Best movies like The Illegal
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After the birth of his first child, Roberto, a young Mexican man slips across the border into the United States. Seeking work to support his family back home, he finds that working hard is not enough.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 751
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, political, suspenseful, independent film, touching, serious, realistic, weird
Best tv shows and movies like The Illegal (1977):
Similar in 85%
On the Line (1984)
Plot Summary:
A Border Patrol agent is determined to catch his old nemesis, an American criminal who successfully smuggles illegal aliens across the border from Mexico.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Spain
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
The Migrants (1974)
Plot Summary:
A look at the lives of migratory farm workers, focusing on one family.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Sometimes a Great Notion (1971)
Plot Summary:
Hank Stamper and his father, Henry, own and operate the family business by cutting and shipping logs in Oregon. The town is furious when they continue working despite the town going broke and the other loggers go on strike ordering the Stampers to stop, however Hank continues to push his family on cutting more trees. Hank's wife wishes he would stop and hopes that they can spend more time together. When Hank's half brother Leland comes to work for them, more trouble starts.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Desdemona: A Love Story (2009)
Plot Summary:
Gil Garcia is at the end of his life. Wounded and bleeding in a church confessional, he tells an unsuspecting Father Wade his tragic story. At a young age, Gil's father takes him to America in search of a better life, forcing him to leave the girl he loves in Mexico. Orphaned shortly after arriving, Gil is taken in by his father's only friend, Dustin, who raises Gil along with his own son, Rod. Fifteen years later, Gil & Rod have yet to find their way in life, still living at home and playing basketball on the streets for money. When cancer overtakes Dustin, they are faced with a funeral bill they cannot afford. Desperately searching for a solution, Rod suggests kidnapping for ransom. Gil knows of the perfect person: a woman married to a wealthy man who would never risk the life of his loved one for the relatively small amount of money in question. But Rod doesn't know the whole truth - the woman is Desdemona, Gil's childhood love from Mexico.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, captivating
Similar in 90%
Visit to a Chief's Son (1974)
Plot Summary:
An American anthropologist and his son benefit from their experiences with an East African tribe.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: independent film, uplifting, touching, offbeat, serious, realistic, learning
Similar in 88%
Men with Guns (1997)
Plot Summary:
Dr. Fuentes is a medical professor approaching his retirement and journeys to find old students, with sometimes disturbing results.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA, Mexico
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: existential, cult classic, tense, thought provoking, clever, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, independent film
Similar in 80%
The North (1983)
Plot Summary:
Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA, UK, Mexico
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, political, realistic, independent film, road movie, spiritual, heartbreaking, sad, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide (2005)
Plot Summary:
A coming-of-age drama set in contemporary Italy.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Italy, France, UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sexy, captivating, melancholic
Similar in 80%
Illegal (2010)
Plot Summary:
Tania, a young Russian woman who lives illegally in Belgium with her 13-year-old son Ivan. Constantly on her guard, she dreads police checks until the day she is arrested.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 936
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, Luxembourg, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, captivating, emotional, political, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Last Flight Out (2004)
Plot Summary:
Hot-shot pilot Dan Hogan is sent deep into the Colombian jungle to rescue missionary doctor Ann Williams. Caught between innocent villagers and a ruthless drug lord, Ann won't abandon the people she has come to love.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: uplifting, serious, emotional, suspenseful, cliffhanger, exciting, realistic, independent film, christian film
Similar in 84%
Chasing Freedom (2004)
Plot Summary:
New York attorney Libby (Juliette Lewis) is a go-getter who won't let anyone stand in the way of her success. But when she accepts a pro bono case involving young Afghan dissident Meena (Layla Alizada), Libby finds her corporate dreams replaced by a growing sense of idealism. Seeking asylum in the United States after years of oppression under the Taliban, Meena desperately wants freedom, and Libby is her only hope. But can Libby deliver?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 415
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, emotional, disturbing, inspirational, informative, sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating
Similar in 83%
Northless (2009)
Plot Summary:
Andres reaches the Mexican border to cross into the United Sates. There between each attempt, he discovers that Tijuana is a troubled city. As he waits there, Andres is not only confronted with his feelings and what he left behind, but also with those he meets.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 366
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 87%
The City (1998)
Plot Summary:
The stories of four Hispanic immigrants living in New York City.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 375
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: black and white, independent film, anthology, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy, neorealism, crying
Similar in 75%
Between Us (2009)
Plot Summary:
Abruptly abandoned by her husband in a country completely foreign to her, Colombian native Mariana (Paola Mendoza) struggles to take care of herself and her two young children on the unforgiving streets of New York City. Sebastian Villada, Laura Montana and Anthony Chisholm also star in this gritty independent drama jointly written and directed by Mendoza and her collaborator Gloria La Morte.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious
Similar in 89%
My Australia (2011)
Plot Summary:
City of Lodz in Poland, after the Second World War. Two brothers, Tadek and Andrzej, grow up without a father, and their mother, so busy at work, does not notice when the boys join a rowdy and anti-Semitic organization.Only when during a fight one of the boys gets hurt, she realizes what is going on. Then she decides to leave Poland together with her family and go to... Australia. At the end of the trip it comes out that the goal was not to reach Australia but Israel. Boys become aware of their and their family roots.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, Poland
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 88%
Here and There (2012)
Plot Summary:
Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the US. He finds his daughters older, and more distant than he imagined. His wife still has the same smile. Having saved some earnings from two trips to the US, he hopes to now finally make a better life with his family, and even to pursue his dreams on the side by starting a band: Copa Kings. He cherishes the everyday moments with his family. The villagers think this year's crop will be bountiful. There is also good work in a growing city an hour away. But the locals are wise to a life of insecurity, and their thoughts are often of family members or opportunities far away, north of the border. While working in the fields, Pedro meets and begins to mentor a teenager who dreams of the US. That place somehow always feels very present, practically knocking at the door. "Aquí y Allá" is a story about hope, and the memories and loss of what we leave behind.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 238
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Spain, Mexico
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, serious, psychological
Similar in 79%
The Blue Butterfly (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, The Blue Butterfly tells the story of a terminally ill 10-year-old boy whose dream is to catch the most beautiful butterfly on Earth, the mythic and elusive Blue Morpho. His mother persuades a renowned entomologist to take them on a trip to the jungle to search for the butterfly, leading to an adventure that will transform their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada, USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, realistic, spiritual
Similar in 89%
America America (1963)
Plot Summary:
A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 174 min
Plot tags: road movie, social, art house, existential, aesthetic, semi autobiographical, atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 88%
Under the Same Moon (2007)
Plot Summary:
Tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Mexico, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, sweet, sincere, sad, controversial, serious, realistic, light
Similar in 88%
Easy Rider: The Ride Back (2012)
Plot Summary:
In this revisionist drama, the film delves into the family lineage of Wyatt Williams, the character made famous by Peter Fonda in the original Easy Rider Movie. Centering around the Williams family, and their internal family struggles throughout the eras of the 40's to present day, as they struggle to connect with one another through the only way they know how. Their love of motorcycles and the freedom of the ride.
IMDB Rating: 2.4
IMDB Votes: 473
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, serious, psychedelic, independent film, avant garde, ridiculous, cult film
Similar in 79%
Smile (2005)
Plot Summary:
Introduced to a volunteer opportunity with the Doctor's Gift Program, Katie (Mika Boorem) signs up for a trip to China, where she meets Lin (Yi Ding), a girl with whom she shares a birthday. Lin has a facial deformity that discourages her from ever showing her face, but her friendship with Katie helps her start to see life in a new way.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA, China
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sincere, sentimental, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, intercultural, inter cultural
Similar in 77%
Eat Sleep Die (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young Eastern European immigrant working in Sweden is faced with a painful choice when she's laid off from her factory in the name of "efficiencies.".
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: realistic, thought provoking, serious, psychological, crying, sincere, touching
Similar in 88%
Patagonia (2010)
Plot Summary:
Patagonia narrates the journeys of two women - one looking for her past, the other for her future. The film inter-cuts between their stories, in which one of them travels south to north through the Welsh springtime and the other east to west through the Argentine autumn.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 628
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Argentina, UK
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: road movie, atmospheric, touching, sincere, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 83%
Journey of Hope (1990)
Plot Summary:
In a village in eastern Turkey, tales of the economic success of Turks in Switzerland inspire Haydar to convince his wife Meryem that they must go. He sells their livestock and small plot of land in exchange for passage for two. He wants to leave their seven children in the care of the eldest and his parents; his father advises him to take one son to be educated in Europe, as economic insurance. The three set off for Istanbul, Milan, and Switzerland, stowing away on a ship. At Lake Como, they pay the rest of their money to unprincipled men who abandon them at an Alpine pass before a blizzard. Father and son are separated from Meryem. Will anyone reach the land of promise?.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Switzerland, Turkey, UK, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sad, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, road movie
Similar in 83%
Follow the River (1995)
Plot Summary:
Mary Ingles is pregnant when she and her two sons are captured from their homestead in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains by Shawnee Indians. Her husband, Will, narrowly escapes death during the attack. Impressed by her grace under the pressure of captivity, Wildcat, the Shawnee chief, confers special privileges on Mary and her children, eventually proposing that Mary become his mate. Surprised by her attraction to the handsome brave, Mary nonetheless opts to remain faithful to Will and engineers a plan for her escape. Separated from her children, Mary joins another female settler, and together they embark on a harrowing homeward trek. Her odyssey comes full circle more than a decade later when she is finally reunited with her long-lost children.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 494
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful, epic
Similar in 86%
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2007)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Mr. Shi, a retired widower from Beijing. When his only daughter, Yilan, who lives in Spokane, Washington and works as a librarian, gets divorced, he decides to visit her to help her heal. However, Yilan is not interested. She tries keeping an emotional distance but when this finally fails she begins physically avoiding her father. He confronts her about an affair with a married Russian man and she, in turn, lets loose about all the gossip she'd heard as a young girl about his alleged affair with a female colleague back in China.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: serious, thought provoking, touching, realistic, emotional, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Almost a Woman (2002)
Plot Summary:
A young woman named Esmeralda and her family move to New York from a rural area of Puerto Rico. The transition is difficult due to the many challenges she and her family face.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 156
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, hispanic
Similar in 78%
...And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him (1994)
Plot Summary:
Twelve-year-old Mexican-American Marcos (Jose Alcala) recalls the hardships of the previous year, reflecting on the arduous trek his migrant-worker family made from Texas to the Midwest during harvest season. Along the way, Marcos learns plenty about the harsh realities of bigotry and the power of family in America of the 1950s. The coming-of-age Chicano drama is based on Tomas Rivera's semiautobiographical 1971 novella.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: independent film, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
Of Mice and Men (1981)
Plot Summary:
George and Lenny travel through the Depression-era west working at odd jobs, hoping to make enough money to buy their own farm. George must always watch over his intellectually disabled friend, and keep him out of danger, both to himself and to others. After they take a new job at a ranch, Lenny gets into far more trouble than George can talk his way out of, leaving George to decide whether to help him, or leave him to his fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 549
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
I Am David (2003)
Plot Summary:
Based on Anne Holm's acclaimed young adult novel North to Freedom, I Am David chronicles the struggles of a 12-year-old boy (Ben Tibber) who manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own -- through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark and a compass to help get him there.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, uplifting, tense, sad, serious, epic, realistic, inspirational