Best movies like Three Monkeys
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A family battles against the odds to stay together when small lies grow into an extravagant cover-up. In order to avoid hardship and responsibilities that would otherwise be impossible to endure, the family chooses to ignore the truth, not to see, hear or talk about it. But does playing “Three Monkeys” invalidate the truth of its existence?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Italy
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, disturbing, art house, feel good, philosophical, neo noir, contemplative, cerebral, visual
Best tv shows and movies like Three Monkeys (2008):
Similar in 83%
The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)
Plot Summary:
Respected liberal Senator Joe Tynan is asked to to lead the opposition to a Supreme Court appointment. It means losing an old friend and fudging principles to make the necessary deals, as well as further straining his already part-time family life. But it could be a big boost to his career, so he takes it on. Helping him prepare the case is pretty southern researcher Karen Traynor, and their developing relationship further complicates and compromises his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: realistic, clever, serious, suspenseful, political, cynical, gloomy, biting, suspense
Similar in 81%
Balancing Act (2012)
Plot Summary:
Having cheated on his wife, Giulio, a municipal employee, moves out, but has to find a solution on how to still support his family, and himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 823
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, tense, captivating, sincere, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Aurora (2010)
Plot Summary:
An apartment kitchen: a man and a woman discuss Little Red Riding Hood, their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping next room. Waste land on the city outskirts: behind a line of abandoned trailers, the man silently watches what seems to be a family. The same city, the same man: driving through traffic with two hand-made firing pins for a hunting rifle. The man is 42 years old, his name - Viorel. Troubled by obscure thoughts, he drives across the city to a destination known only to him.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania, France, Switzerland, Germany
Duration: 181 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, bleak, serious, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere, realistic, enigmatic
Similar in 87%
Bliss (2007)
Plot Summary:
A young woman of about 17 years old, named Meryem (Ozgu Namal), has been raped, and her village's customs call for her to be killed to restore honor and dignity to her family and village. The eldest son of the village leader, Cemal (Murat Han), is ordered to take Meryem to Istanbul and kill her, but at the last minute he cannot complete the task.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Greece
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: psychological, realistic, touching, serious, contemplative, surprise ending, sweet
Similar in 75%
20 Fingers (2004)
Plot Summary:
A film in several episodes with Bijan Daneshmand and Mania Akbari, exposing some of the issues of men and women within the confines of tradition and family life in Iran. Each episode displays a different form of male/female interaction. The placing of the actors in a moving vehicle or against a moving back drop signifies the movement of life despite all the obstacles in its way. The film deals with the roots of dependencies, limitations, power struggles and conflict that are the familiar stuff of life of couples in the Middle East.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 485
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 72 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, clever, contemplative, talky, sexual, islamic, sexy
Similar in 75%
Dry Summer (1963)
Plot Summary:
A scheming tobacco farmer sets out to ruin his competition by diverting the local water to his own property.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: educational, art house, black and white, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
Satantango (1994)
Plot Summary:
Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 439 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, art house, contemplative, black and white, dark comedy, poetic, philosophical, psychedelic, intellectual, depressing
Similar in 89%
Still Walking (2008)
Plot Summary:
Twelve years after their beloved eldest son, Junpei, drowned while saving a stranger's life, Kyohei and Toshiko welcome their surviving children home for a family reunion. Younger son Ryota still feels that his parents resent that he isn't the one who died; his new wife, Yukari, is awkwardly meeting the rest of the family for the first time. Daughter Chinami strains to fill the uncomfortable pauses with forced cheer.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, contemplative, sincere, touching, realistic, philosophical, thought provoking, disturbing, poignant, art house
Similar in 88%
Betrayal (2012)
Plot Summary:
While examining one of her patients, a doctor reveals that her husband is cheating with the patient's wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 948
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, realistic, sexy, detective, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
I Only Want You to Love Me (1976)
Plot Summary:
The story of the young man Peter, who grew up during the economic miracle, bereft of parental care and love. Learning early on that interpersonal relationships are based on the principles of exchange or purchase, he abides by these rules and gives generous presents to his family and his wife Erika. But when he is unable to keep up this life-style, his story takes a horrendous turn.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: art house, psychological, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Two-Legged Horse (2008)
Plot Summary:
A wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 622
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: serious, psychological, disturbing, bleak, art house, islamic, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
Egg (2007)
Plot Summary:
Poet Yusuf (35-38) returns to his childhood hometown, which he hadn't visited for years, upon his mother's death. He is faced with a neglected, crumbling house. Ayla, a young girl (17-19) awaits him there. Yusuf has been unaware of the existence of this distant relation who had been living with his mother for five years; He stays by his dead mother's bedside for a while on the morning of his return.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Greece
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, art house, thought provoking, disturbing, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, offbeat
Similar in 86%
Takva: A Man's Fear of God (2006)
Plot Summary:
Humble and introvert Muharrem lives in a solitary and meager existence of a prayer and sexual abstinence adhering strictly to the most severe Islamic doctrines.His extraordinary devotion attracts the attention of the leader of a rich and powerful Istanbul religious group and he offers him an administrative post as a rent collector for their numerous properties. Muharrem's new job throws him into the modern outside world he has successfully avoided for so long. He soon witnesses conflict attitude toward alcohol consumption and goodwill.He notices that he himself has become proud, domineering and even dishonest.To make matters worse, Muharrem's inner peace is unnerved by the tormenting image of seductive woman who tempts him in his dreams,both night and day.With the balance of his devotion now upset,his fear of God begins to eat away at his senses.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Turkey
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, serious, realistic, emotional, psychological, spiritual, art house, thinking, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Under the Skin of the City (2001)
Plot Summary:
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, emotional, suspenseful, exciting, suspense, islamic, masterpiece
Similar in 80%
Ossos (1997)
Plot Summary:
After a suicidal teenage girl gives birth, she misguidedly entrusts her baby’s safety to the troubled, deadbeat father, whose violent actions take the viewer on a tour of the foreboding, crumbling shantytown in which they live.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France, Denmark
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: contemplative, slow cinema, bleak, philosophical, art house, aesthetic, tense, sincere, serious, realistic
Similar in 82%
At Five in the Afternoon (2003)
Plot Summary:
Nogreh is a young Afghani woman living with her father and her sister-in-law, Leylomah, whose husband, Akhtar, is missing. Beyond the issue of Akhtar, Leylomah is most concerned with how to feed her baby. She cannot provide milk for her baby as her own hunger is preventing her from lactating. Nogreh, however, aspires toward a life in a western styled democracy. Although the Taliban are no longer in power in Afghanistan, traditional forces are still active in the country. Nogreh often displays signs of rebellion, such as wearing a pair of white pumps instead of the traditional slipper beneath her burqa. But mostly, Nogreh wants to be educated. Without her father's knowledge, Nogreh is attending a secular girls school. Ultimately, she wants to become President of Afghanistan. With the help of a Pakistani refugee who likes her as a woman, Nogreh tries to understand exactly what forces led to current world leaders being elected, those forces which she wants to emulate.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, sincere, touching, realistic, art house, emotional, masterpiece
Similar in 77%
Bas-fonds (2010)
Plot Summary:
On the outskirts of civilisation, three young women, Magalie, Marie-Steph and Barbara live a desperate life together. Drowning in alcohol, they both lust for and hate one another, coupling like animals. Yet gradually they become enmeshed in a complex game of love and domination. Magalie, the ringleader, subjugates through her male power, and bestial charisma. Simple Marie-Steph, her younger sister, remains in the background, and Barbara, unaware of her own prettiness, has joined the pack because she loves Magalie. One day, at Magalie’s instigation, and almost out of boredom, they hold up a bakery and kill the baker with a buckshot gun. Life gradually resumes, but nothing is the same.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 68 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, serious, disturbing, surreal, offbeat, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
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 75%
Pleasure Party (1975)
Plot Summary:
Phillipe and Esther live an apparently idyllic life with their daughter, Elise. In an attempt to preserve this bliss, Phillipe decides that he and Esther should each have affairs, being sure to tell each other openly about them. The plan backfires with tragic results as Phillipe becomes engulfed in jealously.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 714
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sensual, psychological, tense, sincere, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 81%
Colossal Youth (2006)
Plot Summary:
After the Portuguese government demolishes his slum and relocates him to a housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, 75-year-old Cape Verde immigrant Ventura wanders between his new and old homes, reconnecting with people from his past.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal, France, Switzerland
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: contemplative, sincere, thought provoking, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, slow cinema, bleak
Similar in 89%
Clouds of May (1999)
Plot Summary:
This is a movie within a movie, about a director, Muzaffer, who goes back to his hometown to make a film using a cast of local people (based on the director Ceylan's first feature, Kasaba). While Muzaffer is around, his mother complains about simple health problems, his father is in a legal fight against the government for his land, his cousin leaves his job to help Muzaffer who promises to find him work in Istanbul, and his little cousin Ali tries to carry an egg in his pocket for forty days so that he'll get the watch of his dreams. In the meantime, they form the cast for Muzaffer's movie as well.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, atmospheric, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 86%
The Waiting Room (2003)
Plot Summary:
Zeki Demirkubuz plays the lead character Ahmet who wants to make a film about Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'. He falls into a deep depression, loses interest in the film and life, pushes those who love him away and cannot complete the film.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing, art house, slow cinema, aesthetic, independent film
Similar in 82%
Amnesty (2011)
Plot Summary:
Amnesty is a 2011 Albanian movie directed by Buyar Alimani. It’s a story about two people who meet up in jail when they come for monthly visits of their spouses. They fall in love after becoming witnesses to a wedding in jail but relationship has to end because both their spouses get amnesty from the government. What happens next is shown in usual east european movie style.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Albania, Greece, France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, erotic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
The Wild Pear Tree (2018)
Plot Summary:
An aspiring writer returns to his native village in rural Turkey, where he becomes overwhelmed by his father's debts.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Sweden, Qatar
Duration: 188 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, realistic, contemplative, erotic, philosophical, art house, existential, cerebral, slang
Similar in 75%
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011)
Plot Summary:
In the rural area around the Anatolian town of Keskin, the local prosecutor, police commissar, and doctor lead a search for a victim of a murder to whom a suspect named Kenan and his mentally challenged brother confessed. However, the search is proving more difficult than expected as Kenan is fuzzy as to the body's exact location. As the group continues looking, its members can't help but chat among themselves about both trivia and their deepest concerns in an investigation that is proving more trying than any of them expected.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 49000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, meditative, art house, slow cinema, disturbing, suspense, surreal, lyrical, realistic, tense
Similar in 76%
Destiny (2006)
Plot Summary:
Bekir is in love with Ugur, who loves Zagor, who loves to commit crimes.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Greece
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, art house, captivating, suspense, independent film, slow cinema, aesthetic, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Winter Sleep (2014)
Plot Summary:
Aydin, a retired actor, owns a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal and his sister Necla, who is coping with her recent divorce. During the winter, snow covers the ground and boredom brings the return of old memories, pushing Aydin to flee….
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 55000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany
Duration: 196 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, philosophical, art house, meditative, independent film, lyrical, serious, realistic, cerebral, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Taste of Cherry (1997)
Plot Summary:
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: art house, contemplative, road movie, independent film, philosophical, spiritual, existential, slow cinema, psychological, sincere
Similar in 83%
Distant (2002)
Plot Summary:
Uzak/Distant chronicles the numbing loneliness, longing, and isolation in the lives of two men who are consumed by their own problems. Istanbul photographer Mahmut reluctantly receives his relative Yusuf, but the mingling of their lives does little to alleviate their detachment.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, art house, stylized, lyrical, psychological, touching, slow cinema, atmospheric, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Town (1997)
Plot Summary:
The story of a family living in a small godforsaken town in Turkey seen through the eyes of children and dealing with the growing complexity when one becomes an adult.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: aesthetic, art house, black and white, slow cinema, independent film