Best movies like The Towrope
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In this poetic, richly allegorical debut by Colombian director William Vega, a teenage girl flees to a rundown inn after being driven from her home in the Andean highlands by civil war, as the violence engulfing the country creeps ever closer to her remote refuge. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 767
Genere: Drama
Country: Colombia, France, Mexico
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, rough, serious, realistic, bleak, gloomy
Best tv shows and movies like The Towrope (2012):
Similar in 87%
The Green Room (1978)
Plot Summary:
Based on the Henry James short story "The Altar of the Dead", in which a man becomes obsessed with the many dead people in his life and builds a memorial to honor them. This film is also based on other short story by Henry James, "The Beast of the Jungle". It would be the last film Truffaut would act in.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: spiritual, psychological, atmospheric, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 89%
War Story (2014)
Plot Summary:
Lee is a world-weary American woman who arrives in an Italian city. Her tangles with hotel staff, incessant smoking and her disregard of the persistently ringing telephone hint at her volatility brewing beneath the surface. Between fitful naps, she wanders the streets, snapping pictures of refugees as if her camera were both weapon and olive branch. Struggling to confront her demons, Lee resolves to help a beautiful young woman in need.
IMDB Rating: 3.9
IMDB Votes: 791
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, psychological, serious, bleak, contemplative, stylized, gloomy
Similar in 79%
The Melon Route (2006)
Plot Summary:
The journey of a Chinese woman and her fellow countrymen as they travel in search of a better place to live, only to end up struggling for survival in the Balkans.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 507
Genere: Drama
Country: Croatia
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, bleak, serious
Similar in 85%
Blood and Rain (2009)
Plot Summary:
Taxi driver Jose begins his night shift bent on revenge after his brother's murder at the hands pf a violent gang. But when an accident brings him unexpectedly closer to his party-girl fare Angela, the damaged pair must struggle against forces already set in motion, drawing them inexorably into the rain soaked underworld of Bogota.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 332
Genere: Drama
Country: Colombia, Argentina
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, neo noir, realistic, suspenseful, atmospheric
Similar in 84%
Sworn Virgin (2015)
Plot Summary:
Years after declaring her eternal virginity and opting to live life as a man in the mountains of Albania, Hana looks to return to living as a woman as she settles into a new existence in modern-day Milan.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Albania, Kosovo, France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, lgbt cinema, queer cinema, moody
Similar in 81%
I Saw the Sun (2009)
Plot Summary:
In the southeast region of Turkey, the Altun family lives in a small mountainside village plagued by a 25-year war, making their daily life a hellish struggle. As the war continues to intensify, the family is forced to migrate west to the city of Istanbul. While Haydar and Isa Altun decide to stay in Turkey with their young children, Davut Altun and his family migrate north to Norway, enlisting the help of smugglers. They eventually reach their destination and find work in a supermarket, but life as refugees proves relentless. Back in Istanbul, Haydar watches over the family as his wife undergoes an operation due to pregnancy complications. Their son makes friends with a group of transvestites, helping him to understand why he has felt different all of his life. While liberating, his newfound identity is seen as a disgrace to the rest of his family, leading him to flee from the abuse it produces.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, sentimental, captivating, clever, touching, serious, gloomy, crying
Similar in 75%
Cold Light (2004)
Plot Summary:
What could be better than knowing your future? And what could be worse? A love-filled childhood abruptly ends when catastrophe descends. A catastrophe that the child had foreseen yet failed to act upon.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 611
Genere: Drama
Country: Iceland, Norway, UK, Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, serious, offbeat, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 76%
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 77%
Shun Li and the Poet (2011)
Plot Summary:
A study of the friendship between a Chinese woman and a fisherman who came to Italy from Yugoslavia many years ago, who live in a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, atmospheric, touching, emotional, realistic, light, gloomy
Similar in 88%
I Am from Titov Veles (2007)
Plot Summary:
Burdened by memories of their late father, three sisters struggle to escape the suffocating environment of the dying town of Veles. A contemporary story of urban decay, „Jas sum od Titov Veles“ employs a stark realism to depict the vivid landscape of post-Communist Macedonia.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 617
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Slovenia
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Lana's Rain (2002)
Plot Summary:
This powerful, hard-edged crime drama explores the dark side of the American immigrant experience and dares to ask, "How far would you go to survive?" Lana’s only chance to escape the war-torn Balkans is her long-lost brother, Darko, a street-smart gangster with enemies intent on revenge. Isolated at first by her inability to speak English, Lana desperately hopes that she and her brother can achieve the American dream that she can only glimpse. But her illusions are shattered as she is forced to survive by any means possible on the mean streets of Chicago. As she gets pulled deeper and deeper into her brother’s criminal world while a steely determination grows in her heart, Lana must risk her own life to overcome Darko and his pursuers if she hopes to finally realize her dream.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, bleak, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 85%
Cow (2009)
Plot Summary:
A Chinese peasant is given the responsibility of protecting his village's special dairy cow during a particularly harsh winter in 1940.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 912
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, semi serious, offbeat, humorous, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Adelheid (1970)
Plot Summary:
In the aftermath of World War II, a former Czech soldier takes charge of a manor formerly owned by a German family. He falls in love with the daughter, who is now a maid, and is forced to confront the stress between his love and his conscience when he discovers her sheltering her German-soldier brother.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 912
Genere: Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 82%
Future Lasts Forever (2011)
Plot Summary:
A woman struggles with love and personal loss against the backdrop of a land torn by civil war in this drama from filmmaker Ozcan Alper. Sumru (Gaye Gursel) is a Turkish woman who studies ethnic music at a college in Istanbul and frequently makes field recordings of artists who practice rare and unusual forms. Sumru is struggling with loneliness after the disappearance of her Kurdish boyfriend, and for her latest project, she sets out on a lengthy road trip recording the stories of Kurdish women who have survived the murder of their Turkish husbands or lovers, hoping she might track down her man in her travels. After making her first stop in the city of Diyarbaki, Sumru meets Ahmet, who makes a living selling black market goods and shares her love of music and history. The two become fast friends, and as Ahmet joins Sumru on her travels, their relationship grows deeper, though she also becomes more aware of the tragedy that has gripped her country and the consequences of the civil war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France, Turkey
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, emotional, realistic, contemplative, captivating, art house, sincere, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Last Winter (2011)
Plot Summary:
A young farmer in Central France tries to sustain his spiritual connection to the land amid the crushing pressures of modern agriculture in this brooding drama.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 187
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Dance Town (2010)
Plot Summary:
A North Korean refugee, Jung-Nim, is trying to find a new life in South Korea, with people suspecting that she is a spy.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, touching, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Fratricide (2005)
Plot Summary:
Two young Kurdish refugees, recently arrived in Germany struggle to make their way through the harshness of the occidental city. Their encounter with a gang of Turks will rapidly led them into an inevitable tragical spiral filled with death and revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: Luxembourg, Germany, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, bleak, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Autumn (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man struggles after his release from ten years as a political prisoner.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, realistic, art house, political, sad, bleak, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Almayer's Folly (2011)
Plot Summary:
A tale of an occidental merchant, Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of riches for his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of his own greed and prejudice.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 808
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: realistic, atmospheric, psychological, captivating, bleak, serious, emotional
Similar in 88%
Grigris (2013)
Plot Summary:
A 25 year old young man with dreams of becoming a dancer despite the fact that he's paralyzed from the waist down. His dreams are shattered when his uncle falls seriously ill. To save him, he decides to go work for petrol traffickers.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 590
Genere: Drama
Country: Chad, France, Belgium
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Angel's Fall (2004)
Plot Summary:
Zeynep, Tülin Özen works in a hotel as a housekeeper. But she suffers hell on earth because of her father's behavior. She only talks to Mustafa, 'Engin Dogan' who works in the same hotel and he is interested in Zeynep. She is not interested in Mustafa who is younger than Zeynep, but she is not indifferent to him. While Zeynep is trying to make a bonfire of bad situation, Selçuk, Budak Akalin who lives on the other side of city is a voice technician. He feels guilty after his wife's death. The suitcase which has his wife's dresses changes the Zeynep's destiny.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, Turkey
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, atmospheric, touching, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Offline (2012)
Plot Summary:
A man attempts to reclaim the life that prison took from him but his dark past threatens to ruin everything.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 876
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Ezra (2007)
Plot Summary:
Ezra, jeune ex-soldat Sierra-Léonais, essaie tant bien que mal de retrouver des repères pour revenir à une vie normale après la guerre civile qui a ravagé son pays. Son quotidien est partagé entre un centre de réhabilitation psychologique et un tribunal de réconciliation nationale organisé sous l'égide de l'ONU. Durant le procès en réhabilitation auquel Ezra participe, il doit affronter sa soeur qui l'accuse du meurtre de leurs parents. Ezra, qui a traversé cette violente guerre civile complètement drogué et alcoolisé, ne se souvient de rien. Ezra reconnaîtra-t-il l'horreur et par ce fait, permettra-t-il à sa soeur et à sa communauté villageoise d'accéder au pardon ?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 288
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Nigeria, USA, UK, Austria
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: captivating, rough, thought provoking, disturbing, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 88%
Sounds of Sand (2006)
Plot Summary:
On the one hand, there's the desert eating away at the land. The endless dry season, the lack of water. On the other there's the threat of war. The village well has run dry. The livestock is dying. Trusting their instinct, most of the villagers leave and head south. Rahne, the only literate one, decides to head east with his three children and Mouna, his wife. A few sheep, some goats and Chamelle, a dromedary, are their only riches. A tale of exodus, quest, hope and fatality. Rahne and his family travel across hostile lands under a lethal sun, walking endlessly onwards and frequently crossing paths with death. But "Sounds of sand" is also a parable about determination and eternity that takes us in the footsteps of Shasha, a nomad child full of the joys of life, whose tenacity and strength will conquer her father's love.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 553
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic
Similar in 88%
Atlantic. (2014)
Plot Summary:
A Moroccan fisherman sets off on an epic journey towards Europe on his wind surfboard. But the pursuit of dreams does not come without sacrifice.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 575
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Morocco, France
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Without Destination (2002)
Plot Summary:
Sin Destino follows the life of a 15 year old Mexican boy, Francisco, as he struggles to survive on the streets. His primary source of income is money raised by prostituting himself to men for sex, and the film implies that this learned behaviour has arisen as a result of a contact with a single man when Francisco was 9 years old. This man, Sebastien, is an "artist" who initially claimed to want to photograph the boy, but it is clear that their relationship at one time extended far beyond that of photographer/model.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: disturbing, psychological, atmospheric, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, surreal, gloomy, sexual
Similar in 89%
The Bridges of Sarajevo (2014)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen European directors explore the theme of Sarajevo; what this city has represented in European history over the past hundred years, and what Sarajevo stands for today in Europe. These eminent filmmakers of different generations and origins offer exceptional singular styles and visions.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Germany
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, anthology, bleak
Similar in 86%
Back to 1942 (2012)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, Henan Province was devastated by the most tragic famine in modern Chinese history, resulting in the deaths of at least three million men, women and children. Although the primary cause of the famine was a severe drought, it was exacerbated by locusts, windstorms, earthquakes, epidemic disease and the corruption of the ruling Kuomintang government.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, bleak, realistic, intense
Similar in 90%
Zooey (2006)
Plot Summary:
Angel and Zooey are not your typical newlyweds. Zooey is a professional prostitute and Angel is a drug dealer. Yet they are not without hopes and dreams, of escaping their life in the streets and starting a new in a fresh painted cottage with picked fence, kid and a dog, in Manitoba, Canada, Life gets in the way however when their best friend gets in trouble with her pimp. They sacrifice everything to save her, including their own dreams.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 77%
House with a Turret (2012)
Plot Summary:
During the final winter of WWII, as displaced persons return to their former homes in the Soviet Union, an 8-year-old boy is left alone when his mother dies en route.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 166
Genere: Drama
Country: Ukraine
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, stylized, road movie, bleak, gloomy