Best movies like The Riddle of Jaan Niemand
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
After ten years of war, plague and famine, the land is swept clean of people. The few remaining souls are scattered about, living in misery and lacking hope. An anxious silence hangs over the land. On one particularly starry night, two peasants find a stranger on the seashore.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 116
Genere: Drama
Country: Estonia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: surreal, mysterious
Best tv shows and movies like The Riddle of Jaan Niemand (2018):
Similar in 77%
Fools Die Fast (1995)
Plot Summary:
A story set in the 1950s about two people who find a way out of their respective problems through the love they develop for one another.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 26
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Somewhere in the Darkness (1999)
Plot Summary:
In this Australian drama, a department store collapses, trapping an old man (Barry Jenkins) and a young boy (Rowan Whitt) underneath. In hopes of keeping the child calm, the man tells him a series of folk tales which teach a moral lesson while they entertain. Somewhere In The Darkness received its world premier at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival in the United States; it was later screened at Australia's Sydney Film Festival the same year. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 58
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, independent film
Similar in 90%
The Grave Digger (2010)
Plot Summary:
Ever since I started making films it has bothered me in a certain sense that film images are far too concrete, because technically they try to imitate the sense of space characteristic of everyday life. So the story ignites the imagination only to be slowed down by the images and stops the viewer from taking a flight of fantasy. I have always been searching for an intrinsically different tool in filmmaking. One that could record space in its temporal progression. I would never have thought it existed!.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: experimental
Similar in 77%
Wailing in the Forest (2016)
Plot Summary:
An indigenous family, one of the last forest people of old, copes with the unusual changes in their environment including the imposing lifestyle and customs of the more sociable tribes on the plains.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 18
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, mysterious
Similar in 84%
Handcuffs (1970)
Plot Summary:
Yugoslavia, 1948, the year of Inform Bureau's resolution and Tito's break-up with Stalin. The story takes place during a wedding in the Dalmatian inland in Croatia. Ante marries a much younger woman, Visnja; the groom's godfather is Andrija, the partisan war hero born in this very village, and a member of the new Communist political establishment. Two members of the Yugoslav State Security crash the traditional wedding ceremony. In the growing atmosphere of fear nobody knows who will be arrested.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 403
Genere: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: black and white
Similar in 80%
Before the Frost (2018)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place somewhere in the Danish countryside in the middle of the 19th century. Here within a small Danish peasant family, harsh circumstances reign. With the prospect of yet another tough winter, the farmer Jens faces an unbearable choice. If the family is to survive the winter, he must settle an agreement with the rich farmer nearby and forsake his own moral as well as his most precious possession, in an effort to secure them all a better life.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 78%
Superfluous (1962)
Plot Summary:
Young farmer Mikajlo while on youth labour action falls in love with a student Nada and infatuated with her, he leaves the peasant brigade and Malena, a girl who as if she were overabundant, followed him to work the labour action. Mikajlo's courtship of Nada provokes laughter and ridicule, so ambitious 'Don Juan' returns to his brigade and the girl.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Dalmas (1973)
Plot Summary:
Bert Deling's surreal, button-pushing and hallucinogenic paean to the emerging possibilities of avant-garde and homemade filmmaking. Telling the tale of a violent ex-cop searching for the man who killed his partner, the film takes an unexpected turn when he encounters drug lord Plastic Man and a tribe of LSD enthusiasts. What follows is both literal and metaphorical mayhem as the boundaries of the film start collapsing and our idea of what's real is pushed to its very limits.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: surreal, avant garde, experimental, independent film
Similar in 78%
Cassiopeia (2022)
Plot Summary:
Su-jin who tries to pursue a perfect life as a successful lawyer, single mother and daughter, plans to send her daughter Gina to study abroad in the United States, where her ex-husband lives. When Su-jin gets busier with work, Su-jin's dad, In-woo moves in to help Su-jin take care of Gina. The three live together for some time, until one day, Su-jin gets into a car accident and receives an unexpected diagnosis.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 194
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
San Diego Surf (1968)
Plot Summary:
Viva and Taylor Mead are a married couple renting an extra beach-house to a group of surfers sent to them by a Mr. Morrissey of La Jolla Realty. Their daughter, Ingrid Superstar, is pregnant and on the hunt for a husband. Mr. Mead, who is gay, tries to pawn her off to one of the surfers. Meanwhile, Viva wants a divorce from her boy-crazy hubby, who wants a surfer of his own. Tom, a surfer, is inveigled by Mr. Mead to urinate on him. In a close-up, Mr. Mead receives Tom's offering ecstatically, after which he comments, "I'm a real surfer now.".
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 46
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Germany Year 90 Nine Zero (1991)
Plot Summary:
The supremely world-weary Lemmy Caution, last seen in Godard's "Alphaville" (France/1965), has several strange encounters while trying to make his way from the former East Germany to "the west.".
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 760
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 62 min
Plot tags: surreal, eurospy
Similar in 78%
Ten Thousand Days (1967)
Plot Summary:
The changing and turbulent history of Hungary is seen through the eyes of three men over a 30-year period in this somber drama. The three recall the highlights of their lives in flashbacks as they reminisce in the mid 1960s. The venerable trio begin their story in the 1930s, through World War II, and the decade beyond the communist invasion of 1956.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 332
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
13 Summers Underwater (2017)
Plot Summary:
Parallel stories connected through an intimacy with death. The living and the dead communicate through visions, memories and reality.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 10
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland, UK, Brazil
Duration: 64 min
Plot tags: surreal
Similar in 90%
Play Me Something (1989)
Plot Summary:
A collection of seemingly unrelated individuals wait in a small island airport. Their flight is delayed, and each takes a turn to tell the others a story from his or her life. All small island stories of ordinary, uninspiring lives. Until one man, The Stranger, tells his story of a summer romance in Venice.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 106
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The Other Side of the Underneath (1972)
Plot Summary:
A surreal look at the schizophrenia of a group of girls in a therapy session.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, weird, cult film
Similar in 77%
The Uprising (1966)
Plot Summary:
After years of deplorable conditions of poverty and injustice, peasants revolt against the landowners, the social elite, and police in this routine social drama. A peasant woman is raped by a lecherous wealthy lesbian, and chaos breaks out in the rural areas where the poor suffer the most from the oppressive social and economic conditions.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 184
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Magic Mountain (1982)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 487
Genere: Drama
Country: Austria, West Germany, France, Italy
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: surreal
Similar in 76%
Hungarians (1978)
Plot Summary:
A group of landless Hungarian peasants accept work as migrant-laborers on a farm in northern Germany where the wages are good, and the wives and family are allowed to accompany them. Though it is in the midst of World War II, they are relatively well-off. However, they glimpse the treatment accorded to POWs and others who are not so gently treated, and at the conclusion of the year's harvest, they choose to return to Hungary and are quickly swept up in the tides of war. This film is part of a series of films by award-winning, well-respected director Zoltan Fabri who devoted much time and effort chronicling the struggle against fascism.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 353
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Oh, Moon! (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young girl with a vivid imagination exasperates her grandparents when she begins communicating with the ghost of her mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: surreal, art house
Similar in 90%
Apples (2020)
Plot Summary:
Aris, a solitary man in his late thirties, becomes a victim of an unexplained surge of memory loss disorders in his city and is forced to confront his severe amnesia through an experimental new treatment.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Poland, Australia, Slovenia
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, allegory, mind bending, psychedelic, social, sad, surreal, art house
Similar in 81%
The People Next Door (1970)
Plot Summary:
Seventies attempt at exposing the drug problems of suburban youth. Typical middle-class parents Wallach and Harris are horrified to discover that daughter Winters is strung out on LSD. They fight to expose the neighborhood pusher while struggling to understand their now-alien daughter. Based on J.P. Miller's television play.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 392
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: surreal, independent film, cult film
Similar in 87%
Malibu (1983)
Plot Summary:
A young couple from Milwaukee moves into the fabled, high-society Malibu beach community and becomes involved with the lives of the various people living in the community.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 97
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Perfect Gift (2009)
Plot Summary:
A spoiled schoolgirl, her overworked executive mother, and a disillusioned young minister each receives an uplifting message about friendship, commitment, and the truest meaning of Christmas from a friendly, but mysterious drifter.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 464
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, christian film
Similar in 88%
Self Made (2014)
Plot Summary:
Self Made tells the story of two women - one Israeli, the other Palestinian- who are trapped within their respective worlds. After a mix-up at a checkpoint, they find themselves living the life of the other on the opposite side of the border.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 232
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, surreal, semi serious, atmospheric, thought provoking, clever, offbeat, witty
Similar in 75%
Action (1980)
Plot Summary:
Bruno is an idealistic hero who questions the meaning of life in this confusing and sometimes hallucinatory erotic drama. After a night in jail, he is gang-raped by punk rockers in a garbage dump. He later saves an old man who believes he is Garibaldi and a woman he believes is Ophelia. Bruno watches helplessly as she later jumps from a window.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 385
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: erotic, sexy, surreal, cult film
Similar in 85%
Singing Women (2013)
Plot Summary:
An island off the coast of Turkey is about to be evacuated due to a possible earthquake but its inhabitants have been stricken with a mysterious illness, consigning them to an uncertain fate.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 740
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Germany, France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, surreal, suspense, offbeat, biting
Similar in 86%
The Perfect Stranger (2005)
Plot Summary:
'THE PERFECT STRANGER' tells the story of Nikki, a troubled attorney who one day receives a mysterious dinner invitation from a man claiming to be Jesus of Nazareth. Throughout their evening of conversation, arguments and spirited debate, Nikki learns things she never knew about life, the universe, and most importantly, herself.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, christian film, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 80%
The Visitor (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young boy lives with his mother on a farm surrounded by deep forest in the remote wilds of the Finnish countryside. From time to time, the boy visits his father - a man of great violence - in prison. Locked in the stable is an unruly horse, the boy´s only other companion. Their simple life is disrupted when a stranger appears, with a note from the father and a bullet in his side. Reluctantly, mother and son offer the stranger refuge.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 618
Genere: Drama
Country: Finland, Estonia, Germany, UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspense, tense, realistic, gloomy, ambiguous ending, independent film, silent, student film
Similar in 75%
Resisting Life (2006)
Plot Summary:
Mexico City, 1960. Aurelia lives happily with her family. Just before the birth of her third daughter, her husband dies in an accident. Years later, Leonor, the oldest daughter, has quit her studies to help her mother support the household. Beatriz, immersed in her music, lets life slip her by like a strange melody. Adolescent Nadia has only one interest in life: to seek new experiences. Aurelia starts to lose her sensibility to pain, and the family relationships become so alienated that they begin to disintegrate like the house they live in.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 34
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, surreal
Similar in 86%
The Donner Party (2009)
Plot Summary:
Based on the real events of The Donner Party tragedy. The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the western expansion of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada during the winter of 1846-1847, a number of the trapped settlers joined together in a final effort to reach California and organize a rescue party.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, serious, realistic, mysterious, suspenseful, bleak, wild