Best movies like The Sparrow
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Set shortly before and during the Six Day War in June of 1967, The Sparrow follows a young police officer stationed in a small village in Upper Egypt whose inhabitants suffer from the harassment of a corrupt businessman.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 380
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, Algeria
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: mondo
Best tv shows and movies like The Sparrow (1972):
Similar in 88%
The Other (1999)
Plot Summary:
Adam is the son of a wealthy Egyptian-American family who is studying at UCLA and returns home for a brief vacation. Upon his arrival he meets beautiful reporter Hanane, with whom he begins an intense love affair, and eventually they marry. Trouble arises when Hanane' s journalistic interests lead her to the corrupt business affairs of Adam's parents, who are interested in building an American tourist compound that would allow Americans further control of Egypt's tourist industry, and make them a whole lot richer.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Egypt
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, biting, suspense
Similar in 75%
Cairo 30 (1966)
Plot Summary:
Mahgoub Abdel Dayem a young nihilistic college student, having his father crippled with no other source of income, he finds himself in an urgent need of a job after graduation to support himself and his parents. Having a hard time getting a job, he starts putting his values into actual application only to find them already being applied by much greater authorities. Set in Cairo in the 30s.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Egypt
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 89%
Without Love (1980)
Plot Summary:
Ewa is a reporter. Using her feminine charms and other means she is trying to become a journalist on a Warsaw weekly popular magazine. She hopes to become political interviewer of personalities and state leaders. On her way up the ladder she trips over one of her own shoestrings and falls short of the goal she has been pursuing so fanatically.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 68
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Shadow of China (1989)
Plot Summary:
A Chinese immigrant tries to make his way to the top as a businessman in Hong Kong while his former radicalism is transformed into cynicism.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 78%
The Land (1970)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from Abdel Rahman Al-Sharqawi's well-known novel of the same name, this classic film by Egyptian master Youssef Chahine was eight years in the making. Chronicling a small peasant village's struggles against the careless inroads of the large local landowner, The Land shows why political oppression does not necessarily lead to a sense of solidarity among the disinherited.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
The Emigrant (1994)
Plot Summary:
The biblical tale of Joseph is told from an Egyptian perspective in this interesting character study. In this film, Joseph is called Ram. Ram, tired of his family's backward superstitious life, and tired of being picked on by his brothers, wants to go to Egypt to study agriculture. His brothers travel with him across Sinai, but then suddenly sell him to Ozir, an Egyptian who works for a Theban military leader, Amihar. Amihar is impressed by Ram's drive and personal charm and so grants Ram some desolate land outside the capital. Ram soon finds himself a pawn in the political and sexual games between Amihar and his wife Simihit, a high priestess of the Cult of Amun.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, France
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: biblical
Similar in 81%
Adrift on the Nile (1971)
Plot Summary:
Set against the backdrop of the 1967 Six-Day War, the movie adaptation of Naguib Mahfouz's novel follows the escapist, drug-fuelled riverboat meetings of a group of frustrated Egyptians from various walks of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 750
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: iconic
Similar in 89%
Village (2023)
Plot Summary:
In a once-scenic village now dominated by a vast trash disposal site, a young man yearns to break free from a cruel fate tying him to the very grounds.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 745
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: suspense
Similar in 77%
The Most Beautiful Night In The World (2008)
Plot Summary:
Betrayed and disgraced, big-city reporter Kazuya Mizuno is banished to a desk at Kaname's boring little town newspaper. But Kaname isn't as boring as it seems on the surface. Not with characters around like Shimeko, a girl genius with a childlike lack of propriety, and her ace fisherman/folk-singer dad. Or the overbearing and unpleasant local Shinto priest, a former Christian cultist. Or Endo, Kazuya's new colleague, a bitter drunk after his son's suicide. Or Kin, a former terrorist, now a hermit on his boat engaging in secret "research." Or perhaps most importantly Teruko, the hypnotically beautiful bar owner, the focus of all manner of innuendo and intrigue. Something mysterious, even mystical, is going on Kaname, and hapless Kazuya is about to be thrown into the middle of it.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 90
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 160 min
Plot tags: fable
Similar in 88%
A Son (2019)
Plot Summary:
Tunisia, summer 2011. The holiday to the South of the country ends in disaster for Fares, Meriem and their 10-year-old son Aziz, when he is accidentally shot in an ambush. His injury will change their lives: Aziz needs a liver transplant, which leads to discovery of a long-buried secret. Will Aziz and the relationship survive?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Tunisia, France, Lebanon, Qatar
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 83%
Kung-Fu (1979)
Plot Summary:
A well-regarded engineer in a big enterprise is hounded by trumped up attacks on his integrity when he delves too deeply into how bonuses are handled by the management. He gets into an argument with the guard, is arrested and subsequently fired. An old friend, a journalist, tries to sort things out but the victim's stubbornness and past problems with his wife lead to lossess by both.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 91
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Wife of an Important Man (1987)
Plot Summary:
The story of the rise and fall of an Egyptian police officer, during the regime of President Anwar El Sadat.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
The Belly Dancer and the Politician (1990)
Plot Summary:
A dancer asks a politician with whom she once had an affair to use his influence on her behalf.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 290
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Thank You All Very Much (1969)
Plot Summary:
Rosamund Stacey (Sandy Dennis), a young 'bookish' girl in London society, spends her days studying for a doctorate in the British Museum and her nights avoiding the sexual attention of the men in her life. But one day, all that changes. Through a friend, she is introduced to rising TV newsreader/announcer George Matthews (Ian McKellen) and after a further chance meeting and a tumble on the sofa, she finds herself pregnant from her first sexual encounter. A failed attempt at self-abortion just re-inforces Rosamund's resolve to have the child - leaving her on a solitary and at times dismal path through pregnancy and into motherhood, aided only by close friend Lydia (Eleanor Bron). Will she get through it? Will her child? And will she let Matthews know that he is actually the father?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 466
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
My Husband's Secret Life (1998)
Plot Summary:
A policeman's widow (Archer) uncovers corruption within the force after meeting a woman (Alonso) who was tied to her husband's mysterious death.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Hu Tu Tu (1999)
Plot Summary:
Panna is the only daughter of politician Maltidevi. Panna is very critical of her mother, when she decides to separate from her dad, and asked Chief Minister Sawantrao Gadre to move in with them, for political reasons. Sawantrao has been using Maltidevi to win his election, which he does. Malti avenges this humiliation, wins the next election, and has Sawantrao killed. Malti then becomes the new Chief Minister. The main thorns on her side are Bhau, the leader of the downtrodden lower caste dalits, and her very daughter, who is very friendly with Bhau. One day Panna is abducted by Aditya and his group of revolutionaries, and held by them. It is there that Panna learns about the atrocities committed by her mom in the name of politics, and it is then she must decide whether to be loyal to her mom, or take the side of Aditya and the revolutionaries.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 505
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 172 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Whatever Lola Wants (2007)
Plot Summary:
A Brooklyn postal worker follows her Egyptian boyfriend to Cairo where she takes belly-dancing lessons from a legendary but disgraced Egyptian dancer.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: semi serious, captivating, psychological, atmospheric, sentimental, feel good, humorous, realistic
Similar in 79%
Those People of the Nile (1972)
Plot Summary:
The construction of the Aswan dam as seen by those who took part in it: engineers and workers, Egyptians and Soviets. Beginning with the day the waters of the Nile were diverted, Chahine shows how individual concerns sometimes outweigh the myth surrounding a collective undertaking. The first Egyptian-Soviet co-production was shown to its two sponsor governments in 1968, inspiring considerable displeasure. Re-editing was demanded; along with newly shot sequences using actors. Consequently, the film was not shown until 1972.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, Soviet Union
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Sleeping in Honey (1996)
Plot Summary:
Officer Magdy investigates the suicide of a groom on his wedding night. he knows that the groom was impotent. Later he realizes that impotence is becoming an epidemic that spreads among all men. However, no one wants to declare that out of shame. A young journalist tries to do her own investigation about that phenomenon too.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
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 77%
The Yacoubian Building (2006)
Plot Summary:
Cairo: a 70-year-old building of once-luxury flats with tenements on the roof. Zika, an aging libertine, feuds with his sister. Pius Haj Azzam takes a second wife, in secret, to satisfy sexual drive within religious bounds. Bothayna, poor and beautiful, supports her family, wanting to do so with dignity intact. Her former fiancé, Taha, the janitor's son, humiliated by the police, turns to fundamentalism. Hatem, a gay editor, seduces and corrupts a young man from the sticks. Two brothers, Copts, one a tailor and one Zika's factotum, connive for property. Allah is on most everyone's lips, and corruption is in their hearts.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, France
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, serious, realistic, sad, multicultural, islamic, iconic
Similar in 88%
Cairo 678 (2010)
Plot Summary:
Deals with the phenomenon of sexual harassment in Egypt. Film depicts the moving story of three women Atfguen in some way or another to address the disturbing fact, the phenomenon can not be overlooked in the Egyptian and Arab street and the suffering of almost daily exposure to a sexual harassment despite their differences.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, social, islamic, sincere, bleak
Similar in 88%
Run This Town (2019)
Plot Summary:
After graduation, Bram gets his dream job at a local newspaper. In his mind he’s the next Woodward (but he’s probably more of a Bernstein). A year in, he realizes that maybe the paper business is no longer what he’d seen in the movies. Instead of investigative journalism, he is writing easily consumable Top 10 Lists - Best Hot Dogs in the City! Ten Ways to Tell You Grew Up in the 90s! After the paper is hit with another round of layoffs, Bram stumbles upon a potentially explosive story involving the city’s controversial mayor. But he needs to beat the mayor’s smooth talking aide, Kamal, to the punch. This could be Bram’s big break — if he had any idea how to be a real journalist.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 723
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, disturbing, political, aesthetic
Similar in 77%
Cairo Exit (2010)
Plot Summary:
A powerful account of life in contemporary Cairo, this raw drama about a pair of star-crossed lovers shines a powerful spotlight upon the social and cultural taboos that riddle the city's diverse population. Heralding a bold new shift for contemporary Egyptian cinema, 'Cairo Exit' is a gritty and uncompromising work from a major new cinematic talent, Hesham Issawi.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, stylized, bleak
Similar in 77%
The Baby Doll Night (2008)
Plot Summary:
Hossam returns home to Cairo for New Year's Eve after a year's separation from his wife. At the airport, his plans for a romantic night (and to conceive a child) are thwarted by several events, including a terrorist plot.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 738
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, tense, captivating, sad, islamic, humorous, suspenseful, semi serious
Similar in 79%
In His Steps (1964)
Plot Summary:
A priest challenges the members of his congregation to not just go to church every Sunday, but to actually follow in Jesus's footsteps in their daily lives. From Charles M. Sheldon's book that launched the saying "What would Jesus Do?.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: christian film
Similar in 89%
Alexandria... Why? (1979)
Plot Summary:
Set against the panoramic backdrop of war-torn Egypt, director Youssef Chahine tells a highly personal tale of love and determination. Amid the poverty, death and suffering caused by World War II, 18 year-old Yehia, retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing. Obsessed with Hollywood, he dreams of one day studying filmmaking in America, but after falling in love and discovering the lies of European occupation, Yehia profoundly reevaluates his identity and allegiances.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Egypt, Algeria
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical, psychological, serious, captivating, realistic, crying
Similar in 86%
Son of Babylon (2009)
Plot Summary:
A willful young boy follows his just as obstinate grandmother in a journey across Iraq, determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Ahmed's father, who never returned from war.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iraq, UK, France, Netherlands, United Arab Emirates, Egypt
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, captivating, emotional, independent film, islamic, tense, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
September 11 (2002)
Plot Summary:
11 directors show their view on the terrorist attacks on the world trade center in New York.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, France, Egypt, Japan, Mexico, USA, Iran
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: disturbing, intellectual, talky, stylized, factual, emotional, bleak, serious, anthology, political
Similar in 84%
The Shipping News (2001)
Plot Summary:
An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 34000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA, Sweden
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: melancholic, emotional, stylized, sentimental, serious, captivating, touching, depressing, heartbreaking, romantic