Best movies like The North
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like The North (1983):
Similar in 90%
The Illegal (1977)
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
Similar in 80%
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 78%
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 75%
Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2005)
Plot Summary:
1942, in the middle of Northeastern Brazil, two very different men meet along the road: Johan, an aspirin salesman avoiding the German draft, and Ranulpho, a rural Brazilian seeking escape from the drought.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, road movie, realistic, neo noir
Similar in 88%
Powwow Highway (1988)
Plot Summary:
Buddy Red Bow is struggling, in the face of persecution, by greedy developers and political in-fighting, to keep his nation on a Montana Cheyenne Reservation financially solvent and independent. Philbert, a simple-minded friend of Buddy's, ardently pursues Native American/First Nation wisdom and lore wherever he can find it--even on Bonanza--in order to earn his warrior name. He's even got his war pony, Protector: a beat-up old wreck of a car. Buddy's sister has been arrested in Santa Fe, and together Buddy and Philbert set off on a road trip to look after her kids and go bail her out. However, Bonnie's arrest has something strange about it as her friend Rabbit points out. As the miles roll by, Philbert's faith challenges Buddy's hard-edged view of the world (and occasional bout of reckless violence), and together they face the realities and dreams of being Cheyenne in the modern-day US as they fight to free Bonnie and her children and elude the Feds.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: road movie, independent film, psychedelic, sincere, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, fairy tale, inspirational
Similar in 88%
Ladybird Ladybird (1994)
Plot Summary:
Maggie has had four children, by four different fathers, removed by social services because of a previous violent relationship. When she meets Jorge, a gentle Latin American refugee, she gradually sees her chance for happiness, but her history still haunts her.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sad, disturbing, realistic, biting, independent film, social, detective, sincere, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 84%
Arcadia (2012)
Plot Summary:
Greta's dad Tom is moving the family cross-country in a dented station wagon, promising a California paradise to his kids. All that's missing is Mom.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, sincere, realistic, independent film, crying
Similar in 79%
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 80%
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 78%
America So Beautiful (2001)
Plot Summary:
This film follows the odyssey of a group of Iranian immigrants in Los Angeles, trying to find their place in America amidst the unfolding of the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 195
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, sentimental, independent film, serious, realistic
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 80%
Sin Nombre (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set on the border, where Mexico becomes the crucible and the fearsome gangs of today’s Mexican countryside, the gauntlet, to freedom. The stories of a girl living in Honduras and hungering for a brighter future, and two teen gang members, for whom the Mara Salvatrucha is near their entire universe, become interlaced on the train to the border, a journey that will determine the future of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Adventure, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: road movie, serious, bleak, disturbing, rough, suspenseful, touching, dramatic, brutal, depressing
Similar in 82%
The Golden Dream (2013)
Plot Summary:
A group of Central-American teen-agers depart from the slums of Guatemala City escaping poverty and violence, towards the promised land of California.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, Spain, Guatemala
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: road movie, sincere, rough, touching, serious, hispanic, bleak, realistic
Similar in 76%
Charlie's Country (2013)
Plot Summary:
Blackfella Charlie is getting older, and he's out of sorts. The intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws that don't generally make much sense, and Charlie's kin and ken seeming more interested in going along with things than doing anything about it. So Charlie takes off, to live the old way, but in doing so sets off a chain of events in his life that has him return to his community chastened, and somewhat the wiser.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical, atmospheric, thought provoking, realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, political, anthropological, gloomy
Similar in 77%
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 76%
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 84%
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 85%
In This World (2002)
Plot Summary:
Torn straight from the headlines, Michael Winterbottom's compelling and prescient 'In This World' follows young Afghan Jamal and his older cousin Enayat as they embark on a hazardous overland trip from their refugee camp at Peshawar, north-west Pakistan. Entering Turkey on foot through a snowy, Kurdish-controlled pass, the pair again take their lives into their hands and face suffocation when they are locked in a freight container on a ship bound for Italy. From there they plan to travel on to Paris, the Sangatte refuge centre and ultimately asylum in London.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: bleak, road movie, inspirational, disturbing, sincere, suspenseful, political, realistic, tense, thought provoking
Similar in 86%
In America (2002)
Plot Summary:
An Irish immigrant family adjusts to life in the United States, a chance to get over the lost son. They have no money and the apartment is in bad condition.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 44000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, UK, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, emotional, sincere, serious, depressing, heartbreaking, sad, independent film, realistic
Similar in 86%
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 87%
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 88%
Get on the Bus (1996)
Plot Summary:
Get On the Bus follows several Black men on a cross country bus trip to the Million Man March. On the bus are an eclectic set of characters including a laid off aircraft worker, a former Gang Banger, a Hollywood actor, a cop who is of mixed racial background, and a White bus driver, all make the trek discussing issues surrounding the march, manhood, religion, politics, and race.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: road movie, uplifting, talky, compassionate, thought provoking, touching, realistic, serious, political, light
Similar in 89%
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 77%
My Family (1995)
Plot Summary:
Traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Maria and Jose, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930's. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the 50's. As the second generation become adults in the 60's, the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee), their son, and Jimmy's journey to becoming a responsible parent.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: touching, thought provoking, sad, independent film, serious, captivating, realistic, hispanic, hood, sentimental
Similar in 75%
Everybody's Fine (2009)
Plot Summary:
Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his offspring. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 63000
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: sentimental, emotional, touching, melancholic, sad, road movie, depressing, talky, heartbreaking, realistic
Similar in 76%
...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 83%
The Road (1982)
Plot Summary:
A harsh portrait of Turkey, its people and its authorities, shown through the stories of five prisoners given a week's home leave, and the problems they encounter in adjusting to the world outside.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Switzerland
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: road movie, political, art house, black and white, psychological, sincere, uplifting, bleak, serious, emotional
Similar in 79%
Harlan County War (2000)
Plot Summary:
A Kentucky woman whose mine-worker husband is nearly killed in a cave-in, and whose father is slowly dying of black lung disease, joins the picket lines for a long, violent strike.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 604
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, rough, realistic, independent film, captivating, political, sincere, bleak, serious
Similar in 79%
The Promise (1996)
Plot Summary:
In this acclaimed and gripping social portrait of immoral lives in need of rescue, Igor (Jérémie Renier), aged 15, and his father Roger (Olivier Gourmet) deal in housing and peddling illicit labor in the outlying districts of Liege, Belgium. Scams, lies and swindling rule their lives. When one of his father’s illegal workers gets injured on the job and asks Igor to promise to take care of his wife and baby, Igor finds himself at a crossroad. He wants to keep the promise, but the price would be to betray his father.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Tunisia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, slow cinema, inspirational, thought provoking, art house, aesthetic, mesmerizing, tense, touching, serious
Similar in 75%
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