected boys-offenders and their teachers who try to reject the old methods of rehabilitation.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: educational
Similar in 90%
What the Sun Has Seen (2006)
Plot Summary:
Three strangers living in Silesia - a 12-year-old half-orphan, a musically talented girl and a middle-aged unemployed ex-miner - are all desperate to get money to make their small dreams come true.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
The Magic (1995)
Plot Summary:
Tunisia's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1995.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 38
Genere: Drama
Country: Tunisia, Algeria
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Born Equal (2006)
Plot Summary:
Four characters living in one neighborhood in London - all living dramatically different lives, all of them on the edge - see their stories unfold.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 585
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Our House (2006)
Plot Summary:
A lonely socialite (Roberts) opens up her mansion to homeless people after a young woman (Reyes) saves her life.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 422
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: powerful
Similar in 76%
A Summer at Grandpa's (1984)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age story about a young brother and sister whom spend a pivotal summer in the country with their grandparents.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Used Parts (2007)
Plot Summary:
Ivan, a 14-year old boy, lives with his uncle Jaime, a mediocre dealer of used car parts. Both of them dream with a better life and are stashing away their money in order to emigrate ilegally to Chicago shortly. When Jaime realizes that he needs much more money than he expected in order to pay the "Coyote" that will help them cross the border, he decides to introduce his nephew into the world of car-part theft. Ivan learns quickly the know-how of his new trade and convinces Efrain, his best friend, to help him. The kids enjoy themselves together and carry out Jaime's orders skilfully until Ivan realizes that his uncle's intentions for the trip have changed since they first made their plans.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
The Mutants (1998)
Plot Summary:
The Mutants (Portuguese: Os mutantes) is a 1998 Portuguese film by director Teresa Villaverde, starring Ana Moreira and Alexandre Pinto. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 645
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: bleak
Similar in 87%
The Hidden Child (2021)
Plot Summary:
Gabriele Santoro is a Professor of Pianoforte at the Music Conservatory San Pietro a Majella who lives in a working-class area of the city. One morning, while shaving his beard, the postman buzzes at the intercom to tell him he has a package. Gabriele opens the door and, before greeting him, runs to rinse his face. In that short space of time, a ten-year-old child slips into his apartment and hides away. “The maestro” – as he’s called in his neighbourhood – only notices the stowaway late at night. And when he sees him, he recognises the intruder as Ciro, a child who lives with his parents and siblings on the top floor of his building. When asked why he has fled his home, Ciro refuses to speak. Nevertheless, the maestro instinctively decides to hide him in his home, setting Ciro’s enemies a uniquely difficult challenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 330
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Catch (2020)
Plot Summary:
A troubled woman returns to her estranged family in coastal Maine. With her lobsterman father caught up in a turf war at sea, she and an ex-boyfriend make plans to hijack local drug runners. As their desperation mounts, each character makes increasingly compromised and morally dubious decisions that threaten their way of life and their loved ones.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 172
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspenseful, thrilling
Similar in 82%
James the Second (2023)
Plot Summary:
The story of a teenage boy who suffers from a rare disorder that prevents him from feeling. We follow the journey of a single mother going through her son's physical and emotional changes.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Father (1966)
Plot Summary:
The beginning shows Hungary devastated by the war and the postwar reconstruction with its communist government. Our hero (played first by Dániel Erdély and later, as a young man, by András Bálint) is clearly determined to find out what he can about his father who died young. All he knows is that he was a doctor and perhaps he was an honored victim of fascism. He never really finds out but his relationship with his mother, his friends and his Jewish girlfriend will make him totally independent of this need to find all about Apa or Father.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Good Bye, Southern City (2006)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku at the end of the 1980s. At this time, the Soviet Union was starting to fall apart, and with this came the start of a number of ethnic conflicts. Fariz and his family move into a Baku apartment block from war-torn Nagorno-Karabakh. Fariz's relations with his new neighbors are strained by his accusations that it was people like them who failed to support the Azeris in their conflict with ethnic Armenians. The only one who stands up to him is Alik, who acts as peacemaker between him and the older inhabitants of the building. Alik has no reservations about brandishing his gun in order to keep the peace. One day, the apartment managers want to evict a number of musicians who have been squatting in the basement. Alik gets involved, but soon discovers the situation is more complicated that he first believed.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia, Azerbaijan
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Handsome Priest (1989)
Plot Summary:
A young petty thief befriends the local priest.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 72
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Babai (2015)
Plot Summary:
10-year-old Nori is obliged to grow up at a very young age after the early death of his mother and then being abandoned by his father Gezim in the Kosovo of the 1990s.After a dangerous and eventful journey, Nori finally arrives in Germany and is reunited with his father, but he cannot understand how Gezim could just have left him. And chances of them being able to stay in Germany look bleak when Gezim’s application for asylum is rejected.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 589
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Kosovo, France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, tense, suspenseful, art house
Similar in 80%
Ashik Kerib (1988)
Plot Summary:
Wandering minstrel Ashik Kerib falls in love with a rich merchant's daughter, but is spurned by her father and forced to roam the world for a thousand and one nights - but not before he's got the daughter to promise not to marry till his return. It's told in typical Paradjanov style, in a series of visually ravishing 'tableaux vivants' overlaid with Turkish and Azerbaijani folksongs.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: spiritual, art house, surreal, fairy tale, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, allegory
Similar in 86%
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 77%
A Borrowed Life (1994)
Plot Summary:
Sega's children, born into post-war Chinese rule, can't relate to their father's love for Japanese culture, having grown up under Japanese rule before WWII.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 167 min
Plot tags: family saga, period drama
Similar in 82%
Kinshasa Kids (2012)
Plot Summary:
Perhaps the most ebullient “musical” you’ll see this year, Marc-Henri Wajnberg’s singular documentary/fiction hybrid follows a group of street children in the Congolese capital.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 136
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 89%
Child Murders (1993)
Plot Summary:
A melodrama about children, the child murders that the film’s title refers to are the million and one ways that children’s souls are ravaged by neglect, unkindness and cruelty, even though several physical deaths take place in the story.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 140
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: thought provoking
Similar in 83%
There Was a Little Boy (1993)
Plot Summary:
Julie and Gregg are about to become parents again, but they feel conflicted since their first child was kidnapped and never seen again. But the couple soon faces an even bigger shock. Julie's new bad-boy (really bad-boy) student may actually be her long-lost son! Based on Claire R. Jacobs's book.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 292
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
All We Had (2016)
Plot Summary:
A mother struggles to make a better life for her daughter.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
The Demons (2015)
Plot Summary:
A ten year old boy, prone to excessive worry, begins to succumb to his anxiety as a string of child abductions plague his town.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: stylized, weird
Similar in 84%
Comme des rois (2017)
Plot Summary:
not available.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 191
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Ballast (2008)
Plot Summary:
A single mother and her embattled son struggle to subsist in a small Mississippi Delta township. An act of violence thrusts them into the world of an emotionally devastated highway store owner, awakening the fury of a bitter and longstanding conflict.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, psychological, emotional, captivating, suspense, southern gothic, sentimental, sincere, bleak
Similar in 88%
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 84%
The Devils (2002)
Plot Summary:
Les Diables (The Devils) chronicles the struggle of an autistic girl and her brother trying to survive without their parents.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Spain
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: disturbing, captivating, emotional, realistic, bleak, serious, weird
Similar in 82%
Jack (2014)
Plot Summary:
Although he is only ten years old, Jack is responsible for himself and his little brother Manuel and this fills him with pride. Their single mother works during the day and often goes out at night. There’s no father in sight. One day, Manuel burns himself with boiling hot water while bathing and Jack is blamed for the incident. It's reason enough for social services to put him in a home where he is dreadfully homesick. He soon gets into trouble and bolts, heading for home. He arrives back, only to find his mother is once again absent. Jack and Manuel roam the city in search of her. They sleep in parks and in an underground car park, run away from the police and encounter adults, some of whom help and others who are indifferent.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, touching, captivating, serious, social, gloomy