Best movies like The Lesson
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An honest, hard-working schoolteacher in a small Bulgarian town is driven to desperate measures to avoid financial ruin.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Bulgaria, Greece
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, spiritual, independent film, touching, no music
Best tv shows and movies like The Lesson (2014):
Similar in 75%
Glory (2016)
Plot Summary:
When Tsanko Petrov, a railroad worker, finds millions of lev on the train tracks, he decides to turn the entire amount over to the police. Grateful, the state rewards him with a new wristwatch… which soon stops working. Meanwhile, Julia Staikova, the head of PR for the Ministry of Transport, loses his old watch. Here starts Petrov’s desperate struggle to get back not only his old watch, but his dignity.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Bulgaria, Greece
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: social, art house
Similar in 84%
Going Away (2013)
Plot Summary:
Two unlikely friends — a supply teacher and a lonely young boy suspended between two estranged parents — embark on a weekend motorcycle voyage full of surprises and unforeseen consequences in this surprisingly tough, unsentimental drama.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 920
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, touching, serious, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Umbrella (2016)
Plot Summary:
Alexander Way, a secondary school teacher with a fractured personal life, finds himself attempting to rescue a woman from a violent sexual attack. Alexander finds himself overpowered, beaten & taken to hospital. Jesiah Jarvus, a famous British musician who is frequently touring, has lost his goal in life. Having not spoken with his father in over 20 years, troubling news offers them the chance to reconcile & move forward in both their lives. Theodore Smith attempts to bury the sadness that threatens to engulf his childhood upon hearing the news that his parents will be separating. Elethea Conall, a newly qualified nurse, continues to look after her patients whilst attempting to escape from her past. What do they all have in common?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 16
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, touching, captivating, independent film
Similar in 77%
Not Yet (1993)
Plot Summary:
This film tells the story of professor Uehida Hyakken-sama (1889-1971), in Gotemba, around the forties. He was a university professor until an air raid, when he left to become a writer and has to live in a hut. His mood has hardly changed, not by the change nor by time.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: emotional, epic, independent film, psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sentimental
Similar in 82%
Ave (2011)
Plot Summary:
While hitchhiking from Sofia to Ruse, Kamen meets Avé, a 17-year-old runaway girl. With each ride they hitch, Avé invents new identities for them, and her compulsive lies get Kamen deeper and deeper into trouble. Reluctantly drawn into this adventure, Kamen begins to fall in love with the fleeting Avé.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Bulgaria
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: road movie, captivating, serious, realistic, psychological, independent film, sincere, touching, offbeat
Similar in 85%
One for All (2020)
Plot Summary:
A substitute teacher takes on a job as a year 6 class teacher in a village he does not know. He has to help a student adjust back into school, although none of his classmates want him there.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 733
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, social
Similar in 79%
The Forest for the Trees (2003)
Plot Summary:
As an awkward idealistic high school teacher begins her first job in the city, things turn out to be much tougher than she had imagined.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, serious, emotional, mumblecore, sad, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Stolen Spring (1993)
Plot Summary:
At their 25th high-school anniversary some bourgeois citizens remember their time in school as a happy one. In reality it was quite the contrary. The school was a madhouse in which the teachers, especially Blomme, tormented the students. As a result one of them became a murderer.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
Clockwork Mice (1995)
Plot Summary:
When new teacher Steve Drake joins the faculty at a school for special-needs students, his unorthodox instruction methods raise eyebrows. But attitudes begin to change when he makes a connection with a particularly unruly student.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 333
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 84%
All Is Forgiven (2007)
Plot Summary:
Victor lives in Vienna with Annette, his beautiful Austrian wife and their daughter Pamela. It’s spring. Fleeing his work, Victor spends his days outside: he plays with Pamela, pays a visit to Annette’s parents, loiters in the park with the drug dealers. Very much in love, Annette is confident that he’ll get a hold of himself as soon as they return to Paris. But back in France, Victor relapses into his bad habits. After a violent dispute, Victor moves into the room of a junkie he has fallen in love with. Annette leaves Victor and disappears with Pamela. 11 years later: Pamela is 17. She lives in Paris with her mother. One day, she learns that her father lives in the same city. She decides to see him again. –Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 956
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, sincere, serious, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Who Saw Him Die? (1968)
Plot Summary:
Sören Mårtensson is a middle school teacher. His classroom occupied by half-grown children. His work is tormenting him and at night he is haunted by nightmares.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 635
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, sincere, mind bending, bleak, serious, realistic, weird
Similar in 79%
The Invisible Eye (2010)
Plot Summary:
Spying on her students, a teacher finds an exciting hobby.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 841
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France, Spain
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, psychological, captivating, sincere, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Class Enemy (2013)
Plot Summary:
Relations between the students and the new teacher of German are extremely tense. When one female student commits suicide, her schoolmates blame the teacher for her death. An awareness that things are not quite so black and white comes too late.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Slovenia
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, educational, psychological, tense
Similar in 89%
Stay (2013)
Plot Summary:
A woman finds out she's pregnant and returns home when the expected father wants nothing to do with her.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 819
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, Ireland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating, teen, sincere
Similar in 80%
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 83%
Future Weather (2012)
Plot Summary:
Abandoned by her dreamer single mom, a teenage loner becomes obsessed with ecological disaster, forcing her and her grandmother, a functioning alcoholic, to rethink their futures.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 545
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, captivating, psychological, sexy, sentimental, serious, independent film
Similar in 81%
Natural Sciences (2014)
Plot Summary:
In a rural school in the middle of the mountains, a girl who is starting to become a woman feels the profound need to discover her true identity. She does not know who her father is and she is determined to find him, but her mother does not approve it. The hostility of winter in such a harsh place turns this desire into a real threat: freezing in the middle of nowhere. Going behind the backs of the school authorities and the girl's mother, her teacher decides to help her. They set off on this quest for truth, but it is not going to be an easy journey... Their only clue is a small, rusty plate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, road movie
Similar in 82%
The Beat (1988)
Plot Summary:
A new kid moves into a tough neighborhood controlled by gangs, and tries to teach them poetry.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, touching, realistic, independent film, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Shackles (2005)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring teacher (Hughley) takes the one job he's offered, a position at a school inside a prison.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, captivating, suspense, semi serious
Similar in 75%
Life of a King (2013)
Plot Summary:
Life of a King is the true story of one man's mission to give inner city kids of Washington DC something he never had - a future. After being incarcerated for eighteen years, Eugene Brown established the Big Chair Chess Club to get kids off the streets and working towards lives they never believed they were capable of. This is his inspirational story.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, rough, touching, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, spiritual, serious, realistic
Similar in 76%
It All Starts Today (1999)
Plot Summary:
Set in a forlorn mining town near Valencienne in the north of France, the story is about one man's struggle to bring life to his once prosperous village and its inhabitants. Philippe Torreton, who won a César for Best Actor with his title role in Capitaine Conan, plays Daniel, the head teacher of a nursery school in a town demoralized by unemployment. Daniel is determined against all odds to bring life to the community. When a parent who has come to pick up her children collapses at the school grounds due to alcohol abuse, and social services turns a deaf ear to all pleas for help, Daniel decides to take the law into his own hands. Despite resistance from the townspeople, in the long run his efforts are not fruitless.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: social, sincere, thought provoking, touching, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Cheaters (2000)
Plot Summary:
In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, clever, serious, realistic, offbeat
Similar in 89%
Behavior (2014)
Plot Summary:
Meet Chala, an eleven year-old boy with a hard life and strong respect for Carmela, his sixth grade teacher. The pair develops a solid bond, but after Carmela suffers an accident, things get complicated….
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Cuba
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, inspirational, bleak, biting, suspense
Similar in 86%
Won't Back Down (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two determined mothers, one a teacher, look to transform their children's failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: touching, uplifting, realistic, serious, emotional, inspirational
Similar in 84%
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2002)
Plot Summary:
In the later years of the nineteenth century Latin master Mr. Chipping is the mainstay of Brookfields boys boarding school, a good teacher and a kindly person but he is considered to be married to the job so that it is a surprise when, on a walking holiday, he meets and marries the vivacious Kathie,who becomes his helpmate at the school but sadly pre-deceases him. Just before World War One insensitive new headmaster Ralston tries to edge Chipping out but the boys rally and Sir John Rivers, an old pupil of Chipping's and now head of the board of governors, invites him to stay and,when the war breaks out and Ralston joins up, Chipping becomes the new head.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 898
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 79%
To Sir, with Love II (1996)
Plot Summary:
Mark Thackeray (Poitier) is a West Indian, who in the 1967 film had taken teaching in a London East End school. He spent twenty years teaching and ten in administrative roles. He has taught the children of his former pupils, but is now retiring.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 79%
Knights of the South Bronx (2005)
Plot Summary:
A business man decides that he wants to teach school in the inner city and chooses a tough school in the South Bronx. He teaches the children how to play the game of chess, and along the way they learn a lot about life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, spiritual
Similar in 76%
A Time in Quchi (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bao stays with his grandfather for the summer and is shocked to see there are no modern appliances.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious
Similar in 77%
Conrack (1974)
Plot Summary:
A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: deep, sincere, uplifting, thought provoking, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 78%
Detachment (2011)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of three weeks in the lives of several high school teachers, administrators and students through the eyes of substitute teacher, Henry Barthes. Henry roams from school to school, imparting modes of knowledge, but never staying long enough to form any semblance of sentient attachment.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 96000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: depressing, psychological, bleak, thought provoking, touching, sad, independent film, serious, inspirational, emotional