Best movies like Venus Peter
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Produced for Scottish television, Venus Peter was financed by the Orkney Islands Council. The title character is transformed into a "sea child" when he is baptized with salt water. Though his family tries hard to accustom him to life on land, Peter (Gordon R. Strachan) yearns to go to sea -- or, at the very least, to escape his cloistered community. He finds a kindred spirit in Princess Paloma (Juliet Cadzow), the village "looney," who, alas, is eventually carted away to an institution. Briefly fascinated by poetry and music, thanks to his lovely teacher Miss Balsibie (Sinead Cusack), Peter is disillusioned when he finds his teacher in the arms of her lover (and out of her clothing). The final blow to Peter's idealism comes when his grandfather's ship is repossessed. Despite the bleakness of his surroundings and his seemingly dead-end existence, however, Peter never completely lets go of his dreams, and the film ends on a positive note.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 122
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, semi autobiographical, cult film
Best tv shows and movies like Venus Peter (1989):
Similar in 88%
Secret (2012)
Plot Summary:
Ksawery is a young gay man who performs as drag queen in a Warsaw nightclub. Karolina is Jewish and seems to be his agent. Jan is Ksawery's lonely grandfather, who's been hiding a dark secret which the couple wants to reveal.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
When the Whales Came (1989)
Plot Summary:
A pair of children befriend an eccentric old man, who lives isolated on the far shore of their island home. But it turns out that the old man knows a terrible secret about the island and the whales who sometimes come. Meanwhile WWI is making life hard in the village.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 450
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 77%
God's Creatures (2022)
Plot Summary:
In a windswept fishing village, a mother is torn between protecting her beloved son and her own sense of right and wrong. A lie she tells for him rips apart their family and close-knit community.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland, UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Dragonflies (2022)
Plot Summary:
Álex and Cata, two young women who live on the outskirts of the city, a desolate place full of empty stores and ramshackle bars where dreams end up fading, have been preparing their escape all their lives.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Hoffman (1970)
Plot Summary:
A businessman blackmails his attractive young secretary into spending a weekend with him. Though he's a creep throughout, he gradually emerges as a sympathetic character.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: sex comedy, touching, realistic, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 75%
A Thousand Months (2003)
Plot Summary:
1981, Morocco. A village in the Atlas mountains. A city in the distance. A child. A family facing its destiny.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, Morocco, Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Margaret's Museum (1995)
Plot Summary:
In a town where half the men die down the coalpit, Margaret MacNeil is quite happy being single in her small Cape Breton island town. Until she meets Neil Currie, a charming and sincere bagpipe-playing, Gaelic-speaking dishwasher. But no matter what you do, you can't avoid the spectre of the pit forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: cult classic, emotional, heartbreaking, independent film, psychological, uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, erotic
Similar in 81%
Half-Price (2003)
Plot Summary:
Demi-Tarif follows the low-key adventures of three young siblings, Romeo, Launa, and the youngest - Leo, left on their own in a rundown Paris apartment. One of them narrates, wistfully explaining how their mother abandoned them and calls them once in a while to see how they are doing or tell them she loves them. The three kids do as they please, roaming the streets, running out of restaurants without paying for food, and shoplifting from the local grocery store. They eat whatever and whenever they want, gorging themselves on sweets. They beg for change on the Metro and show up late for school in tattered, dirty clothes. All the while, they try to keep the fact that they are alone a secret from the world of adults.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 215
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 63 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Treasures of the Snow (1980)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of the book "Treasures of the Snow“ written by Patricia M. St. John.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 268
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, feel good, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 82%
For Those in Peril (2013)
Plot Summary:
Aaron, a young misfit living in a remote Scottish fishing community, is the lone survivor of a strange fishing accident that claimed the lives of five men including his older brother. Spurred on by sea-going folklore and local superstition, the village blames Aaron for this tragedy, making him an outcast amongst his own people. Steadfastly refusing to believe that his brother has died, he sets out to recover him and the rest of men.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating, powerful, gloomy, folk tale
Similar in 82%
Hope and Glory (1987)
Plot Summary:
British writer/director John Boorman (The Emerald Forest) draws us into an astonishing and exhilarating portrait of his own childhood, set against the terrors of a London torn apart by the onset of WWII. Seven-year-old Billy Rohan (Sebastian Rice Edwards) finds his childhood to be atime of great dangerand even greater discovery. From thunderous bombings at his own doorstep andthe constant threat of Luftwaffe air raids to the landing of a German paratrooper in his neighborhood and the joyous obliteration of his much-hated school, Billy's young life is shapedand even enrichedby the one positive thing war has brought him: liberation from the ordinary. And though Billy is surrounded by decimation and the smoking remnants of ruined lives, his sense of enchanted wonderment and innocence in the face of man's most destructive folly affect him in a way that alters his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, sentimental, humorous, talky, intense, sincere, historical drama, semi autobiographical, semi serious
Similar in 78%
The Gospel According to Vic (1986)
Plot Summary:
Vic Mathews teaches a remedial class at the Blessed Edith Semple School in Scotland. Some at the school are trying to discover the two more miracles that would promote the late Edith Semple to sainthood; Mathews, a non-believer, wishes the school would concentrate on teaching the children. He becomes confused, however, when he is involved in possibly miraculous events himself! Written by George S. Davis.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 589
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 81%
The Grand Highway (1987)
Plot Summary:
Louis, a nine-year-old boy from Paris, spends his summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother Claire has lodged him with her girlfriend Marcelle and her husband Pelo while she's having her second baby. There Louis makes friends with Martine, the ten-year- old girl next door, and learns from her about life.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: anthology, touching, realistic, semi serious, feel good
Similar in 85%
The Proud Ones (1980)
Plot Summary:
In early twentieth-century Brittany, two peasants marry, have a son, and live in traditional Breton ways: three generations under one roof, a division of labor between the sexes, elders' stories at night, politics and religion during their little free time. Times are hard: la Chienne du Monde drives some to suicide; Ankou (death) is close at hand. Pierre is born into this republican family, his lyric childhood interrupted by the outbreak of war and his father's conscription. He learns his catechism and, as a child of a Reds, also reveres school. His grandfather and father often put him on their shoulders, giving him a ride on the horse of pride.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 294
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, saga, contemplative
Similar in 78%
The Go-Between (2015)
Plot Summary:
An elderly man pieces together his childhood memories after finding his diary from 1900, which he wrote when he was 13 years old.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, touching, sentimental, psychological, retro, costume drama, historical drama, serious, crying
Similar in 76%
My Childhood (1972)
Plot Summary:
The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: bleak, inspirational, depressing, art house, sincere, touching, offbeat, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 87%
Mondo (1995)
Plot Summary:
Mondo is a homeless young boy, with a big smile, who wanders around Nice looking for food and a place to sleep.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 610
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Nephew (1998)
Plot Summary:
Twenty years ago, Tony Egan's sister went to America. Nobody ever heard of her again. But now, the message of her death arrives in her town of birth. Only days later, her only son Chad arrives, too. Obviously, his mother took a black husband. Soon, Chad falls for Aislin, who has a bit of a crush on him too. But there is an old conflict going on between her father and Chad's uncle. This conflict resurfaces and begins to draw circles, wider and wider.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
The Winter Guest (1997)
Plot Summary:
It's winter in a small Scottish village near the sea, and multiple lives intersect in a day. Frances (Emma Thompson) has just lost her husband to an early death, so her mother, Elspeth (Phyllida Law), travels to Frances' house to reconnect with her daughter and grandson, Alex (Gary Hollywood). Meanwhile, old women Chloe (Sandra Voe) and Lily (Sheila Reid) go to a funeral, youngsters Sam (Douglas Murphy) and Tom (Sean Biggerstaff) cut class, and Alex gets a crush on tomboy Nita (Arlene Cockburn).
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, bleak, talky, scenic, sincere, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying
Similar in 81%
Cider with Rosie (2015)
Plot Summary:
A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the Cotswolds during and immediately after the First World War.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, psychological, sentimental, touching, semi autobiographical
Similar in 79%
The Little Traitor (2007)
Plot Summary:
Based on the novel "Panther in the Basement" by the world-renowned author, Amos Oz, the movie takes place in Palestine in 1947, just a few months before Israel becomes a state. Proffy Liebowitz, a militant yet sensitive eleven year old wants nothing more than for the occupying British to get the hell out of his land.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Israel, USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: sentimental, thought provoking, touching, emotional, realistic, serious, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Bulgarian Rhapsody (2014)
Plot Summary:
the story of two adolescents, Moni and Zhozho, who meet 17-year-old Zheni in 1943 and with whom both fell in love. The events that follow unfold while Bulgaria has to decide on the deportation of 11 343 Jewish citizens in Macedonia and Thrace.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 437
Genere: Drama
Country: Bulgaria, Israel
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, emotional, suspenseful, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Simon & the Oaks (2011)
Plot Summary:
Epic story about two families and their friendship and common destiny in Sweden's Gothenburg in the 1940s and 1950s. Told from the perspective of young Simon Larsson, who learns that he's an adopted child who has a Jewish father from Germany. After WWII Simon travels to explore his roots - a journey that leads to the basic mysteries of the human life. After the bestselling novel by Marianne Fredriksson.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, touching, psychological, captivating, contemplative, bleak, serious, romantic drama
Similar in 83%
The Outlander (2005)
Plot Summary:
It is the early 20th century. A stranger arrives in the small, rural community and disrupts the lives of its inhabitants. The man, who refuses to give his name, is dubbed The Outlander. A traveller who disdains conventional behaviour and parochialism, The Outlander disturbs the villagers' complacency and scandalizes the community; he also elicits admiration and gains a woman's love. He ultimately leaves in the same manner he had arrived, but not before he has helped the villagers open their eyes to the larger world beyond their village.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 406
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, sentimental, touching, realistic, serious
Similar in 82%
Central Station (1998)
Plot Summary:
An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 42000
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, emotional, road movie, realistic, art house, art film, crying, spiritual, mesmerizing
Similar in 86%
Is Anybody There? (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young boy who lives in an old folks' home strikes up a friendship with a retired magician.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, sentimental, depressing, sincere, realistic, clever, offbeat, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 87%
A Time in Quchi (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bao stays with his grandfather for the summer and is shocked to see there are no modern appliances.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious
Similar in 80%
The Education of Little Tree (1997)
Plot Summary:
Little Tree is an 8-year-old Cherokee boy, who, during the time of the depression, loses his parents and starts to live with his Indian grandma and grandpa and learn the wisdom of the Cherokee way of life.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: touching, melancholic, scenic, uplifting, independent film, atmospheric, feel good, serious, realistic, sentimental
Similar in 75%
The Man Without a Face (1993)
Plot Summary:
The story of a relationship between a teacher and his troubled pupil. Justin McLeod is a former teacher who lives as a recluse on the edge of town. His face is disfigured from an automobile accident and fire ten years before in which a boy was incinerated and for which he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He is also suspected of being a pedophile. He is befriended by Chuck, causing the town's suspicion and hostility to be ignited. McLeod inculcates in his protege a love of justice and freedom from prejudice which sustains him beyond the end of the film.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: touching, inspirational, sincere, realistic, melancholic, serious, sentimental, scary, psychological, philosophical
Similar in 79%
Pay It Forward (2000)
Plot Summary:
Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 123000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, inspirational, motivational, sentimental, sincere, uplifting, tear jerker, sad, thought provoking