Best movies like The Apple
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France, Netherlands
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: compassionate, sincere, thought provoking, serious, art house, sentimental, touching, captivating, emotional, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like The Apple (1998):
Similar in 80%
Hold Back (2012)
Plot Summary:
Paris, today. Dorcy, a young black Christian, wants to marry Sabrina, a young North African. It what would be a simple matter if it weren't for the fact that Sabrina has 40 brothers and that this easygoing wedding has crystallized a taboo still rooted in the mentalities of the two communities: no marriages between Blacks and Arabs. Slimane, the elder brother, and guardian of traditions, will oppose this union in every way possible.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 233
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, tense, thought provoking
Similar in 80%
The Wild Child (1970)
Plot Summary:
Director François Truffaut makes a rare on-screen appearance in one of his most unusual films. Based on a true story, the film follows the discovery of a feral child (Jean-Pierre Cargol) who's grown up wild in the forest in late-18th-century France. Truffaut plays Dr. Jean Itard, the deaf specialist who tries to civilize the boy, teaching him to walk, speak and read; the screenplay was adapted from Itard's writings.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, black and white, social, intelligent, historical drama, anthropological, tense, clever, serious
Similar in 89%
Inheritance (2012)
Plot Summary:
A Palestinian family living in the north of Galilee gathers to celebrate the wedding of one of their daughters, as war rages between Israel and Lebanon. Internal conflicts explode between the family - secrets are revealed and lies are unmasked. The battles between different family members become as merciless as the outside war once their father falls into a coma and inches toward death.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 148
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Israel
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 77%
Tales (2014)
Plot Summary:
Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Rakshan Banietemad ends her eight-year hiatus from feature filmmaking with this ingenious, mosaic-like narrative, which knits together the stories of seven characters to create a microcosm of Iranian working-class society.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: realistic, emotional, psychological, captivating, sincere, touching, bleak, serious, gloomy, surprise ending
Similar in 78%
The Cyclist (1989)
Plot Summary:
The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: islamic, psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
The Hidden Half (2001)
Plot Summary:
An official is sent from his home in Tehran to hear the final appeal of a woman sentenced to death, a political prisoner. The official's wife of nearly 20 years, Fereshteh Samimi, writes him a letter to read when he reaches the hotel - the story of her student days during the revolution of 1978. We see the story in flashbacks as he reads: she leaves her province on scholarship, joins a Communist youth group, avoids arrest, and comes under the sway of a suave older man, Roozbeh Javid, a literary-magazine editor. As she tells her husband about the hidden half of her life, Fereshteh asks that he listen to the woman facing execution, a woman and therefore one of Iran's hidden half.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 866
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, islamic, realistic, contemplative, intellectual
Similar in 82%
A Minor Leap Down (2015)
Plot Summary:
Nahal is around thirty and in her fourth month of pregnancy. During a routine check-up she learns that her baby has died and she now faces a curettage abortion in two days’ time. When she tries to address the subject, neither her mother nor her husband give her a chance to speak.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The Day I Became a Woman (2000)
Plot Summary:
A girl reaches the age of nine and is supposed to act as a grown woman according to her family. A girl participates in a bike race against the will of her husband. An elderly woman decides she wants to buy all the things she always wanted but could never get.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: touching, talky, stylized, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, entertaining, allegory
Similar in 79%
Iron Island (2005)
Plot Summary:
Squatters live on a mothballed oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. The children attend a school on board; men harvest scrap metal and old oil in the hull; women keep house and raise children and Captain Nemat runs it all with an iron hand. We follow a lad who rescues fish trapped in the hull, an old man who stares at the sun, the idealistic teacher, and Ahmad, the Captain's assistant who has fallen in love with a young woman whose father wants to marry her to someone of means. What future has this sinking city?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 980
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, atmospheric, offbeat, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Kandahar (2001)
Plot Summary:
After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: sincere, surreal, disturbing, bleak, tense, atmospheric, depressing, lyrical, road movie, talky
Similar in 86%
Kamchatka (2002)
Plot Summary:
The movie show us how life was in Argentina for dissident people, in the seventies, under the military government.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, Spain, Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, political, touching
Similar in 75%
Mississippi Damned (2009)
Plot Summary:
Three poor Black kids in rural Mississippi reap the consequences of their family's cycle of abuse, addiction, and violence.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 988
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, touching, emotional, informative, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 83%
Silent Waters (2003)
Plot Summary:
Ayesha is a widow with a secret past, living with her beloved son Saleem in a small town in Pakistan close to the Indian border. When the fires of Islamic nationalism invade their tranquil lives, Saleem and a few of the town's other young men are soon gripped by a religious fervour, and they attempt to bring radical Islamic law to their friends and neighbours. After a group of Sikh pilgrims arrive in town, tensions reach boiling point as Ayesha's haunted past comes rushing back.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Pakistan, France, Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic, poignant
Similar in 88%
The Sex of the Stars (1993)
Plot Summary:
Every child who has lost a parent early in life (whether due to death or the separations of divorce or for any other reason) longs to see that parent again. Many have kept up a running dialogue in their heads of things they would say to them if they ever see them again, and many of these things are bitter indeed. In this story, Camille (Marianne-Coquelicot Mercier is such a child. Her father (Denis Mercier) left years before, and now she is thirteen. Stargazing appeals to her as a hobby because "stars have no sex." Surprisingly, her father does reappear, but now he is a "she." This casts a pall over their reunion, and Camille is forced to come to terms with her new father, and cannot renew a relationship with the man who (in his view at least) never was. Her mother (Sylvie Drapeau), however, is not about to be easily reconciled to this transformation. This story is based on a novel by Monique Proulx, a relative to the better known Annie Proulx.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 81%
When Andrew Came Home (2000)
Plot Summary:
A mother searches for five years to find her kidnapped son in this fact-based drama. Unexpectedly the boy is found, but the reunion is not as she hoped. She now has to deal with five years of abuse that the boy suffered at the hands of his kidnappers.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 657
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sad
Similar in 86%
Maya (2001)
Plot Summary:
MAYA is a coming of age story set against an outlawed brutal practice of ritual rape still occurring in some parts of India.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, sincere, emotional, grim, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 88%
A Brand New Life (2009)
Plot Summary:
Young Jinhee is taken by her father to an orphanage near Seoul. He leaves her there never to return, and she struggles to come to grips with her fate. Jinhee desperately believes her father will come back for her and take her on a trip. The film is based on the experiences of the director, an ethnic Korean who was adopted by a French couple in the 1970s.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, South Korea
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, captivating, emotional, inspirational, sad, poignant
Similar in 89%
Boutique (2004)
Plot Summary:
A clothing store worker (Jahan) meets a poor girl named Eti. Jahan tries to help the girl and solve her problems, but….
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, realistic, neo noir, islamic, emotional, gloomy
Similar in 83%
The Circle (2000)
Plot Summary:
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, Italy, Switzerland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, harsh, atmospheric, sincere, contemplative, thought provoking, spiritual, avant garde, art house
Similar in 79%
The Deserted Station (2002)
Plot Summary:
On a pilgrimage to Mashad from Tehran, a couple's transportation breaks down, far from any major town. The husband, a photographer, seeks help at a nearby village and encounters a teacher who offers to help. Whilst the husband and teacher go off to find a spare part, the wife, who used to be a teacher, takes over the teaching lessons in the village. It is clear that the children live there, in this strange deserted place, without any men, save the teacher and an old signal guard. As the day draws on, the children help to bring a new hope and life into the wife's heart.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 649
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, serious, islamic, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 87%
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Plot Summary:
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: philosophical, melancholic, thought provoking, touching, serious, contemplative, art house, cerebral, compassionate, slow cinema
Similar in 84%
A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Plot Summary:
After their father dies, a family of five are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq. Matters are made worse when 12 year old Ayoub, the new head of the family, is told that his handicapped brother, Madi, needs an immediate operation in order to remain alive. This heartbreaking tale shows the lengths to which a family will go in order to survive in the harshest of conditions, where even the horses are fed liquor in order to work.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: realistic, bleak, meditative, emotional, harsh, sincere, rough, serious, inspirational, political
Similar in 79%
The Willow Tree (2005)
Plot Summary:
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, touching, captivating, inspirational, emotional, islamic, thought provoking, serious, beautiful
Similar in 87%
20 Fingers (2004)
Plot Summary:
A film in several episodes with Bijan Daneshmand and Mania Akbari, exposing some of the issues of men and women within the confines of tradition and family life in Iran. Each episode displays a different form of male/female interaction. The placing of the actors in a moving vehicle or against a moving back drop signifies the movement of life despite all the obstacles in its way. The film deals with the roots of dependencies, limitations, power struggles and conflict that are the familiar stuff of life of couples in the Middle East.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 485
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, clever, contemplative, talky, sexual, islamic, sexy
Similar in 82%
Under the Skin of the City (2001)
Plot Summary:
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, islamic, masterpiece
Similar in 86%
At Five in the Afternoon (2003)
Plot Summary:
Nogreh is a young Afghani woman living with her father and her sister-in-law, Leylomah, whose husband, Akhtar, is missing. Beyond the issue of Akhtar, Leylomah is most concerned with how to feed her baby. She cannot provide milk for her baby as her own hunger is preventing her from lactating. Nogreh, however, aspires toward a life in a western styled democracy. Although the Taliban are no longer in power in Afghanistan, traditional forces are still active in the country. Nogreh often displays signs of rebellion, such as wearing a pair of white pumps instead of the traditional slipper beneath her burqa. But mostly, Nogreh wants to be educated. Without her father's knowledge, Nogreh is attending a secular girls school. Ultimately, she wants to become President of Afghanistan. With the help of a Pakistani refugee who likes her as a woman, Nogreh tries to understand exactly what forces led to current world leaders being elected, those forces which she wants to emulate.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, sincere, touching, realistic, art house, emotional, masterpiece
Similar in 87%
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%
Sisters (2009)
Plot Summary:
Lyon, France in 1970s, Sibylle, Corinne, and Georgette are sisters who share everything, as they live with their Italian mother. Sibylle is the only blonde in the family, except for their father who abandoned them, and she feels isolated. She dreams of meeting her French father one day.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 87%
My Father My Lord (2007)
Plot Summary:
"My Father My Lord" is an intimate and deeply disturbing story of the conflict between a father's love and his deep devotion to religion. A respected Orthodox Rabbi dotes on his only son but his religious strictures leave an emotional gap between the impish child and the stern father. When the father's all-consuming obsession with observing religious ritual inadvertently leads to tragedy, his previously subservient wife rages against both her husband and God. A dramatic retelling of the story of Abraham.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 492
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, emotional, captivating, sad, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Nell (1994)
Plot Summary:
In a remote woodland cabin, a small town doctor discovers Nell - a beautiful young hermit woman with many secrets.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: touching, psychological, sentimental, emotional, compassionate, serious, sincere, realistic, sad, anamorphic