Best movies like The Circle
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like The Circle (2000):
Similar in 89%
Offside (2006)
Plot Summary:
Since women are banned from soccer matches, Iranian females masquerade as males so they can slip into Tehran's stadium to see the game between Iran and Bahrain. The ones who are caught and arrested are taken to a holding area and guarded by soldiers. One sympathetic soldier agrees to watch the game through a peephole and recount the action to the impatient fans.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sport
Country: Iran
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: humorous, political, disturbing, realistic, captivating, dark comedy, inspirational, semi serious, funny, light
Similar in 89%
The Silences of the Palace (1994)
Plot Summary:
The death of a prince brings a young woman back to the palace where she was born into servitude. The lingering legacy of the harem is brought into light from behind frosted windows and velvet curtains.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Tunisia, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: islamic, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Cairo 678 (2010)
Plot Summary:
Deals with the phenomenon of sexual harassment in Egypt. Film depicts the moving story of three women Atfguen in some way or another to address the disturbing fact, the phenomenon can not be overlooked in the Egyptian and Arab street and the suffering of almost daily exposure to a sexual harassment despite their differences.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, social, islamic, sincere, bleak
Similar in 83%
Closed Curtain (2013)
Plot Summary:
A man, his dog, a young woman and a filmmaker in a house by the Caspian Sea. All three are wanted, but they are also in search of each other. Thus begins an absurd game in which reality and fiction merge.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, surreal, disturbing, islamic, mind bending, offbeat, postmodern
Similar in 75%
Bread and Roses (2000)
Plot Summary:
Maya is a quick-witted young woman who comes over the Mexican border without papers and makes her way to the LA home of her older sister Rosa. Rosa gets Maya a job as a janitor: a non-union janitorial service has the contract, the foul-mouthed supervisor can fire workers on a whim, and the service-workers' union has assigned organizer Sam Shapiro to bring its "justice for janitors" campaign to the building. Sam finds Maya a willing listener, she's also attracted to him. Rosa resists, she has an ailing husband to consider. The workers try for public support; management intimidates workers to divide and conquer. Rosa and Maya as well as workers and management may be set to collide.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, political, melancholic, disturbing, sincere, independent film, social, intense, cult classic, crying
Similar in 90%
Two Women (1999)
Plot Summary:
A sensation when released in 1999 in Iran, Two Women charts the lives of two promising architecture students over the course of the first turbulent years of the Islamic Republic. Tahimine Milani creates this scathing portrait of those traditions - aided by official indifference - which conspire to trap women and stop them from realizing their full potential; the inclusion of frank depictions of domestic violence was hailed by many as a breakthrough in dealing with a long taboo subject.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Iran
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: tense, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 76%
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 76%
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 90%
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 79%
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 75%
Women Without Men (2009)
Plot Summary:
Against the tumultuous backdrop of Iran's 1953 CIA-backed coup d'état, the destinies of four women converge in a beautiful orchard garden, where they find independence, solace and companionship.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Ukraine, Morocco, Iran
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, stylized, art house, atmospheric, captivating, contemplative, inspirational
Similar in 75%
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 86%
The Cow (1969)
Plot Summary:
An old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: depressing, art house, islamic, psychological, atmospheric, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
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 79%
Shirin (2008)
Plot Summary:
A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: experimental, atmospheric, contemplative, stylized, emotional, art house, islamic, slow cinema, aesthetic, offbeat
Similar in 78%
Hamoun (1990)
Plot Summary:
Hamoon's wife is leaving him. He is also unsuccessfully trying to finish his Ph.D. thesis. He is forced to reexamine his life. In a series of flashbacks and dreams, Hamoon tries to figure out what he did wrong.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: existential, spiritual, islamic, cult classic, psychological, sentimental, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 84%
Goodbye (2011)
Plot Summary:
Without her husband and without her lawyer’s licence, which has been withdrawn, Noora is left pregnant and alone in her apartment. Her attempt to leave Iran turns into a fight with male chauvinism. A personal, nerve-wracking and infuriating film by Rasoulof, who was himself convicted for his films in Iran. Goodbye is a sober, frightening portrait of a society that is stooping under the continual control and threats of its religious regime. Noora, a young, pregnant lawyer in Tehran whose husband has been sent to work in the desert because of his critical journalistic activities, continually faces opposition from the regime and decides to leave the country. That turns out to be very difficult. Because Rasoulof was already banned from making films, Goodbye was shot partly in secret in the winter of 2010/2011. The result is a disquieting film that makes impotence and the desire for freedom painfully tangible in all its simplicity.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 814
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, thought provoking, contemplative, islamic, bleak, interesting
Similar in 90%
Osama (2003)
Plot Summary:
Teenage girl Osama cuts her hair and dresses like a boy to get a job and support her widowed mother and grandmother. When Osama is called by the Taliban to join school and military training she embarks on a terrifying and confusing journey as she tries to keep the Taliban from finding out her true identity.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Afghanistan, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Iran
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, sincere, bleak, thought provoking, breathtaking, talky, stylized, captivating
Similar in 79%
The Mirror (1997)
Plot Summary:
When a young Iranian's mother doesn't meet her after school, she tries to negotiate the streets of Tehran by herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: inspirational, serious, experimental, neorealism
Similar in 83%
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 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%
Ten (2002)
Plot Summary:
A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: talky, melancholic, light, intense, sincere, thought provoking, touching, realistic, art house, contemplative
Similar in 82%
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 78%
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 81%
The Apple (1998)
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
Similar in 87%
The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008)
Plot Summary:
A drama set in 1986 Iran and centered on a man, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village and enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant had a tragic ending.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, emotional, sexy, touching, serious, political, sad, suspense, intense
Similar in 80%
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 80%
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 86%
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Plot Summary:
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: art house, contemplative, road movie, independent film, philosophical, spiritual, existential, slow cinema, psychological, sincere
Similar in 85%
Where is the Friend's Home? (1987)
Plot Summary:
An 8 year old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Iran
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: social, art house, inspirational, road movie, thought provoking, independent film, islamic, touching, feel good, serious