Movies like Heartlines

If you like "Heartlines" you are looking for emotional, tense and intense movies about / with forgiveness, second chance, redemption, pastor, moral dilemma, guilt and hopes themes of Drama genre shot in South Africa.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps: 1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below). 2. Look for them in the presented list.
Heartlines (2006)
 5.4
 11
Heartlines (2006)
Genre: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 95 min.
Story: The gangster Manysia is given a second chance after his release from prison. Reverend Jacob Musi takes him under his wings, both as a promise to Manysia’s father and as an act of benevolence. Reverend Jacob thinks that everyone deserves a fresh start and his family generously welcomes Manysia, especially the reverend’s son. But soon the past will cast its shadows over them again.
Style: emotional, tense, intense, suspense
Plot: forgiveness, second chance, redemption, pastor, moral dilemma, guilt, hopes, character study, gangster, friendship, religion, betrayal, faith, murder mystery, mentor, family secret, urban, loss, reconciliation, machismo, father figure, suspicion, social realism, revenge, violence ...
Place: south africa

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to Heartlines

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out emotional, intense, suspense and tense films with plots about redemption, moral dilemma, betrayal, forgiveness, urban, revenge and guilt mostly in Drama, Action and Crime genres. Some movies like Heartlines: Enemies (2025), King Frankie (2024), Thappu Thalangal (1978), The Preacher's Sin (2015), Bottom of the 9th (2019). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
 6.8
 1K
Enemies (2025)
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story: Chimo turns 18 years and comes from a humble and supportive family. Since childhood he was bullied and even today, while working multiple jobs and dreaming of starting his own business, he continues to face his bully: El Rubio. When Chimo has the ...
Style: emotional, intense, tension
Audience: teen drama
Plot: coming of age, friendship, revenge, rivalry, bullying, adolescence, youth, working class, neighborhood, teen angst, transformation, redemption ...
Similarity:
95%
 7.6
 85
King Frankie (2024)
Genre: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 95 min.
Story: Following the death of his father, the past catches up with Dublin taxi driver, Frank Burke.
Style: emotional, reflective, tense, intense, realistic ...
Plot: taxi driver, mourning, grief, loss, father son relationship, character study, working class, secrets, family secret, regret, urban, social realism ...
Place: dublin ireland
Similarity:
90%
Thappu Thalangal (1978)
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 131 min.
Story: Thappu Thalangal is a saga of emotional and selfish world of human feelings. Devu, a local thug whose weapon of choice is a bicycle chain he sports casually around the neck. On one of his nightly rounds, Devu is pursued by a cop and seeks refuge at ...
Style: emotional, bleak, intense, period piece
Plot: redemption, societal hypocrisy, social realism, tragedy, prostitution, moral dilemma, gangster, sacrifice, regret, star crossed lovers, loss, forbidden love ...
Time: 70s
Similarity:
78%
The Preacher's Sin (2015)
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Evan Tanner's life is spiraling out of control when his live-in niece is arrested for the second time, his boss imposes on him an unacceptable contract, and to top it all he discovers he has a son from a one night affair during the war... When ...
Style: suspense, tense, captivating, crime drama, intense ...
Plot: moral dilemma, investigation, illegitimate son, family secret, uncover truth, secret, relationship problems, choice, family problems, uncle niece relationship, dark secret, money problems ...
Similarity:
75%
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Bottom of the 9th (2019)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min.
Story: Bobby Stano had everything going for him. Fresh out of high school, he was signed to the majors, had a beautiful girlfriend, everything was looking up. That is, until he and his friends get into a fight with a neighboring gang. The confrontation ...
Style: suspense, disturbing, sentimental, suspenseful, dramatic ...
Plot: baseball, baseball team, prison, ex convict, ex athlete, friendship, redemption, family relations, husband wife relationship, getting home, reputation, second chance ...
Time: year 1999, year 2017
Place: new york, bronx new york city
Similarity:
75%
I Can't Breathe (God Forgive Them) (2022)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 65 min.
Story: What lies beyond Death? Does Justice indeed Prevail? The testing of your faith is more precious than gold. So, keep on believing.
Style: religious drama, inspirational, reflective, emotional, intense ...
Plot: faith, police brutality, hopes, forgiveness, religious, spirituality, resurrection, redemption, justice, miraculous event, moral dilemma, resilience ...
Similarity:
71%
 7.7
 43
Echo Rhyme (2016)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min.
Story: Frank, a professional counterfeiter from a wealthy mob family,receives the heart of the man he was supposed to kill two weeks earlier. He soon finds himself in a set of circumstances that will test his new heart & if he really has changed.
Style: dark, psychological, medical drama, neo noir, emotional ...
Plot: organ transplant, heart transplant, redemption, forgery, identity crisis, moral dilemma, crime family, life & death, criminal underworld, identity, second chance, guilt ...
Similarity:
66%
 3.8
 2K
Lanke (2021)
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 132 min.
Story: Ram, a convict, steps out of jail to fall in love with the do-gooder Paavani.
Style: intense, tense, emotional, suspense, dark ...
Plot: convict, redemption, moral ambiguity, love triangle, social issues, prostitution, female antagonist, injustice, obsession, law and order, violence, anti hero ...
Time: 2020s
Similarity:
59%
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 5.7
 100
Godsend (2021)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: When a man (Michael Ochotorena, "John Light," "Dispatched") wakes up under a bridge to discover he no longer knows who he is or how he got there, his life brutally unfolds as a homeless person. Enduring the scorn of random ...
Style: emotional, realistic, reflective, independent film, road movie
Plot: kindness, compassion, homelessness, hopes, humanity, street life, redemption, amnesia, loss, faith, survival, second chance ...
Similarity:
59%
A Shepherd of Pure Heart (2005)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min.
Story: Evenside Church is an upstanding and venerable institution that has served African-American families in rural Maryland for 200 years. Minister Karl Upton is proud to be its young, up-and-coming assistant pastor. Karl takes the Gospel and his calling ...
Style: inspirational, emotional, intense, suspense, independent film
Plot: church, community, scandal, african american, faith, gospel, religion, pastor, ministry, faith based, forgiveness, secrets ...
Place: maryland
Similarity:
57%
 5.5
 393
Zebra Crossing (2008)
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min.
Story: Set amongst the backdrop of the towering, concrete-clad estates of south London ‘Zebra Crossings’ blends a diverse mixture of characters that all share one thing in common: The incredible loneliness of living alongside 7 million other people.
Style: atmospheric, tense, intense, melancholic, bleak ...
Plot: loneliness, coming of age, friendship, urban, social commentary, drug addiction, alienation, realism, character study, social realism, father figure, mentor ...
Place: england
Similarity:
57%
Love Me Instead (2021)
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 124 min.
Story: One day, Sedat, who works as a prison guard in Konya, is given the duty to take one of the prisoners, Musa, to his hometown. Musa does not intend to return until he finds out why his daughter was killed.
Style: psychological, emotional, dramatic, suspense, captivating ...
Plot: prison guard, investigation, prisoner, liar, lie, uncover truth, life is a bitch, hidden truth, loss, tragedy, father daughter relationship, getting home ...
Similarity:
54%
Abandoned Man (2025)
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 91 min.
Story: After serving time in prison for his brother's crime, a man warily reunites with family, finding hope and healing in a life-changing bond with his niece.
Style: dramatic, emotional, realistic, melancholic, suspense
Plot: family drama, second chance, redemption, guilt, trauma, family secret, healing, uncle niece relationship, bittersweet, moral dilemma, intimate, forgiveness ...
Similarity:
53%
 4.8
 1K
Parole (2018)
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 150 min.
Story: Alex is a comrade and an active communist leader. Due to some unfortunate events, Alex gets arrested and is imprisoned but is compelled to come out on Parole to solve a mystery he left behind.
Style: tense, intense, crime thriller, suspenseful, realistic ...
Plot: parole, political activism, investigation, power struggle, political conspiracy, secrets, social justice, moral dilemma, corruption, suspicion, betrayal, loyalty ...
Time: 2010s
Similarity:
51%
 4.9
 9K
No Deposit (2015)
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 80 min.
Story: Mickey Ryan falls from grace due to a series of downward spiraling events beyond his control. With his life turned upside down, Mickey tries valiantly to resolve his issues but hooks up with the wrong people who blind him with anger and hate.
Style: psychological, suspenseful, captivating, thrilling, crime drama ...
Plot: family man, criminal, organized crime, changing lives, problem, life is a bitch, social problems, loss of control, desperation, redemption, moral ambiguity, character study ...
Similarity:
51%
An Encounter with the Messiah (2015)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story: The Woman with the Issue of Blood, or as we call her in our film, Maria. She was arguably the most well-known, nameless figure in the bible. A woman who suffered for 12 years with an incurable disease. 12 years of doctors telling her that they can ...
Style: religious drama, serious, inspirational, emotional, reflective ...
Plot: faith, miraculous event, hopes, faith healing, faith based, redemption, spiritual journey, compassion, sacrifice, forgiveness, urban, perseverance ...
Similarity:
46%
Thou Shalt Not Hate (2020)
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, Poland
Duration: 96 min.
Story: Simone Segre, a renowned surgeon of Jewish origins, lives in a city in the north-east of Italy. A quiet life, an elegant apartment and no connection with his past. One day he finds himself assisting a man victim of a hit and run accident. But when ...
Style: disturbing, psychological, captivating, tension, intense ...
Plot: moral dilemma, guilty conscience, remorse, anti semitism, hit and run, guilt, accident, hate, traumatic past, psychological trauma, fascist, neo nazism ...
Similarity:
45%
Her Second Chance (2006)
Genre: Drama
Country: Switzerland
Duration: 90 min.
Story: After many years in jail, Sonjas returns to her home village where she takes up her fight for custody of her 8-year old son Tim. But neither the authorities, nor her in-laws, nor Tims foster parents will ever consider handing over little Tim to ...
Style: emotional, intense, serious, realistic, tense ...
Plot: redemption, second chance, mother son relationship, motherhood, child custody, family drama, family secret, forgiveness, branding iron, legal battle, guilt, reconciliation ...
Time: 2000s
Similarity:
44%
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 8.1
 2K
Gangster (2024)
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 121 min.
Story: Emotionless hitman Michael meets Jessy, awakening unfamiliar feelings. A mission gone awry forces him to reevaluate his entire existence, challenging his beliefs and way of life.
Style: tense, crime thriller, intense, dark, noir ...
Plot: hitman, gangster, urban, moral dilemma, identity crisis, assassin, violence, organized crime, moral ambiguity, underworld, forbidden romance, character study ...
Time: 21st century
Similarity:
43%
 7.0
 2K
Ikshu (2022)
Genre: Action, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 124 min.
Story: Ikshva, a 16-year-old boy seeks help from a police officer to find his missing parents. An uninvited guest and local goons turn his fate around. Will he find his parents?
Style: crime drama, emotional, intense, tense, suspense ...
Plot: police investigation, teenage protagonist, coming of age, family drama, corruption, desperation, family secret, loss, small town, youth, determination, resilience ...
Similarity:
42%
 6.9
 142
Loyalties (1986)
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada, UK
Duration: 98 min.
Story: Lily and her three youngest children join her husband David Sutton, a doctor in an isolated northern Alberta town. Their eleven-year-old son arrives later from boarding school. David conceals a dark secret which caused the family to leave England ...
Style: realistic, emotional, dramatic, tense, suspense ...
Plot: family drama, family secret, secrets, small town, friendship, outsider, isolation, motherhood, betrayal, racism, intimate, identity ...
Time: 80s
Place: england, canada
Similarity:
40%
 7.3
 2K
Flight 404 (2024)
Genre: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 104 min.
Story: A few days before she travels to Mecca to perform Hajj, Ghada faces an emergency which forces her to reach out to people from her tainted past with whom she had cut off contact in order to collect a large sum of money. So, as she collects the money, ...
Style: emotional, realistic, suspenseful, tense
Plot: female protagonist, moral dilemma, forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, moral ambiguity, family drama, guilt, identity, urban
Place: middle east
Similarity:
40%
Maha Samudram (2021)
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 150 min.
Story: Two men in Vizag are steadfast friends since years but what happens when one of them is forced out of the city and the other takes the responsibility of his mistakes.
Style: emotional, intense, realistic, masala
Audience: adult
Plot: friendship, male bonding, responsibility, betrayal, guilt, second chance, redemption, urban, moral dilemma, passion, love triangle, jealousy ...
Similarity:
39%
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Bridge of Sleep (2016)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Shahab who is about to get marry with his fiance is in desperate need for money. For bringing money he with the help of his friend participates in a bargain but loses all his money. Under all the pressures from his family and his fiance Shahab is ...
Style: emotional, realistic, melancholic, psychological, tense ...
Plot: male protagonist, debt, loss, desperation, family drama, guilt, marriage, poverty, working class, tragedy, regret, shame ...
Similarity:
39%
Shadow Fighter (2017)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story: A homeless ex-boxer and an inner-city kid's unlikely bond, helps them face their future, while fighting the tragedy from their past!
Style: thrilling, captivating, suspenseful, psychological, emotional ...
Plot: ex boxer, tragedy, boxer, boxing, redemption, homeless man, confronting the past, life is a bitch, troubled past, homeless, social problems, tragic past ...
Similarity:
38%
 6.3
 154
Fatal (2012)
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 103 min.
Story: In this coming-of-age drama, sin, conscience and responsibility take center stage when 28-year-old protagonist confesses to his part in a rape ten years earlier. Wracked by guilt, his itemization of the choices that led to his crime are ...
Style: tense, psychological, suspenseful, disturbing, suspense ...
Plot: redemption, rape, sexual abuse, revenge, attempted rape, sexualized violence, violence, rape and revenge, trauma, guilt, violent, criminal ...
Similarity:
38%
 5.1
 3K
Test (2025)
Genre: Drama, Sport
Country: India
Duration: 145 min.
Story: The worlds of three ordinary people converge during a historic cricket match, ultimately forcing them to make life-altering decisions.
Style: intense, emotional, tense, suspense
Plot: cricket, moral dilemma, family conflict, realism, social commentary, redemption, identity, community, slice of life, urban, betrayal, friendship ...
Similarity:
37%
 6.8
 81
The Good Man (2013)
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, South Africa, Ireland
Duration: 75 min.
Story: Michael is a young Irish banker, whose life begins to unravel after causing a stranger's death in an accident. Sifiso is a teenager living in a shack in a Cape Town township, dreaming of escape. When their stories unexpectedly collide, their ...
Style: thought provoking, intercultural, crime drama, bleak, multicultural ...
Plot: guilt, redemption, moral dilemma, accident, social realism, empathy, escape, survival, urban, desperation, grief, forgiveness ...
Place: ireland, south africa
Similarity:
36%
 5.8
 299
Downeast (2021)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story: Dives into the often ignored seedy underbelly of Maine and it follows Emma Maddox as she returns to her hometown years following the mysterious death of her brother, Mikey. As she reconnects with his best friend Tommy, the two rekindle their flame ...
Style: suspenseful, tense, captivating, psychological, thrilling ...
Plot: redemption, revenge, small town, problem, bereavement, life is a bitch, lie, getting home, investigation, betrayal, friendship, coastal town ...
Place: maine
Similarity:
36%
 7.2
 71
The Tested (2010)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: A life shattering tragedy sends three people on vastly different paths to a similar goal of redemption and understanding.
Style: psychological, emotional, captivating, thrilling, dark ...
Plot: redemption, loss, trauma, grief, guilt, multiple storylines, problem, life is a bitch, tragic event, tragedy, forgiveness, family drama ...
Similarity:
35%