Movies like Seaburners
If you like "Seaburners" you are looking for tense, atmospheric and bleak movies about / with human trafficking, smuggling, poverty, desperation, secrets, exploitation and moral ambiguity themes of Drama genre shot in Turkey.
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.
Seaburners (2014)
264
Original name: Kumun Tadı
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
Denise, a botanist, is working in the swamps in a part of Turkey, planting and researching local flora. In her evenings she sometimes meets with her lover Hamit, a simple man at first glance. But he is making his living with human trafficking which he keeps a secret from Denise. When Hamit learns that Denise is being sent back to her home country soon, one final trafficking job takes a dark outcome.
Style:
tense, atmospheric, bleak, melancholic, crime drama, romantic drama, noir
Plot:
human trafficking, smuggling, poverty, desperation, secrets, exploitation, moral ambiguity, survival, betrayal, tragedy, isolation, power struggle, guilt, social realism, character study, love affair, intimate, slow burn, sea, nerd, refugee, secret love, turkish
Place:
istanbul turkey, turkey, black sea
Most similar movies to Seaburners
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out bleak, tense, crime drama and melancholic films with plots about moral ambiguity, survival, social realism, desperation, isolation, poverty and betrayal mostly in Drama and Comedy genres. Some movies like Seaburners: Poor Folk (2012), Sollers Point (2017), Bubu (1971), Jalal’s Story (2014), Traffic (2024). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
108
Genre: Drama
Country: Myanmar, Taiwan
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
Arranged by a smuggling syndicate, A-Hong and his young teen sister along with a group of Burmese youngsters sneak across the Myanmar/Thailand border and arrive in a remote town called Dagudi in Northern Thailand. A-Hong's sister is taken away ...
Style:
crime drama, bleak, independent film, art house, tense ...
Plot:
border crossing, illegal immigration, social realism, poverty, desperation, exploitation, drug traffic, survival, frustration, hopelessness, rescue mission, moral ambiguity ...
Place:
thailand, southeast asia, bangkok thailand
Similarity:
95%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, France
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
Keith, a small-time drug dealer is under house arrest at the home of his father in Baltimore. He re-enters a community scarred by unemployment, neglect and deeply entrenched segregation. There, he pushes back against his surrounding limitations as ...
Style:
erotic, realistic, crime drama, independent film, atmospheric ...
Plot:
house arrest, ex convict, drug dealer, father son relationship, social realism, character study, urban decay, intimate, segregation, moral ambiguity, poverty, male protagonist ...
Time:
2010s
Place:
baltimore
Similarity:
95%
272
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Bubu leaves his job in a bakery, forces his girl-friend into prostitution, and from then on lives out of the money she makes. The young couple find their place in the world of prostitutes and pimps, but the lack of perspective in their life - which ...
Style:
crime drama, melancholic, bleak, realistic, period piece
Plot:
pimp, prostitution, exploitation, sexploitation, dysfunctional relationship, venereal disease, tragedy, female victim, poverty, character study, social realism, survival ...
Time:
70s, 1900s, 20th century
Place:
paris france
Similarity:
87%
Genre: Drama
Country: Bangladesh
Duration: 121 min.
Story:
Just as Moses was found in the river Nile, an infant is rescued from a river, and adopted by Miraj, Karim and Sajib in turns over the years, only to be abandoned at the various stages of his life. From innocence to becoming a gangster, the ...
Style:
crime drama, realistic, emotional, bleak, melancholic ...
Plot:
river, male protagonist, orphan, adoption, identity, coming of age, abandonment, loss of innocence, street life, moral ambiguity, gangster, survival ...
Similarity:
84%
Movie in collections
567
Genre: Drama
Country: Romania, Belgium, Netherlands
Duration: 119 min.
Story:
Natalia and Ginel leave their small Romanian Danube village to work abroad in Rotterdam. One evening, when she is assaulted after meeting a local, Natalia asks Ita, a friend from home turned into a crook, to help her.
Style:
realistic, melancholic, tense, suspenseful
Plot:
migrant worker, female protagonist, immigration, urban, small village, survival, moral ambiguity, exploitation, assault, social realism, class struggle, friendship ...
Place:
romania, belgium, flanders
Similarity:
83%
159
Genre: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 76 min.
Story:
A flat broke aging boxer, living on the verge of existence, teams up with the equally desperate people in the city's suburbia to steal, cheat, and even kill for the money.
Style:
black and white, crime drama, bleak, neo noir, noir ...
Plot:
boxing, suburbs, survival, desperation, urban decay, poverty, corruption, violence, heist, moral ambiguity, hopelessness, working class ...
Time:
60s
Place:
eastern europe, belgrade, former yugoslavia
Similarity:
82%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
Carmela is thirty, beautiful and as untamed as an horsewoman. She is jobless and struggles to get by on her own, doing small day-to-day tasks. She makes ends meet by making use of the immigrants who populate the maze of alleyways of Naples' old ...
Style:
serious, dramatic, captivating, suspenseful, independent film ...
Plot:
female protagonist, character study, immigration, poverty, survival, thirtysomething life, life is a bitch, woman, illegal immigrant, 30 year old, life, immigrant ...
Place:
naples italy
Similarity:
79%
Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
A professional smuggler tries to save a 12-year-old girl whose family has gone missing in the Syrian war.
Style:
tense, suspense, realistic, emotional, political thriller ...
Plot:
human trafficking, political conflict, smuggler, rescue mission, survival, desperation, moral ambiguity, border crossing, trust, child protagonist, betrayal, evacuation ...
Place:
middle east
Similarity:
73%
Movie in collections
72
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 75 min.
Story:
An ordinary day in Romania. Under a highway exit close to Bucharest, Lidia and Denisa are changing their clothes; warm pullovers and sneakers are exchanged for tight tops and heels. The two are then waiting for clients, an icy wind gusting around ...
Style:
melancholic, bleak, slow cinema
Plot:
prostitution, sex work, poverty, social realism, everyday life, working class, survival, character study, desperation, female friendship, resilience, humiliation ...
Place:
romania, bucharest
Similarity:
73%
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
A deaf and mute vagabond finds a large denomination bill in a Mexico City dump, and while he tries to buy something with it, others try to con him into giving it away. The film was selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at ...
Style:
tragic ending, emotional, melancholic, bleak, neorealism ...
Plot:
poverty, greed, homelessness, tragedy, survival, compassion, drifter, loneliness, class conflict, empathy, desperation, character study ...
Time:
60s
Place:
mexico city
Similarity:
73%
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 73 min.
Story:
Feature film
Style:
bleak, melancholic, tragic ending, intense, art house ...
Plot:
poverty, hopelessness, drug addiction, pain, desperation, prostitution, illness, isolation, alienation, self destructing, character study, sacrifice ...
Similarity:
71%
180
Genre: Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
Greece nowadays. Seven different stories about seven persons who have already reached their limits and finally fall apart. Despite their seemingly obvious connection they are simultaneously connected through a common desperate action: the last phone ...
Style:
melancholic, realistic, bleak, tragicomedy, avant garde ...
Plot:
social realism, multiple storylines, loneliness, isolation, mental health, hopelessness, alienation, desperation, resilience, slow burn, moral ambiguity, survival ...
Similarity:
68%
95
Genre: Drama
Country: Bahamas
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
A Bahamian Fisherman with a gambling addiction in Nassau takes a job smuggling Haitians to Florida in a desperate ploy to support his family.
Style:
thrilling, captivating, psychological, crime drama, tension ...
Plot:
smuggling, social problems, smuggler, life is a bitch, gambler, family problems, money problems, human trafficking, desperation, illegal immigration, gambling addiction, social commentary ...
Place:
bahamas, caribbean, florida
Similarity:
68%
1K
Genre: Drama
Country: Latvia, Lithuania, Belgium, France
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Oleg, a young Latvian butcher, arrives in Brussels in the hope of getting a better salary in a meat factory. His experience turns short after being betrayed by a colleague. Alone in a country where he doesn’t belong, he quickly falls under the ...
Style:
tense, psychological, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing ...
Plot:
butcher, male bondage, immigrant, alienation, survival, immigration, migrant worker, exploitation, death threat, social problems, slavery, criminal ...
Time:
2010s
Place:
brussels, belgium, brussels belgium
Similarity:
68%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
The story of a drug dealer from Romania and his son in Rome's suburbs.Roman is an immigrant from Romania arrived in Italy 30 years ago. He sells drugs and lives in criminal contexts. His dream is to see his child, Nicu, whom he raised without a ...
Style:
crime drama, emotional, intense, tense, bleak ...
Plot:
fatherhood, drug dealing, immigration, father son relationship, social realism, street life, illegal drugs, moral ambiguity, poverty, urban decay, violence, survival ...
Time:
2010s
Place:
italy
Similarity:
67%
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
A down-on-his-luck Rotterdam dock worker struggles to get his financials and family life back on track.
Style:
crime drama, bleak, emotional, intense, tragic
Plot:
working class, poverty, moral ambiguity, blue collar, character study, social realism, everyday life, desperation, survival, city life, intimate, slice of life ...
Place:
rotterdam netherlands
Similarity:
66%
299
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:
65%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
Drama - Richard Clayton is a maintenance man at the local police station of the small town of Montauk, Arizona. He spends his days keeping the offices clean and the equipment running. He spends his nights drinking and killing the occasional ...
Style:
crime drama, bleak, noir, tense, suspense ...
Plot:
murder, loneliness, small town, isolation, character study, violence, alcoholism, moral ambiguity, serial killer, male protagonist, desperation, criminal psychology ...
Similarity:
63%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
How much space does Zeynep take up in this vast universe? This is a city brimming with the struggling and the unemployed; aren’t their lives a bit like the infinite, tiny particles flying through the air? Zeynep is already trying hard to make ends ...
Style:
realistic, bleak, contemplative, melancholic, existential ...
Plot:
social realism, economic inequality, city life, working class, unemployment, poverty, slice of life, working woman, job seeking, single mother, female protagonist, motherhood ...
Place:
istanbul turkey, turkey
Similarity:
62%
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
Adapted from Peyami Safa’s novel Selma and Her Shadow, the movie tells the story of Selma. Selma (Görkem Yeltan) is the ultimate femme fatale whose alluring and seductive nature and irresistible charms exude an aura of death for men.
Style:
psychological thriller, suspense, sinister, melancholic, atmospheric ...
Plot:
femme fatale, seduction, suicide, obsession, character study, fatal attraction, tragedy, love triangle, betrayal, jealousy, femininity, sexual tension ...
Place:
istanbul turkey, turkey
Similarity:
58%
Genre: Drama
Country: Ireland
Duration: 74 min.
Story:
After being imprisoned for dangerous driving, causing the death of a child and possession of illegal substances, Jason Buckley is finding it difficult to adjust to life outside prison.
Style:
dark, bleak, psychological, atmospheric, intense ...
Plot:
trauma, social realism, loss, grief, guilt, haunting, character study, remorse, reckless driving, accident, isolation, moral ambiguity ...
Similarity:
57%
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Aydın is a policeman recently appointed to a new post in Istanbul. While trying to get used to life in the big city, Aydın stumbles upon Mehtap, a young woman who works at a candy shop in Beyoğlu, and he falls for her. But there is no way that ...
Style:
psychological, captivating, thrilling, romantic drama, melancholic ...
Plot:
unrequited love, couple relations, male female relationship, relationships, love affair, multiple storylines, relationship problems, love interest, longing, bittersweet, slice of life, intimate ...
Place:
turkey, istanbul turkey
Similarity:
56%
Genre: Drama
Country: Chile
Duration: 70 min.
Story:
Two thieves wander in the chilean desert and finally get to a small town near Bolivia. There, they try to include themselves with the townspeople but their instincts betray them and tragedy ensues. Based on a true story, this film opened one year ...
Style:
bleak, tense, atmospheric, road movie, period piece
Audience:
adult
Plot:
desert, escape, criminal, tragedy, realism, outsider, isolation, moral ambiguity, small town, betrayal, survival, mistrust ...
Time:
70s, 1940s
Place:
chile, bolivia
Similarity:
55%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia, UK, Argentina
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
A thirty year old man returns from South America to his native village, in the mountains of Yugoslavia, to find his spouse and take her along. He chooses the youngest daughter of self-supporting Jewish woman. The deceit gets discovered on the way to ...
Style:
bleak, period piece, art house, suspense, tragic
Plot:
exploitation, deception, victimization, human trafficking, betrayal, survival, sex trafficking, social realism, forced prostitution, poverty, manipulation, moral dilemma ...
Time:
1920s
Place:
former yugoslavia, south america, buenos aires argentina, argentina
Similarity:
55%

Genre: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
In the wake of China's open-door policy in the early 1980's, Fujian was one of the first Chinese coastal provinces to be opened to the outside world. Many of the male residents opted to go abroad for work, leaving behind their wives and ...
Style:
crime drama, tense, melancholic
Plot:
blackmail, human trafficking, emigration, gang, moral ambiguity, organized crime, betrayal, ethical dilemma, sexual blackmail, social realism, social change, loyalty ...
Place:
china
Similarity:
55%
Genre: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
A couple purchases an eleven-year old girl who cannot walk, with the intention of using her to earn money through begging.
Style:
bleak, grim, independent film, slow cinema
Plot:
begging, poverty, desperation, child protagonist, abuse, manipulation, disability, human trafficking, disabled child, economic inequality, ethical dilemma, survival ...
Time:
2000s
Place:
china
Similarity:
54%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 119 min.
Story:
A couple enters a city ruled by cruel thugs but an unsettling affair reopens unexpected twists and creates new tensions for them. Will they stick together through it all?
Style:
tense, suspense, dark, intense, psychological ...
Plot:
gang, unsettling, corruption, moral ambiguity, fear, betrayal, power struggle, urban, survival, adultery, revenge, claustrophobia ...
Similarity:
53%
Genre: Drama
Country: Bulgaria
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Two best friends get involved into the domination games of two mafia bosses in post-communist Bulgaria. Clutching like crayfish to the baits of everyday life, they determine their fates: without the other one knowing, they are manipulated to take ...
Style:
crime drama, political, atmospheric, bleak, tense ...
Plot:
mafia, social commentary, corruption, manipulation, realism, power struggle, moral ambiguity, friendship, organized crime, betrayal, desperation, working class ...
Time:
2000s
Place:
bulgaria
Similarity:
53%
14
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Story:
Forced to navigate dangerous environments to keep her mother alive, Glo gets entangled with a mob boss and finds her life spiraling out of control.
Style:
crime thriller, crime drama, suspense, tense, neo noir ...
Plot:
desperation, survival, mother daughter relationship, mob boss, female protagonist, organized crime, violence, urban, underworld, corruption, crime family, moral ambiguity ...
Similarity:
51%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
A struggling cab driver is falsely accused of a major crime by the police, and is forced to prove his innocence to both, a brutal police force and a divided society. A single night leaves a family of three stranded in the middle of a fight
Style:
crime drama, tense, suspense, bleak, noir
Plot:
police corruption, wrongful accusation, false arrest, urban, class conflict, social injustice, desperation, family drama, father son relationship, survival, moral ambiguity, isolation ...
Similarity:
50%
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