Movies like Vitalina Varela
If you like "Vitalina Varela" you are looking for contemplative, art house and art film movies about / with female protagonist, grief, loss, mourning, character study, intimate and secret themes of Drama genre shot in Portugal.
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.
Vitalina Varela (2019)
3K
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 124 min.
Story:
A Cape Verdean woman navigates her way through Lisbon, following the scanty physical traces her deceased husband left behind and discovering his secret, illicit life.
Style:
contemplative, art house, art film, slow cinema, psychological, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, atmospheric, melancholic ...
Plot:
female protagonist, grief, loss, mourning, character study, intimate, secret, immigrant, minimalism, memory, immigration, realism, identity, diaspora, haunting, urban decay, elderly man, poverty, ritual, african, loss of husband, foreign language, mystery, immigrants
Place:
lisbon portugal, africa, west africa
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Vitalina Varela
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out melancholic, contemplative, art house and existential films with plots about intimate, grief, loss, memory, minimalism, isolation and mourning mostly in Drama genres. Some movies like Vitalina Varela: 13 Summers Underwater (2017), The Other (2020), Horse Money (2014), Go Home (2015), The Quiet Roar (2014). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland, UK, Brazil
Duration: 64 min.
Story:
Parallel stories connected through an intimacy with death. The living and the dead communicate through visions, memories and reality.
Style:
surreal, emotional, melancholic, existential, contemplative ...
Plot:
grief, loss, memories, intimate, afterlife, a vision, mourning, supernatural, ghost, haunting, existentialism, spirituality ...
Time:
2010s
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 77 min.
Story:
An intimate portrait of a woman's mental confrontation and drifting between dream and reality after experiencing loss.
Style:
psychological, melancholic, contemplative, emotional, art house ...
Plot:
mental health, grief, character study, intimate, female protagonist, loss, loneliness, memory, isolation, confrontation, identity, minimalism ...
Similarity:
36%
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
While the young captains lead the revolution in the streets, the people of Fontainhas search for Ventura, lost in the woods.
Style:
atmospheric, touching, psychological, emotional, postmodern ...
Plot:
immigrant, social decay, haunted by the past, introspection, state affairs, revolution, mental institution, society, misfit, anthropology, existentialism, underground ...
Time:
2010s, 21st century
Place:
portugal, africa
Similarity:
36%
353
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Switzerland, Belgium, Lebanon
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
Nada is going home. Or at least she wants to. When she comes back to Lebanon, she realizes she's a foreigner in her own country. But there's still a place she calls home: an abandoned house in ruins, haunted by the presence of her ...
Style:
captivating, thrilling, psychological, suspenseful, surreal ...
Plot:
female protagonist, identity, memory, homecoming, self discovery, introspection, life is a bitch, family relations, relationships, trauma, haunted house, family secret ...
Place:
lebanon
Similarity:
30%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden, Norway
Duration: 77 min.
Story:
MARIANNE (Evabritt Strandberg) is a 68-year old woman diagnosed with a terminal disease. Left with angst, she seeks therapy at a clinic where she is treated with Psilocybin (LSD) and meditation by a counselor, Eva (Hanna Schygulla). Through this she ...
Style:
contemplative, serious, psychological, realistic, sincere ...
Plot:
aging, elderly, drug abuse, introspection, disease, dealing with death, terminal illness, female protagonist, subconscious, character study, youth, hallucination ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
europe
Similarity:
29%
Genre: Drama
Country: Estonia, France
Duration: 111 min.
Story:
After 27-year-old Karmen's father dies, the security structures of her previous life start falling apart, as her relationship with her half-brother Viktor also deteriorates, and she faces the darkness and emptiness of the universe.
Style:
psychological, melancholic, poignant, existential, dark ...
Plot:
grief, female protagonist, loss, dysfunctional family, mourning, young adult, character study, secrets, identity crisis, betrayal, isolation, trauma ...
Time:
2020s
Similarity:
28%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada, Norway
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
A young woman, and her last memories of the five people who loved her most, recalled while experiencing a catastrophic event.
Style:
psychological, thrilling, captivating, emotional, art house ...
Plot:
memories, female protagonist, death, memory, relationships, love story, male female relationship, love affair, lifestyle, trauma, loss, grief ...
Similarity:
28%
Genre: Drama
Country: Iceland, Netherlands, Croatia, France
Duration: 82 min.
Story:
When the light breaks on a long summer’s day in Iceland. From one sunset to another, Una, a young art student, encounters love, friendship, sorrow and beauty.
Style:
emotional, thrilling, psychological, captivating, contemplative ...
Plot:
secret, art student, grief, coming of age, loss, summer, female protagonist, relationships, life is a bitch, self discovery, beauty, intimate ...
Place:
iceland
Similarity:
28%
Movie in collections
2K
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 66 min.
Story:
Areum sits in a small café, typing on her laptop. Around her, customers enact various dramas from their lives. Is she writing what she hears or is she hearing what's been written?
Style:
melancholic, psychological, contemplative, reflective, captivating ...
Plot:
guest, creative process, secretly observing, antisocial behavior, lifestyle, cafe, socially awkward, intimate, ambiguity, slice of life, female protagonist, everyday life ...
Similarity:
28%
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
While middle-aged Vincent (Didier Sandre) makes a sand castle on a beach in Brittany, France, his sister Zaza (Catherine Ferran) and brother Francois (Charles Berling) spend a summer day reflecting on death and loss. They think back on their sister ...
Style:
melancholic, reflective, poignant, contemplative, emotional ...
Plot:
loss, grief, mourning, character study, bereavement, beach, memory, intimate, family relations, relationships, small town, minimalism ...
Time:
90s
Place:
brittany
Similarity:
27%
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal, Spain
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
The disappearance of his wife leaves Fernando, a quiet geography teacher, completely devastated. Aimless, he impersonates another man as a gardener at a Portuguese country house, where he forms an unexpected friendship with the owner.
Style:
melancholic, emotional, psychological, atmospheric, existential ...
Plot:
grief, loss, character study, loneliness, identity, intimate, country house, memory, minimalism, friendship, impostor, gardener ...
Similarity:
27%
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
She has never lived in a high-rise apartment, and she wonders how her sister can live at this height every day. A few days ago she kind of burst in to stay with her sister, and she is now becoming re-accustomed to life in Korea. While seeming to ...
Style:
captivating, psychological, thrilling, contemplative, art house ...
Plot:
female protagonist, secret, character study, lifestyle change, relationships, male female relationship, relationship problems, intimate, city life, minimalism, slice of life, sibling relationship ...
Place:
korea, seoul
Similarity:
27%
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
After 35 years working as a clerk in a government office, Doña Flor has become such a cog, invisible to herself. Cloaked in solitude and routine, she has even suppressed the loss of her daughter who drowned years ago. As her retirement approaches ...
Style:
existential, poetic, contemplative, melancholic, lyrical ...
Plot:
female protagonist, character study, introspection, solitude, everyday life, grief, realism, intimate, routine, aging, memory, loss of child ...
Place:
peru, mexico
Similarity:
26%
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico, Spain, France
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
An old man lives alone in a shabby cabin in a remote mountainous area of Mexico. His house is set to be demolished in order to facilitate the redevelopment of the area. He doesn't know how to protect his house. Time goes by and one day a young ...
Style:
atmospheric, melancholic, contemplative, poignant, slow cinema ...
Plot:
character study, loneliness, isolation, loss, aging, memory, poverty, intimate, beach, journey, grief, slice of life ...
Similarity:
26%
121
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
In this evocative story told ingeniously with minimal dialogue, men and women from various backgrounds and places each deal with the loss of a loved one.
Style:
poignant, melancholic, emotional, art house, contemplative ...
Plot:
grief, loss, loneliness, solitude, mourning, minimal dialogue, empathy, bereavement, memory, healing, intimate, soul searching ...
Similarity:
25%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
A ghost story set in the pastoral countryside of the north shore of O‘ahu telling the story of an elderly man facing the end of his life, visited by the ghosts of his past.
Style:
captivating, disturbing, psychological, meditative, contemplative ...
Plot:
family relations, dying man, memory, haunting, ghost story, family life, near death experience, life & death, family problems, troubled past, mourning, elderly man ...
Time:
1950s
Place:
hawaii
Similarity:
25%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
A whole year went by before musician Juliane Hansen was able to put her running shoes back on — a year after her partner, Johann König, took his own life. Although her friend Rieke offers all the support she can, Juliane feels lonely and ...
Style:
melancholic, contemplative, emotional, psychological, slow cinema ...
Plot:
grief, healing, mourning, recovery, suicide, loss, bereavement, loneliness, running, loss of partner, guilt, cello ...
Similarity:
24%
Genre: Drama
Country: Paraguay, Netherlands, Chile, Qatar
Duration: 77 min.
Story:
In precise, unhurried compositions of image and sound, Lamar’s feature debut portrays a man and his dying wife, living in a remote hut in the hills of Paraguay. All the stages of mourning are passed through in a single day in this wordless account ...
Style:
meditative, contemplative, slow cinema, melancholic, poignant ...
Plot:
death, minimalism, dying, solitude, mourning, grief, couples, character study, isolation, loss, companionship, intimate ...
Place:
paraguay
Similarity:
23%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
A woman in love, a weak man, a father stumbling with his emotions, an uncle dependent on the past and a teenager meet at Zagor’s boarding house. Despite the serenity of the house, they all struggle to find the peace that they each need.
Style:
psychological, realistic, contemplative, melancholic, art house ...
Plot:
boarding house, character study, teenager, father son relationship, love, household, slice of life, domestic drama, intimate, memory, isolation, loss ...
Place:
turkey
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico, Spain
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
A story about aging, motherhood and life. About looking back and not understanding how you got to where you are, about wounds so deep that all the energy is spent on not wanting to see them. An intimate drama where, through fiction, the director ...
Style:
poignant, emotional, melancholic, contemplative, art house ...
Plot:
aging, motherhood, family drama, autobiography, loss, blindness, elderly man, grief, trauma, reflection, regret, realism ...
Similarity:
23%
59
Genre: Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
A mysterious accident has separated Jaap from his beloved Rose, but they continue to talk to each other in their minds and dreams. As Jaap struggles to come to terms with what happened, his best friend JP suggests they travel to France to visit Rose ...
Style:
road movie, emotional, romantic drama, psychological, melancholic ...
Plot:
friendship, dream, secret, memory, journey, longing, grief, haunting, male protagonist, intimate, road trip, friend ...
Place:
france, london, belgium
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada, Chile
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
Love is everything with a young man journey's from the north to south of Chile to fulfill a promise.
Style:
road movie, meditative, poetic, contemplative, melancholic ...
Plot:
gay, loss, mourning, grief, love, journey, solitude, self discovery, memory, landscape, pilgrimage, character study ...
Place:
chile, patagonia
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama
Country: Peru
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
A couple of elderlies try to survive in Los Andes of Peru while they wait for their son.
Style:
contemplative, slow cinema, melancholic, atmospheric, art house ...
Plot:
waiting, silence, nature, isolation, loneliness, minimal dialogue, intimate, minimalism, realism, survival, loss, livestock ...
Place:
peru
Similarity:
23%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland, France
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Mika arrives in Poland to pay a hospital visit to her father, who is suffering from severe brain injury and memory loss. It's the first time they have met in many years, yet her father thinks they still live together and she's a teenager. ...
Style:
psychological, captivating, thrilling, melancholic, art film ...
Plot:
memory, father daughter relationship, memory loss, dementia, family relations, relationships, introspection, amnesiac, family life, estrangement, alienation, dysfunctional family ...
Place:
poland, eastern europe
Similarity:
22%
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal, France, Switzerland
Duration: 156 min.
Story:
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.
Style:
thought provoking, contemplative, slow cinema, serious, touching ...
Plot:
family relations, human nature, life is a bitch, hopes, misfit, starting over, urban ghetto life, addiction, decolonization, husband wife relationship, military coup, lost love ...
Time:
year 2006, 21st century
Place:
portugal, canada, lisbon portugal
Similarity:
22%
151
Genre: Drama
Country: Colombia, Germany
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
A man and his son move from the Pacific coast of Colombia to Cali, but have a difficult time adapting to the city. When his son is killed, the father must go through the hard process of grief while trying to find roots in a place that does not ...
Style:
emotional, poignant, bleak, melancholic, art house ...
Plot:
family tragedy, loss, mourning, father son relationship, grief, character study, family drama, migration, social realism, adaptation, intimate, urbanization ...
Place:
colombia
Similarity:
22%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
A mosaic of stories about love and loss, exploring our relationship to the objects, artifacts, and memories that shape our lives.
Style:
psychological, captivating, sincere, disturbing, poignant ...
Plot:
memory, memories, relationships, flashback sequence, introspection, lifestyle, past, self discovery, bittersweet, longing, loss, love story ...
Similarity:
22%
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
Writer and Director Warwick Thornton has assembled a collection of the most poignant, sad, funny and absurd ghost stories from around Australia. He will bring them to life with the help of some of Australia's most iconic actors as the ...
Style:
anthology, mystical, thrilling, captivating, poignant ...
Plot:
secret, legend, urban legend, paranormal, paranormal activity, ghost, mysticism, paranormal phenomena, spirituality, monologue, supernatural, voice over narration ...
Place:
australia
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany, Lithuania, France, Netherlands
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
The atmosphere of a corridor between yesterday and tomorrow, where many doors open into the unknown ... A series of faces, gestures and images both real and imagined time. (A fragmentary narrative without dialogue and depicts several people in ...
Style:
poetic, avant garde, slow cinema, atmospheric, art film ...
Plot:
post soviet, children, symbolism, national identity, dance, minimalism, haunting, ritual, alienation, underground, poetry, folklore ...
Place:
lithuania
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 76 min.
Story:
The action of the film takes place in two periods of time. An old man leads his son through a forest, and is simultaneously under his care confined to bed with a deadly illness.
Style:
psychological, thought provoking, disturbing, captivating, atmospheric ...
Plot:
father son relationship, illness, forest, dying father, old man, life & death, parents and children, nursing, multiple storylines, fighting illness, family relations, care ...
Similarity:
21%
Related movie lists
