Best movies like Vigil
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Toss lives on a sheep farm with her father in New Zealand. When Toss's father dies in an accident, Ethan, an itinerant hunter, wanders onto the family farm and is given a job by her grandfather. Toss's fairly innocent relationship with Ethan is severed when he forms a relationship with her mother.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 865
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: retro, uplifting, art house, atmospheric, serious, realistic, gloomy, cult film
Best tv shows and movies like Vigil (1984):
Similar in 89%
The Condemned (2012)
Plot Summary:
Determined to restore her dying father's reputation, Ana travels to the remote town of Rosales. Decades ago, he settled there and opened his first free clinic for cancer research. He launched an illustrious medical career - and fell in love. Ana plans to celebrate her father's scientific and humanitarian achievements by transforming the old family mansion into a world-class museum. She will preserve his legacy, and also breathe new life into the forgotten Rosales. But the townspeople-now destitute and helpless-do not greet her warmly. Neither does the house.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 269
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Puerto Rico
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
Genova (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man moves his two daughters to Italy after their mother dies in a car accident, in order to revitalize their lives. Genoa changes all three of them as the youngest daughter starts to see the ghost of her mother, while the older one discovers her sexuality.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: UK, Sweden, Cayman Islands
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sentimental, captivating, sex comedy, romantic drama, contemplative, gloomy, feel good
Similar in 83%
Test (2014)
Plot Summary:
They live in the steppe. A father and a daughter. Nothing may disturb the eternal order. Tomorrow always comes. And every morning the father goes away to work. And she stays alone. To wait for her father. And to feel. Two men are in love with her. She loves everyone. Her love cannot be divided. One day, the decision comes by itself. It comes from where the sun lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 593
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, realistic, serious, contemplative, offbeat, stylized, silent, art house, silent film
Similar in 76%
Story of Jen (2008)
Plot Summary:
A man commits suicide leaving a disturbing note. His wife and his daughter try to cope with it when the step-brother of the deceased visits them.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 153
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Canada, France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, psychological, suspense, bleak, realistic
Similar in 86%
The Other Side of Sleep (2011)
Plot Summary:
Loosely inspired by the director’s own memory of a girl’s disappearance from her village, the film follows Arlene (Antonia Campbell-Hughes), a young factory worker living alone in a rural Irish community.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Ireland, Netherlands
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: tense, surreal, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, captivating, offbeat, realistic, gloomy, crying
Similar in 84%
Without a Trace (1983)
Plot Summary:
Based on the case of young New Yorker Etan Patz, who disappeared in the early 1980s, this film casts Kate Nelligan as the distraught mother who lashes out at the police (in the person of a relentless detective played by Judd Hirsch), who make her and her husband suspects, even as she hounds them to find her child and drives away her husband (David Dukes) and friends (including Stockard Channing) with her intensity and single-mindedness. Squandered on a Hollywood ending that doesn't square with the real case: Etan Patz was never found.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, psychological, sincere, realistic, bleak, detective, crime drama
Similar in 90%
50 Ways of Saying Fabulous (2005)
Plot Summary:
Shot in and around the central Otago communities of Omakau, Ophir and Alexandra, A coming-of-age film that centers on overweight 12-year old Billy who is not interested in being a farmer and doesn't care for Rugby. His escape is the fantasy world of the TV show, Adventures in Space where he dreams about playing the heroine Lana. Of course all this doesn't make him the most popular with his school mates, but his tomboy cousin Lou buffers those problems. Into his life comes two new boys, Roy and Jamie that are destined to provide the catalyses in changing Billy's life.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 527
Genere: Drama
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, feel good, semi serious, offbeat, humorous, realistic, sexual, crying, independent film
Similar in 86%
Don't Tell (2005)
Plot Summary:
Sabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco. Lately nightmares start disturbing her, and almost in the same time she discovers to be pregnant. Step by step she remembers her childhood spent within a severe middle-class family. But a big secret is hidden within her heart. Sabina wants to contact again her brother, a University teacher in the US, to try to understand what is happened in their past. What is the secret? She is determined to bring clarity and serenity in her life. She finally manages to free herself from her "beast in the heart".
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Italy, UK, France, Spain
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, emotional, sincere, touching, realistic, gloomy, crying
Similar in 90%
The Son (2002)
Plot Summary:
A joinery instructor at a rehab center refuses to take a new teen as his apprentice, but then begins to follow the boy through the hallways and streets.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, meditative, compassionate, atmospheric, sincere, spiritual, art house, christian film, suspense
Similar in 85%
Times and Winds (2006)
Plot Summary:
In a small, poor village leaning over high rocky mountains, the villagers are simple and diligent people who struggle to cope with a harsh nature. They earn their living off the earth and a few animals they feed. Fathers always prefer one of their sons. Mothers command their daughters ruthlessly. Ömer, the son of the imam, wishes hopelessly for the death of his father. When he understands that wishful thinking does not have any concrete results, he begins to search for childish ways to kill his father. Yakup is in love with his teacher, and one day after seeing his father spying on the teacher he dreams too, like Ömer, of killing his father. Yıldız studies and tries to manage the household chores imposed by her mother. She learns with irritation about the secrets of the relationship between men and women.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, rough, serious, art house, bleak, realistic, neorealism, crying
Similar in 80%
Bluebird (2013)
Plot Summary:
On a freezing January evening, school bus driver Lesley completes her route, but her final inspection abruptly ends when a bluebird comes into view. What happens next shakes her small Maine logging town, proving that even the slightest actions have enormous consequences.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 976
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, bleak, serious, realistic, independent film, atmospheric, gloomy
Similar in 80%
The Third Side of the River (2014)
Plot Summary:
Tensions rise when a doctor (Daniel Veronese) pressures his teenage son to follow in his footsteps.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 250
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, psychological, tense, serious
Similar in 83%
Milk (2008)
Plot Summary:
A high school graduate, Yusuf could not pass the university entrance exam. Writing poetry is his greatest passion and some of his poems are being printed in various obscure literary journals. But neither these poems, nor the rapidly falling price of the milk they sell, are being of any benefit to Yusuf and Zehra's lives. When Yusuf finds out about Zehra's secret affair with the town's stationmaster he gets disconcerted. Will he find the way to cope with his anxiety for the unknown future, the rapid change that he is going through and the pain of taking a step into adulthood and leaving his youth behind.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: realistic, psychological, art house, atmospheric, captivating, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, sincere, serious
Similar in 89%
Angela (1995)
Plot Summary:
A ten year old girl named Angela leads her six year old sister, Ellie, through various regimens of 'purification' in an attempt to rid themselves of their evil, which she believes to be the cause of their mother's mental illness. Precocious, to say the least, Angela has visions of Lucifer coming to take her and her sister away, and one of her remedies for this is for them to remain within a circle of their dolls and toys until they see a vision of the virgin Mary come to them. But such thinking can only lead to an ending befitting of her own mental state.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, atmospheric, depressing, disturbing, controversial, offbeat, serious, realistic
Similar in 81%
Beautiful Kate (2009)
Plot Summary:
Ned Kendall is asked to return to the remote and isolated family home by his sister, to say goodbye to his father who is dying. Ned also brings his young aspiring actress fiancee who struggles with the isolation. When home he starts having memories of his childhood many involving his beautiful twin sister and his older brother. These memories awaken long-buried secrets from the family's past.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Australia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: stylized, realistic, psychological, tense, disturbing, bleak, serious, crying, independent film, hot
Similar in 80%
The Turning (2013)
Plot Summary:
Seventeen talented Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create a chapter of the hauntingly beautiful novel by multi award-winning author Tim Winton. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. As characters face second thoughts and regret, relationships irretrievably alter, resolves are made or broken, and lives change direction forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: anthology, sincere, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, postmodern, art house, atmospheric, thought provoking
Similar in 77%
Amy & Isabelle (2001)
Plot Summary:
In 1971, in the small town of Shirley Falls, in Maine, the odd and lonely secretary Isabelle Goodrow raises her teenager daughter Amy alone. She has only two friends in her job among her gossiper colleagues. When her overprotected daughter is seduced by her mathematic teacher Peter Robertson, the world of Isabelle falls apart. She becomes lost and loses her confidence on Amy, spoiling their relationship. Their bond gets tied again when Isabelle discloses her inner secrets from the past to Amy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 472
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 89%
My Uncle Antoine (1971)
Plot Summary:
Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business. Mon Oncle Antoine is Director Claude Jutra's masterpiece: A poignant, starkly honest, but humane film, shot through with authenticity from beginning to end. Realized with an unflagging artistic vision, Mon Oncle Antoine poetically portrays a young boy's coming of age, vividly capturing the Quebec mining town in which he lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: social, art house, sentimental, touching, humorous, emotional, realistic, contemplative, semi serious
Similar in 76%
Natural Sciences (2014)
Plot Summary:
In a rural school in the middle of the mountains, a girl who is starting to become a woman feels the profound need to discover her true identity. She does not know who her father is and she is determined to find him, but her mother does not approve it. The hostility of winter in such a harsh place turns this desire into a real threat: freezing in the middle of nowhere. Going behind the backs of the school authorities and the girl's mother, her teacher decides to help her. They set off on this quest for truth, but it is not going to be an easy journey... Their only clue is a small, rusty plate.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 319
Genere: Drama
Country: Argentina, France
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy, road movie
Similar in 82%
In My Father's Den (2004)
Plot Summary:
Paul (Macfadyen), a prize-winning war journalist, returns to his remote New Zealand hometown due to the death of his father, battle-scarred and world-weary. For the discontented sixteen-year-old Celia (Barclay) he opens up a world she has only dreamed of. She actively pursues a friendship with him, fascinated by his cynicism and experience of the world beyond her small-town existence. But many, including the members of both their families (Otto, Moy), frown upon the friendship and when Celia goes missing, Paul becomes the increasingly loathed and persecuted prime suspect in her disappearance. As the violent and urgent truth gradually emerges, Paul is forced to confront the family tragedy and betrayal that he ran from as a youth, and to face the grievous consequences of silence and secrecy that has surrounded his entire adult life.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: New Zealand, UK
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, emotional, atmospheric, talky, serious, tense, clever, touching, captivating
Similar in 83%
My Louisiana Sky (2001)
Plot Summary:
A girl comes to terms with her mentally challenged parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 952
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, retro, melancholic, thought provoking, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Disappearance of Finbar (1996)
Plot Summary:
A dissatisfied teen disappears from his small town, leaving friends to wonder about his whereabouts.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 652
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Ireland, Sweden, UK
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: offbeat, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 76%
Winter's Bone (2010)
Plot Summary:
17 year-old Ree Dolly sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin's code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 148000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: depressing, atmospheric, harsh, bleak, disturbing, tense, gloomy, serious, neo noir, independent film
Similar in 90%
Swimmers (2005)
Plot Summary:
After an accident in a small Maryland fishing town, 11-year-old Emma begins to question the nature of the adults around her.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 458
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Tully (2000)
Plot Summary:
Tully Jr. and Earl live on their father's Nebraska ranch, proud and independent to a fault. While the shy, reclusive Earl spends his free time watching movies, the cockier Tully works his way through a succession of short-term affairs and an off-again, on-again relationship with April, a stripper in town. When their childhood friend Ella returns to town to start a veterinary practice, however, Tully falls for her -- although the townsfolk have their doubts that he could ever commit to one woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, serious, independent film, realistic, romantic, social, sincere, thought provoking
Similar in 78%
White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)
Plot Summary:
Kat Connors is 17 years old when her perfect homemaker mother, Eve, disappears. Having lived for so long in an emotionally repressed household, she barely registers her mother's absence and certainly doesn't blame her doormat of a father, Brock, for the loss. But as time passes, Kat begins to come to grips with how deeply Eve's disappearance has affected her. Returning home on a break from college, she finds herself confronted with the truth about her mother's departure, and her own denial about the events surrounding it.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sexy, suspenseful, surreal, stylized, independent film, cynical, humorous, semi serious, grindhouse, teen
Similar in 78%
Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1900s, Miranda attends a girls boarding school in Australia. One Valentine's Day, the school's typically strict headmistress treats the girls to a picnic field trip to an unusual but scenic volcanic formation called Hanging Rock. Despite rules against it, Miranda and several other girls venture off. It's not until the end of the day that the faculty realizes the girls and one of the teachers have disappeared mysteriously.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: Australia
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: scenic, atmospheric, surreal, stylized, psychological, art house, breathtaking, melancholic, meditative, period piece
Similar in 83%
Innocence (2004)
Plot Summary:
A look inside an offbeat boarding school for young girls.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: France, Belgium, UK, Japan
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: disturbing, surreal, art house, enigmatic, atmospheric, stylized, suspenseful, erotic, visual, allegory
Similar in 78%
Pandora's Box (2008)
Plot Summary:
When an aging matriarch starts showing signs of dementia, her dysfunctional family in Istanbul must navigate a minefield of unresolved issues to care for her.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, captivating, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 81%
Hearts in Atlantis (2001)
Plot Summary:
A widowed mother and her son change when a mysterious stranger enters their lives.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 41000
Genere: Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: suspense, touching, emotional, sincere, sentimental, atmospheric, enigmatic, melancholic, realistic, spiritual