Best movies like The Middle of the World
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Romão, illiterate and unemployed, feels destiny drawing him on an odyssey to Rio de Janeiro in pursuit of a job and a decent life. A family of seven journeys 2,000 miles across the hinterlands of Brazil on bicycles. Along the way, the story explores the inner dynamics of a family facing a great challenge with the courage to pursue dreams.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Brazil
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: road movie, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like The Middle of the World (2003):
Similar in 82%
Xenia (2014)
Plot Summary:
Strangers in their own birthplace, a camp 16-year-old, lollipop-sucking Dany and his 18-year-old brother Odysseus cross the entire country (along with pet rabbit Dido ) in search of their Greek father, who they only know as “The Nameless”, after the death of their Albanian mother. They hope to get Greek passports and citizenship but on the journey they encounter racism and prejudice.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Greece, France, Belgium
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: sincere, inspirational, light, captivating, atmospheric, serious, realistic, contemplative, road movie, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
Casa Grande (2014)
Plot Summary:
As a privileged teenager living in an affluent suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Jean has little to worry about beyond games, grades and girls. But as his overbearing father drags the family into debt, Jean is forced into a change of lifestyle which opens his eyes to the world beyond his 'casa grande' - not least that of the feisty, mixed-race firecracker Luiza. Cultures, classes and generations collide in this engrossing coming-of-age drama from Brazil.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Brazil
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, serious, realistic, independent film, spectacular, semi autobiographical
Similar in 82%
Innocent (2005)
Plot Summary:
17-year-old Eric follows his parents to immigrate to Canada and is thus forced to confront different emotional and cultural problems. He must not only adjust to the new environment, but also come to terms with his homosexuality. Standing at the brink of adulthood, he encounters a series of potential romantic interests - his handsome cousin, a schoolmate, a middle aged lawyer and finally a kitchen helper. They represent different stages in Eric's development, from infatuation, sex, love to a sense of responsibility.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 356
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada, Hong Kong
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, captivating, independent film, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Or (My Treasure) (2004)
Plot Summary:
Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Israel
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, psychological, sincere, bleak, realistic, erotic, depressing, gloomy, crying
Similar in 81%
Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)
Plot Summary:
Five unmarried sisters make the most of their simple existence in rural Ireland in the 1930s.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Ireland, UK, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: emotional, light, sentimental, sincere, realistic, touching, talky, romantic, independent film, serious
Similar in 87%
Hard Sun (2014)
Plot Summary:
After the death of her parents, a young woman assumes primary guardianship of her special needs brother. But as she attempts to balance her new life with her brother and her own blossoming romance, it becomes painfully clear that life will only make room for one.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 72
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, independent film
Similar in 83%
Samson and Delilah (2009)
Plot Summary:
Samson and Delilah's world is small- an isolated community in the Central Australian desert. When tragedy strikes they turn their backs on home and embark on a journey of survival. Lost, unwanted and alone the discover that life isn't always fair, but love never judges.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, art house, anthropological, bleak
Similar in 75%
Serenades (2001)
Plot Summary:
A girl is born to an Aboriginal mother and an Afgan father.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, sincere, captivating, tense, realistic, independent film
Similar in 77%
Choco (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young woman raising alone her children while her husband gets drunk but when she breaks free nothing will be the same.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 292
Genere: Drama
Country: Colombia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, touching, gloomy
Similar in 90%
The Great Journey (2004)
Plot Summary:
Reda, summoned to accompany his father on a pilgrimage to Mecca, complies reluctantly - as he preparing for his baccalaureat and, even more important, has a secret love relationship. The trip across Europe in a broken-down car is also the departure of his father: upon arrival in Mecca, both Reda and his father are not the characters they were at the start of the movie. Avoiding the hackneyed theme of the return to the homeland, the film uses the departure to renew a connection between two generation.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Morocco, Bulgaria
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: road movie, sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, inspirational, contemplative, crying
Similar in 77%
Una Noche (2012)
Plot Summary:
In Havana, Raul dreams of escaping to Miami. Accused of assault, he appeals to Elio to help him reach the forbidden world 90 miles across the ocean. One night, full of hope, they face the biggest challenge of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious, stylized, tension, suspense
Similar in 79%
Futuro Beach (2014)
Plot Summary:
Donato fails in his attempt to save a drowning man, and meets one of the man's friends. He decides to start his life over, but pieces of his past keep coming after him.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Brazil, Germany
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, lgbt cinema, meditative, sexual, touching, serious, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Give Me Your Hand (2008)
Plot Summary:
Quentin and Antoine are 18-year-old twins. Without their father knowing it, they set out on a voyage to Spain, where their mother's funeral is to ake place. The two brothers barely knew their mother. Their hitchhiking journey is full of encounters, arguments, reconciliations, and experiences. Their time on the road also reveals their differences, the splits in their attractions, and the confusion of their feelings. So many elements that make this luminous adventure a true journey of initiation that will transform them forever by altering their relationship and leading them to adulthood.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Germany
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, emotional, road movie, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 89%
Magnifico (2003)
Plot Summary:
With a daughter who suffers from cerebral palsy and a son who's lost his much-needed scholarship, an impoverished married couple begins to abandon their faith and courage in the face of such misfortune. But when a gifted young boy called Magnifico uses his goodness to magically transform their lives for the better, the family's belief in miracles is restored. Suddenly, living with adversity doesn't seem like such a burden.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 930
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, emotional, uplifting, serious, realistic, surprise ending, sad, tagalog, contemplative
Similar in 88%
Summer Games (2011)
Plot Summary:
The story of an adult and a teenage couple during a brief summer holiday by the sea. While Nic's parents remain trapped in a precarious mutual dependency despite repeated attempts at reconciliation, their 12-year-old son tries to come to terms with his father's traumatizing violent outbursts in games with other children. He tries to teach Marie, who is of his age and suffers from her own relationship with her father, to feel nothing. In fact, both of them are transformed by their experience of the joys and pains of first love.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 430
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, serious, touching, realistic, sad
Similar in 87%
Roads to Koktebel (2003)
Plot Summary:
A widowed aeronautics engineer, who has lost his job, travels with his son hopping freight trains from Moscow to Koktebel, a town by the Black Sea, to start a new life with the father's sister.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Romance
Country: Russia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, atmospheric, touching, road movie, mysterious, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 83%
Crutch (2004)
Plot Summary:
An autobiographical film taken from the experiences of writer-director Rob Moretti, CRUTCH is a coming-of-age tale about a young man's struggle with family problems and substance abuse. Behind a facade of suburban middle class perfection, David's home life is falling apart. As he tries to cope with the impossible situation, the troubled and impressionable teenager falls under the spell of Kenny, a georgous, thirty-something, has-been actor turned theatre coach. When Kenny's "support" escalates into seduction, David slowly decends into an abyss of drinking and drug addition from which he must escape if he is to survive. CRUTCH is a dramatic tale of the confusion of youth and the difficulties in finding oneself.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 712
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
The River (2001)
Plot Summary:
Episodic study of feelings where six stories intertwine over one Saturday in a small town. Two boys save a young woman, Anni, and her baby from suicide by drowning. Esa, a down-on-his-luck musician in need of a loan, arrives to his father's 60th birthday party. Waitress Leena tries to stir up a romance between her co-workers at a pizza parlor. Middle-aged Ilpo comes home early from the paper mill and finds a strange man in their bedroom. Old Milja waits for her daughter Merja at the hospital where she is visiting her terminally ill husband Henri. Teenage Santeri tries to cope with his homosexuality.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 845
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Finland
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sentimental, serious, realistic, captivating, suspense, anthology, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 80%
Free Radicals (2003)
Plot Summary:
Following the death of Manu (Resetarits) in a car accident, the film relates the interwoven stories of several people who become indirectly connected by the events and aftermath of the crash.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 553
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Austria, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, realistic, touching, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 83%
After the Deluge (2003)
Plot Summary:
Follows the stories of the four men of the Kirby family. As Alex's marriage breaks apart, Toby tries desperately to start a family, and Marty tries to kick-start his faded music career as well as find a meaningful relationship with someone his own age, all three must come to terms with their father's mental state. Cliff, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, is reliving his disturbing memories of the war and his first love, as a part of his experiences of the present . Through all four stories, we uncover a families troubled past, and their struggle towards a reconciled future.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 289
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Australia
Duration: 194 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy, crying
Similar in 88%
Once Upon a Time in Rio (2008)
Plot Summary:
Situated just above the awe-inspiring Ipanema beach in Rio is the Cantagalo slum. Every day, floods of Cantagalo residents make their way down the mountain, only to disappear into their surroundings as part of the invisible working-class that cleans apartments, works in restaurants, and sells food along the scenic, sun-drenched shores. Young Dé (Thiago Martins) is just such a man. Dé lives with his mother Bernadette (Cyria Coentro) in a cramped Cantagalo apartment, selling hot dogs on the beach in order to make the rent. His brother Beto was killed when Dé was just a young boy, and his adopted brother Carlão (Rocco Pitanga) has been jailed for a robbery that he didn't commit. One day, while working on the beach, Dé meets Nina (Vitória Frate). Nina is the only child of a successful lawyer named Evandro (Paulo César Grande), who's none to happy to discover that his daughter is dating a member of the lower class. How.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Brazil
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, realistic, sentimental, serious, bleak
Similar in 83%
Agnes Browne (1999)
Plot Summary:
When Agnes Browne's husband died, she discovered something amazing... Herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: USA, Ireland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, humorous, uplifting, touching, melancholic, sweet, sincere, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 82%
Three Sisters (1970)
Plot Summary:
Laurence Olivier's film of Chekhov's play.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 486
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, rough, captivating, sincere, touching, gloomy, independent film, period drama
Similar in 87%
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Plot Summary:
A recently widowed woman on the road with her precocious young son is determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: road movie, emotional, touching, realistic, romantic, thought provoking, entertaining, psychological, sincere, serious
Similar in 78%
Explicit Ills (2008)
Plot Summary:
The film follows four inter-connecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 854
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, freeze frame, sincere, realistic
Similar in 85%
Central Station (1998)
Plot Summary:
An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, emotional, road movie, realistic, art house, art film, crying, spiritual, mesmerizing
Similar in 87%
The Greatest (2009)
Plot Summary:
Teenagers Rose and Bennett were in love, and then a car crash claimed Bennett's life. He left behind a grieving mother, father and younger brother, and Rose was left all alone. She has no family to turn to for support, so when she finds out she's pregnant, she winds up at the Brewer's door. She needs their help, and although they can't quite admit it, they each need her so they can begin to heal.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, captivating, realistic, serious, emotional, breathtaking, cult classic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 75%
Sugar (2004)
Plot Summary:
Cliff has just turned 18 and his little sister has a gift for him: booze, a joint, a subway token and the command to have sex. Heading out on the town, Cliff finds friendship -- and more -- in the person of a young hustler named Butch. But Butch's dark side, along with a growing drug problem, leaves suburban family boy Cliff fearing for their future in this gay coming-of-age tale.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Canada
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Three Dancing Slaves (2004)
Plot Summary:
Annecy is no tourist destination for three working-class Algerian brothers and their father, in the months after their mother has died. Marc is deeply troubled: he tries to stiff drug dealers and then plots revenge. Christophe is released from jail, lands a job, and must overcome various temptations in order to keep it. Olivier, nearing 18, may be falling in love with Hicham.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, lgbt cinema, realistic, gloomy, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Close to Leo (2002)
Plot Summary:
When 21 year-old Leo, the oldest of four brothers, announces to his rural French family that he's HIV+, his family quickly rallys around him. Leo travels to Paris with his youngst brother Marcel for treatment. When Leo tries to push his brother away to protect him, the love and loyalty of the two brothers is tested.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, sincere, crying, queer cinema