Movies like This Is What I Remember
If you like "This Is What I Remember" you are looking for melancholic and slow cinema movies about / with memory loss, corruption, getting home, family reunited, lost love, identity crisis and alienation themes of Drama genre shot in Kyrgyzstan or Japan.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps:
1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
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This Is What I Remember (2022)
38
Original name: Esimde
Genre: Drama
Country: Kyrgyzstan, Japan
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
An amnesiac old man Zarlyk who after twenty-three years of ordeal in a foreign land, returns to his homeland. Events take place in a village in Kyrgyzstan, where he is brought by his matured son Kubat. Much has changed during his absence: the morals of the villagers, mired in the realities of a changing world, radicalization of Islam, growing crime, and moral corrosive corruption began to consume... Zarlyk’s wife Umsunai, having lost hope of his return, went into religion, married the local authority Jaichy. The bright past invades the already accustomed Umsunai’s life. But nothing touches Zarlyk. An inexplicable passion for collecting garbage replaced him everything. Will the memory return to him and will Umsunai gain lost happiness when they are pressed by tight attitudes and immorality of the clergy, when love has eclipsed recklessness?
Style:
melancholic, slow cinema
Plot:
memory loss, corruption, getting home, family reunited, lost love, identity crisis, alienation, nostalgia, social decay, domestic drama, minimalism, forgiveness, return home
Time:
21st century
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to This Is What I Remember
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out melancholic, art house, existential and slow cinema films with plots about alienation, nostalgia, character study, isolation, minimalism, bittersweet and identity crisis mostly in Drama genres. Some movies like This Is What I Remember: Nautilus (1990), Roads in February (2018), In Front of Your Face (2021), Sicily! (1999), Return of a Citizen (1986). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
This life period of the main character Felix (L. Lutvinsky) coincides with rather complicated period of country history Chernenko dies, Gorbachev succeeds him, then Ligachev criticizes Eltsin, county is reined by deficit, backstairs influence, ...
Style:
melancholic, art house, existential, period piece
Audience:
adult
Plot:
social commentary, character study, alienation, escape from reality, loneliness, social realism, identity crisis, absurdism, minimalism, poverty, city life, working class ...
Place:
soviet union, ussr
Similarity:
95%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
Driven by childhood memories and the hope of a reencounter, Sarah visits her paternal grandmother in her village in Uruguay. She takes long to understand the prevailing unease… But she is soon faced with the gap between her fantasy regarding the ...
Style:
road movie, melancholic, reflective, slow cinema, art house ...
Plot:
family reunited, grandmother granddaughter relationship, sadness, bittersweet, nostalgia, female protagonist, tenderness, memory, slice of life, provincial, getting home, small town ...
Place:
uruguay
Similarity:
93%
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:
90%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, France, Germany
Duration: 66 min.
Story:
A man returns to visit his native Sicily after living in New York for a long time. He learns about the Sicilian way of life from stylized conversations with an orange picker, his fellow train passengers, his mother, and a knife-sharpener.
Style:
slow cinema, reflective, atmospheric, melancholic, poetic ...
Plot:
identity, getting home, mother son relationship, character study, minimalism, train travel, nostalgia, portrait, realism, intimate, slice of life, emigration ...
Place:
sicily, italy, southern italy, corsica
Similarity:
86%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Egypt
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
Returning rich from the Gulf to find his brothers and sisters relationships falling apart.
Style:
tense, melancholic
Plot:
family conflict, domestic drama, family drama, social commentary, emigration, social change, homecoming, identity crisis, city life, frustration, alienation, resentment ...
Time:
80s
Place:
cairo egypt, egypt, middle east
Similarity:
83%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
An octogenarian woman transitions to life in assisted living as she contends with her conflicting relationship to herself and her caregivers amidst her shifting memory, age identity, and desires.
Style:
melancholic, contemplative
Audience:
adult
Plot:
elderly man, aging, character study, loneliness, compassion, bittersweet, identity crisis, memory loss, slice of life, resilience, regret, nostalgia
Similarity:
75%
297
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
Trapped in her anemic career and love relationship, a 30-year-old TV commercial director returns to her countryside home in the company of a free-spirited friend. In a bittersweet reunion with an alienated family, her childhood memories of freedom ...
Style:
psychological, captivating, thrilling, poetic, melancholic ...
Plot:
female protagonist, japanese woman, relationship vs career, family relations, lifestyle change, problem, changing lives, career, relationship problems, thirty something, life is a bitch, homecoming ...
Place:
japan, tokyo
Similarity:
75%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 136 min.
Story:
Shashi, an urbane doctor, returns to his native village, a place seemingly mired in a backward way of life, for a short visit. As he becomes closely involved with the villagers, Shashi’s short stay threatens to become permanent.
Style:
art house, melancholic
Plot:
village, social realism, identity crisis, humanism, alienation, homecoming, nostalgia, moral ambiguity, symbolism, ethical dilemma, class conflict, literary ...
Similarity:
70%
Movie in collections
135
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Kyrgyzstan, Japan
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
The Chimp is the nickname of a teenage boy (with large ears) who lives in the small town of Balyktchy, Kirghizstan, a former part of the USSR in central Asia. His family is being torn apart by his dad's alcoholism, his emotions are being torn ...
Style:
atmospheric, melancholic, bleak
Plot:
teenager, adolescence, youth, friendship, grownups, coming of age, post soviet, slice of life, realism, small town, alcoholism, provincial ...
Similarity:
64%
75
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
About an existentialist alienation drama between a bourgeois couple caught in a stationary environment. Between a man and a woman lost in themselves.
Style:
existential, art house, melancholic, intellectual
Plot:
marriage crisis, alienation, infidelity, domestic drama, midlife crisis, identity crisis, routine, renaissance, married couple, minimalism, claustrophobia, intimate ...
Time:
60s
Place:
eastern europe
Similarity:
59%
25
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
The piano tuner Ota is still in mourning for the loss of his beloved wife. He would like to go on, but he can’t find the beach where his wife wanted her ashes to be scattered. While helping his friend Kojima with his antique shop, Ota meets the ...
Style:
poignant, melancholic, reflective, atmospheric, existential
Plot:
loss, grief, memory, quest, puppet, nostalgia, healing, bittersweet, road trip, friendship, antique shop, forgiveness ...
Similarity:
57%
49
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland, Italy, Israel
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
After many years working far from home, Mila is forced to temporarily leave her seaside mansion—and her secret romance—to return to her family in a remote Polish village. But the long-awaited reunion is far from what she imagined. As tensions ...
Style:
melancholic, atmospheric
Plot:
remote village, mother daughter relationship, family drama, getting home, homecoming, reconciliation, bittersweet, character study, confrontation, mature, isolation, identity crisis ...
Place:
poland
Similarity:
57%
376
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
All summer long, a group of people circumnavigate each other. A group of people who are so close and yet so alienated from one another. Their isolated holiday home is the site for a resurgence of smouldering conflicts and lifelong illusions that ...
Style:
psychological, melancholic, contemplative, art house
Plot:
domestic drama, family drama, relationships, character study, children, isolation, alienation, summer vacation, family secret, intimate, repression, bittersweet ...
Place:
east germany
Similarity:
54%
486
Genre: Drama
Country: Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands, Germany, France, Japan
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
Centaur lives a modest life with his family in rural Kyrgyzstan until he abruptly becomes the center of attention when he is caught stealing a racehorse at night. A story inspired by the myth when horses became the wings of men.
Plot:
racehorse, rural area, theft, mute woman, police, muslim, video surveillance, deaf mute, interrogation, widow, tradition, horse ...
Similarity:
54%
Genre: Drama
Country: Angola, Portugal
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
A group of children, fleeing the war, is taken to Luanda accompanied by a nun. When they reach the aeroplane, 12-year-old N'Dala decides to leave the group and to reconnoitre the city. The nun then starts her unceasing quest for the missing ...
Style:
neorealism, melancholic, social
Plot:
friendship, social realism, realism, childhood, children, city, nun, orphan, coming of age, civil war, refugee, poverty ...
Place:
angola, africa
Similarity:
52%
Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 152 min.
Story:
During a midsummer weekend in the eighties a family gather in their summerhouse in the archipelago. The memory of the dead family father surfaces when Britt-Marie, now calling herself Hebriana, gets out from the mental hospital to celebrate ...
Style:
melancholic, ambiguous ending
Plot:
character study, family drama, family secret, mental institution, female protagonist, intimate, mourning, getting home, family reunited, isolation, nostalgia, macabre ...
Time:
80s
Similarity:
51%
Genre: Drama
Country: Chile, France, Germany
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
Ana, Verónica, Marta, and Toro are four lonely people who live an unadventurous and quiet existence in southern Chile. They are with each other without the need of using words, trying to save themselves in a stealthy and extreme way. In order not ...
Style:
slow cinema, melancholic, art house, atmospheric, contemplative ...
Plot:
loneliness, alienation, isolation, everyday life, intimate, minimalism, bittersweet, character study, intimacy, coastal town, sexual tension, dog ...
Place:
poetic realism, chile
Similarity:
50%
Genre: Drama
Country: Venezuela
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
Gilberto, a young man from the countryside, arrives in the city with the aim of carving out a future for himself. Initially he is dazzled by the sparkling image of the city, the spoiler of civilization, which will batter him until his personality ...
Style:
realistic, dark, bleak, intense, melancholic
Plot:
drug addiction, urban decay, moral ambiguity, loss of innocence, social realism, coming of age, poverty, nightlife, character study, violence, corruption, identity crisis ...
Time:
70s
Similarity:
49%
Movie in collections
708
Genre: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
A young doctor undergoes a spiritual crisis when he returns to his rural home.
Style:
reflective, melancholic, serious, meditative, art house ...
Plot:
village life, existentialism, character study, loss of faith, symbolism, identity, isolation, moral dilemma, getting home, alienation, post war, nostalgia ...
Time:
60s
Place:
hungary
Similarity:
49%
118
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Sweden
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
24 year old Johan spends his days in Nice on the French Riviera, supported by an aging ex-actress. Days go by between her house, the beaches and the apartment of his friend Kurt. A life in leisure and luxury. But memories of his teenage years are ...
Style:
melancholic, captivating, thought provoking, dramatic, art house ...
Plot:
older woman younger man sex, couple relations, lifestyle, beach, friend, actress, couples, male female relationship, relationships, friends, alienation, shallowness ...
Place:
french riviera
Similarity:
48%
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Portrays the universe of an eternal being that exists within a lifecycle filled with disappointments and hopelessness. It's the chronicle about the search for love and the fight against oblivion.
Style:
existential, reflective, melancholic, emotional, dramatic ...
Plot:
loneliness, character study, loss, hopelessness, memory, frustration, identity crisis, alienation, intimate, lgbt, gay, redemption ...
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Winner of FEDORA award for the Best Debut Director, Venice Film Festival 2015, Island City is a collection of three comic-dramatic stories set in Mumbai, India. The first is about a diligent office worker who wins the office ‘Fun Committee ...
Style:
satirical, anthology, ironic, existential, art house ...
Plot:
city life, social commentary, alienation, slice of life, routine, bittersweet, domestic drama, isolation, identity crisis, private vs public, bureaucracy, working class ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
mumbai india
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
A new house in a new town could mean the beginning of a phase of domestic bliss for a small family. Nina, a doctor, has taken a few days off. Her husband Frieder is busy laying tiles, while their daughter Charlotte plays in her new room. But Nina is ...
Style:
melancholic, art house, ambiguous ending, slow cinema, erotic ...
Plot:
domestic drama, alienation, female protagonist, character study, infidelity, sex, midlife crisis, isolation, home improvement, renovation, symbolism, brother sister relationship ...
Similarity:
47%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
A man returns to his home village hoping to reunite with his family, only to find it under water due to a cyclone. Now, another cyclone is coming, and the man struggles to survive.
Style:
melancholic, tense, bleak, suspenseful
Plot:
survival, man versus nature, resilience, environmental, family reunited, getting home, homeland, evacuation, village
Similarity:
45%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Miguel travels to Pontevedra, his hometown, with the request of serching for some locations for a movie. His trip takes him back to the place where he grew up, meeting up with some old friends, but also leads him to the possibility of a new ...
Style:
contemplative, atmospheric, serious, realistic, art house ...
Plot:
friendship, small town, love and romance, fall in love, introspection, workplace, self discovery, workplace situations, hopes, artists and showbiz, unfulfillment, homecoming ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
spain
Similarity:
45%
Genre: Drama
Country: Tunisia, France
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
Youssef Soltane, a 45-year-old Tunisian intellectual, is the product of a generation that lived the era of euphoria and great ideologies in the sixties, and their subsequent failure. He was incarcerated and tortured for his political opinions. ...
Style:
melancholic, bleak, art house, political drama
Plot:
introspection, existential crisis, political repression, character study, social commentary, identity crisis, isolation, alienation, nostalgia, moral ambiguity, class conflict, reflection ...
Time:
80s
Place:
tunisia
Similarity:
43%
146
Genre: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
SUPERWORLD is a story about God and the world: a world whose heroine WORKS the till and a God we never see nor hear, but whose presence we feel throughout the film. Lead actress Ulrike Beimpold delivers a remarkable, moving performance as a woman ...
Style:
melancholic, ambiguous ending, slow cinema, surreal
Plot:
character study, existential crisis, middle aged woman, female protagonist, midlife crisis, isolation, hallucination, alienation, slow burn, minimalism, crisis of faith, small town ...
Place:
austria
Similarity:
43%
79
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
Patrick feels absolutely lonely when he decides to search for his supposable genitor after the suicide of his mother. He doesn’t have a plan, a goal or hopes. He just wants to meet the phantom that he thinks is the reason for his mother’s death.
Style:
existential, emotional, melancholic, independent film, art house ...
Plot:
grief, loneliness, isolation, identity crisis, character study, search for father, alienation, minimalism, intimate, regret, male protagonist, urban ...
Similarity:
42%
169
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
A young quebecer descends into alienation and depression.
Style:
existential, melancholic, psychological, art house, slow cinema ...
Plot:
strong sexual content, unsimulated sex, alienation, loneliness, identity, depression, identity crisis, isolation, introspection, coming of age, male protagonist, realism ...
Place:
quebec, montreal
Similarity:
42%
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 131 min.
Story:
A man exiled in Paris makes various trips to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution. Each trip is represented by a woman.
Style:
melancholic, reflective, existential, intercultural, political drama
Plot:
exile, memory, character study, symbolism, alienation, getting home, bittersweet, nostalgia, journey, emigration, mature, slice of life ...
Time:
70s
Place:
portugal, poetic realism, paris france
Similarity:
42%
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