Best movies like The Absent Season
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
When love has to compete with artistic inspiration and memories from a sheltering past come to take the artist to imaginary worlds that exist deep in his mind. This is the story of young Adrian, pianist and composer, in love with his sister and having a romantic relationship with her until she thinks it's time to stop. Adrian becomes overwhelmed by the memories of his grandfather and mentor now dead. Then he falls in love with a young neighbour but she is more real in her imagination than in ordinary daily life. Adrian discovers that is just having fantasies and wants to put an end to his life. But his talent comes in the figure on an ancestor to help him and move on to a meaningful life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 37
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, contemplative, sentimental, captivating, offbeat, serious, realistic, gloomy, sexual
Best tv shows and movies like The Absent Season (2004):
Similar in 78%
The Most Distant Course (2007)
Plot Summary:
Tang (Muo) goes on a trip to Taitung to record the sounds of nature, hoping the tape may save his relationship with his girlfriend who is leaving him. What he does not know, is that she has already moved away and another girl, Yun (Kwai), has moved into that apartment. Yun is trapped in a hopeless love triangle, and troubled by all the issues she faces in life. After listening to the tape that Tang sent, she feels as if the kindness of nature is calling her, and travels to Taitung to find the mysterious man who sends her the tape. On the other hand, Tsai (Chia), a psychiatrist struggling in a failed marriage, suddenly realizes that he needs to let things go after helping a patient with extramarital affairs. He leaves everything behind and goes to Taitung to search for his ex-lover. The three young souls, with different purposes, comes to the coast and search for the meaning of their life, a journey considerably longer than any of them has taken before.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 677
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, touching, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Ploy (2007)
Plot Summary:
A husband and wife are locked inside a single hotel room with a stranger named Ploy. Subtle suspicions build up to jealousy as the young woman triggers devastating consequences for the couple.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Thailand
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, realistic, captivating, tense, mind bending, serious, contemplative, sexual, erotic
Similar in 75%
Blue Blood (2014)
Plot Summary:
Twenty years ago on a volcanic and paradisiacal island a 10-year-old boy was separated from his sister. The mother, fearful that an incestuous attraction would develop between the two, sent her son to the mainland with Kaleb, the magician from the Neptune Circus that had visited the island. On the mainland Kaleb teaches the boy the arts of the circus and the spirit, and the ex islander becomes Zolah, the Bullet Man. Zolah is now back visiting the island with the circus. A parallel between cinema and circus that speaks of the sea, art and love.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 329
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Brazil
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, psychological, captivating, sentimental, serious, realistic, stylized
Similar in 78%
One Perfect Day (2004)
Plot Summary:
Tommy Matisse, a gifted musician, undertakes an odyssey of self-discovery and tragedy in Melbourne's dance music scene.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, serious, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Pretty Things (2001)
Plot Summary:
Lucie, who works as a white-hot fashion model, exhibits a dominant, often controlling, "Type A" personality, whereas identical twin Marie consistently projects a backward, reserved, laconic and unassuming attitude. When Lucie receives a covetable French recording contract, a significant problem stands in her way: the inability to sing. Marie possesses the voice of an angel, however, and quickly jets off to Paris to stand in for her sister, unannounced - little realizing the dangerous and even violent string of consequences that she is igniting.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, suspenseful, stylized, deep, realistic
Similar in 75%
A Useful Life (2010)
Plot Summary:
A movie-theater employee adjusts to a new life after the cinema he worked at for over 25 years is forced to shut down.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Uruguay, Spain
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags: realistic, sentimental, contemplative, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, sincere, uplifting, serious
Similar in 77%
Love Forbidden (2002)
Plot Summary:
Rodolphe Marconi writes, directs, and stars in the coming-out drama Défense d'Aimer (Love Forbidden). Marconi plays Bruce, a young student from Paris who accepts a fellowship in Rome. He takes a flat at the Villa Medicis and writes full time. He eventually meets Italian native Matteo (Andrea Necci) and develops feelings for the man. However, Bruce is confused because Matteo also seems interested in the American student Irene (Irene D'Agostino). Love Forbidden premiered in the U.S. at the 2003 New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, sexy, serious, realistic, stylized, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 78%
1001 Grams (2014)
Plot Summary:
When Norwegian scientist Marie attends a seminar in Paris on the actual weight of a kilo, it is her own measurement of disappointment, grief and, not least, love, that ends up on the scale. Finally Marie is forced to come to terms with how much a human life truly weighs and which measurements she intends to live by.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Germany
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: realistic, contemplative, serious, psychological, captivating, sexy, touching, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Louis (2010)
Plot Summary:
A silent film about Louis Armstrong as a young boy and how he acquired his first cornet.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 224
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, psychological, captivating, sentimental, offbeat, humorous, stylized, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 90%
The Portuguese Nun (2009)
Plot Summary:
A young French actress in Lisbon to shoot a movie is intrigued by a nun she sees kneeling in the chapel where she is filming.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 666
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 78%
The Porcelain Horse (2012)
Plot Summary:
Paco Chavez's life is careless and charming. It's a life of illicit drugs and a forbidden love affair he carries with Lucia, his former high school sweetheart, now married to another man. One night, Paco and his younger brother Luis, enter their parent's home to steal a porcelain horse to pawn in order to score more drugs. Their father catches them and a fight ensues. The consequences of that fight will haunt both brothers forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 261
Genere: Drama
Country: Ecuador
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak
Similar in 83%
Exit: A personal history (2010)
Plot Summary:
A young man travels to Holland for an assisted suicide. The young man was convinced that this was his only way of ending an existence that he considered to lack any dignity.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 22
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: experimental, atmospheric, contemplative, psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, surreal, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Breath (2007)
Plot Summary:
A love story involving a convicted prisoner who "slowly falls for a woman who decorates his prison cell".
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: contemplative, atmospheric, realistic, psychological, captivating, art house, mesmerizing, serious, stylized
Similar in 77%
Adrift (2009)
Plot Summary:
Adrift begins with the wedding of Duyen and Hai. Duyen is a beautiful tourist guide and translator who marries Hai, a taxi driver who is two years her junior. Duyen thinks the marriage will make her happy but it turns out more difficult, especially since her childlike husband is uninterested in her efforts of intimacy and the marriage remains unconsummated. Cam, secretly in love with Duyen, is bitter about the marriage. Cam has Duyen deliver a letter to Tho, a handsome lothario and tourist guide who physically hurls himself on Duyen when she visits his home to deliver the letter. After Tho reports back to Cam that Duyen is sexually inexperienced, Cam diabolically persuades Duyen to take a temporary job as a translator on one of Tho’s beach tours, knowing what will happen. Duyen's time at the beach with Tho results in an affair leading to Duyen's sexual awakening but continued uncertainty about herself, marriage, and life.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 320
Genere: Drama
Country: Vietnam, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, psychological, sexy, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 84%
Inside (2012)
Plot Summary:
A man's life, thoughts, feelings and his very own darkness... Adapted from Dostoevsky's novel "Notes from Undergroud", Demirkubuz follows Muharrem as he gets himself invited to a party where he is not welcome, just to find himself disgusted.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, serious, contemplative, art house, captivating, existential
Similar in 86%
This Is My Body (2001)
Plot Summary:
Gifted student Antoine goes against his family’s wishes and accepts the lead role in a controversial director’s film. He learns that the role had previously been offered to a young man who committed suicide after an on-set affair – and events conspire to draw Antoine towards the same lover.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 213
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Portugal
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
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 79%
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 78%
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 89%
Anita B. (2014)
Plot Summary:
After World War II, Anita, a young survivor of Auschwitz, becomes involved in an intense and passionate affair that almost shatters her until she gains the strength to start a new life.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 356
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Hungary, Czech Republic
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, uplifting, touching, serious, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Milk (2008)
Plot Summary:
A high school graduate, Yusuf could not pass the university entrance exam. Writing poetry is his greatest passion and some of his poems are being printed in various obscure literary journals. But neither these poems, nor the rapidly falling price of the milk they sell, are being of any benefit to Yusuf and Zehra's lives. When Yusuf finds out about Zehra's secret affair with the town's stationmaster he gets disconcerted. Will he find the way to cope with his anxiety for the unknown future, the rapid change that he is going through and the pain of taking a step into adulthood and leaving his youth behind.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, art house, atmospheric, captivating, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere, serious
Similar in 88%
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 89%
In Between Days (2006)
Plot Summary:
A Korean immigrant falls in love with her best friend while navigating her way through the challenges of living in a new country.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 609
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, South Korea, USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, sentimental, contemplative, captivating, depressing, mumblecore, sincere, touching, serious
Similar in 88%
Five Senses of Eros (2009)
Plot Summary:
In this anthology film centered around the theme of "Eros," five seperate stories are presented by five top Korean directors. The main characters from each segment are connected with each other in one way or another.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 469
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, atmospheric, realistic, stylized, anthology, sexy, erotic, sexual
Similar in 85%
Particles of Truth (2003)
Plot Summary:
Life, love, and the fear of failing... Lilli Black, battling her painful memories and the secrets surrounding her dying father, collides into the complicated and obsessive life of Morrison Wiley on the streets of New York City. This peculiar love story exposes Lilli's internal bouts and her nightmarish "bad luck". We weave in and out of eight defective lives and go for a turbulent mental ride where Lilli's reality spirals out of control and we're lead to an unforgettable climax where some fall apart and some piece themselves together.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 587
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 80%
Marathon (2010)
Plot Summary:
Drama by Biju Viswanath, Marathon was adapted from Harteis's memoir of the same name. Explores the relation ship between two poets Richard Harteis and William Meredith former US poet laureate and winner of every major American award for poetry including the 1988 Pulitzer prize.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 58
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, sentimental, gloomy, independent film, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
All the Light in the Sky (2012)
Plot Summary:
An insomniac actress is facing the waning days of her career, when her niece pays a visit to her Malibu house.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 751
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, realistic, atmospheric, serious, captivating, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 84%
2nd Take (2011)
Plot Summary:
Reclusive writer takes aspiring actress under his wing.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 183
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, atmospheric, captivating, touching, serious, gloomy
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%
When the Night (2011)
Plot Summary:
After meeting during their vacation, two young people with solitary lives suddenly come into a relationship that could benefit both of them.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 334
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy