Movies like The Child I Never Was

If you like "The Child I Never Was" you are looking for disturbing, psychological and serious movies about / with pedophilia, pedophile, sexual obsession, sexual predator, youth, murder and coming of age themes of Crime and Drama genre shot in Germany.
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.
The Child I Never Was (2002)
 6.8
 643
The Child I Never Was (2002)
Original name: Ein Leben lang kurze Hosen tragen
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 83 min.
Story: A serial killer dispassionately discusses the nuts and bolts of his grisly avocation, as well as the youthful traumas which helped to mold him into a psychopath, in this disturbing independent drama from Germany, based on the true story of of Germany's most famous child murderer Juergen Bartsch who, between the ages of 15 and 19, abused, tortured and killed four schoolboys in the Ruhr region of Germany from 1962 to 1966.
Style: disturbing, psychological, serious, bleak, art house, realistic, gloomy, crying
Audience: teen drama
Plot: pedophilia, pedophile, sexual obsession, sexual predator, youth, murder, coming of age, psychopath, investigation, sexual abuse, serial killer, brutality, serial child killer, life is a bitch, teenage life, juvenile delinquency, altar boy, society, sadism, husband wife relationship, arrest, incest, true crime, boy, killer ...
Time: year 1976, year 1966, year 1962, 21st century, contemporary
Place: germany, europe
Keyword: american

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to The Child I Never Was

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, disturbing, serious and controversial films with plots about murder, death, teenage boy, family relations, youth, male nudity and blood mostly in Drama, Crime and Thriller genres. Some movies like The Child I Never Was: Snowtown (2011), L.I.E. (2001), Ethan Mao (2004), Evilenko (2003), Antonio's Secret (2008). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
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 6.6
 21K
Snowtown (2011)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Australia
Duration: 119 min.
Story: Based on true events, 16 year-old Jamie falls in with his mother's new boyfriend and his crowd of self-appointed neighborhood watchmen, a relationship that leads to a spree of torture and murder.
Style: psychological, disturbing, serious, tense, realistic ...
Plot: serial killer, psychopath, true crime, male rape victim, murder, mother's boyfriend, tortured to death, torture, suspicion, manipulation, single mother, gang ...
Time: 2010s, 90s, year 1998, 20th century, year 1999
Place: australia, oceania, south australia, adelaide south australia
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.1
 10K
L.I.E. (2001)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min.
Story: In this biting and disturbing coming-of-age tale from writer-director Michael Cuesta, life is bittersweet along the L.I.E., also known as the Long Island Expressway, as suburban teen Howie Blitzer learns all too clearly. In the space of a week, he ...
Style: disturbing, bleak, controversial, brutal, enigmatic ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: gay, male prostitution, coming of age, lgbt teen, sexual abuse, pedophile, juvenile delinquent, pedophilia, gay cruising, mentor, youth, boy ...
Time: year 2001, 21st century
Place: long island, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.1
 625
Ethan Mao (2004)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 87 min.
Story: Kicked out of his house because he's gay, Ethan Mao returns home to steal and ends up holding his family hostage on a fateful Thanksgiving Day.
Style: serious, psychological, disturbing, rough, realistic ...
Plot: gay, friendship, thanksgiving, juvenile delinquency, haunted by the past, lgbt, family problems, society, drug dealing, rehabilitation, youth, survival ...
Place: los angeles, boston
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.2
 4K
Evilenko (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Italy
Duration: 111 min.
Story: In 1984, in Kiev, the communist teacher Andrej Romanovic Evilenko is dismissed from his position after a pedophilic act against a student. On 15 May 1984, the pedophile Evilenko begins to rape children, and then slashing the victims in pieces and ...
Style: slasher, heartbreaking, suspense, atmospheric, surreal ...
Plot: serial killer, psychopath, pedophile, child murder investigation, sexual abuse, true crime, dead children, cannibalism, pedophilia, woman in danger, killer, murder ...
Time: 90s, 80s, year 1984, year 1992
Place: kiev ukraine, ukraine, russia, crimea, soviet union
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
Antonio's Secret (2008)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 117 min.
Story: The story about a teenage boy, Antonio, whose emerging gay sexuality alienates him from his friends and family, until his libertine uncle, Jonbert, comes to live with him and his mother...
Style: art house, disturbing, psychological, captivating, erotic ...
Plot: gay teenager, homosexual, masturbation, gender issues, sexual orientation, gay friend, friend, gay asian, sexual awakening, gender, family relations, relationships ...
Place: the philippines
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.9
 20K
River's Edge (1986)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story: A group of high school friends discover that they are in the presence of a killer. One of them, Samson, has murdered his girlfriend Jamie. He brags to his friends about killing her, and when they discover he is telling the truth, their reactions ...
Style: disturbing, independent film, cult classic, grim, creepy ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: teenager, high school, coming of age, murder, serial killer, small town, drug abuse, violence, death, drug, strangulation, juvenile delinquency ...
Time: 80s, year 1986, 20th century
Place: oregon, california, usa, portland oregon
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
 7.1
 18K
Benny's Video (1992)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Austria, Switzerland
Duration: 110 min.
Story: A 14-year-old video enthusiast is so caught up in film fantasy that he can no longer relate to the real world, to such an extent that he commits murder and records an on-camera confession for his parents.
Style: disturbing, psychological, bleak, serious, art house ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: murder, society, videotaping, video store, atrocity, psychopath, introspection, obsession, human nature, found footage, extreme, parent child relationship ...
Time: 90s, year 1992
Place: austria, germany, bosnia, europe, egypt ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.0
 51K
Gomorrah (2008)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 137 min.
Story: An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have ...
Style: disturbing, tense, harsh, realistic, serious ...
Plot: juvenile delinquency, organized crime, gang war, mafia, gangster, camorra, italian mafia, danger, gang, character study, power, debt ...
Time: year 2008, 2000s, 21st century
Place: italy, europe, southern italy, miami, venice ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
Criminal Lovers (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: France
Duration: 96 min.
Story: After a perverted impulse drives them to kill, Alice and her boyfriend, Luc, drag the body into the woods, only to find themselves hopelessly lost – much like the fairy-tale plight of Hansel and Gretel. Starving and with no hope of being found, ...
Style: disturbing, psychological, serious, suspenseful, rough ...
Plot: lovers on the run, couples, murder, lgbt, youth, confined, mind game, psychopath, hostage, sexual manipulation, teenage life, violence ...
Time: 90s
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Golden Glove (2019)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 115 min.
Story: A serial killer strikes fear in the hearts of residents of Hamburg during the early 1970s.
Style: bleak, disturbing, controversial, psychological, atmospheric ...
Plot: serial killer, murder, murder of a prostitute, mentally unstable, macabre, murderer, brutality, sex crime, alcoholic, loser, misfit, loner ...
Time: 70s, year 2019, 20th century, year 1974, year 1970
Place: hamburg germany, germany, northern germany, west germany, central europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.9
 9K
Antibodies (2005)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 127 min.
Story: When a notorious German serial killer is captured after committing some of the most heinous acts against humanity ever imaginable, a farmer and police officer from a sleepy rural community on the outskirts of Berlin is drawn into the case as he ...
Style: disturbing, psychological, serious, suspenseful, realistic ...
Plot: serial killer, investigation, psychopath, murder, danger, gay, family life, mind game, lust, sadist, small town, killer ...
Time: year 2005, year 1996
Place: germany, europe, berlin germany
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995)
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, France
Duration: 99 min.
Story: A sinister tale of genius gone wrong, The Young Poisoner's Handbook chronicles a young man's descent into madness against the absurd backdrop of suburban English life. Hugh O'Conor plays Graham Young, a schoolboy from the London ...
Style: dark comedy, disturbing, witty, offbeat, humorous ...
Audience: teen drama
Plot: serial killer, murder, true crime, psychology, killer, dysfunctional family, mental disorder, past, serial murder, british pub, evil child, mental institution ...
Time: 60s, 20th century, 70s, 80s, 90s
Place: london
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May (1996)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 114 min.
Story: A young priest crusades against organized crime in his Naples neighbourhood but falls in love with a 13-year old boy. It's the chance the gangsters were waiting for to get rid of the thorn in their side. Will they be able to force the boy to ...
Style: realistic, serious, touching, sexual, crying ...
Plot: gay, coming of age, lgbt, youth, religion, sex crime, age difference, glbt, family relations, unemployment, friendship, sex with a priest ...
Time: 90s
Place: italy, europe, naples italy, rome italy, milan italy
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Our Lady of the Assassins (2000)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain, France, Colombia
Duration: 101 min.
Story: World-weary arthur Fernando has returned to his native Colombia to live out his days in peace. But Fernando's once-quiet hometown has become a hotbed of violence, drugs and corruption. On the brink of despair, Fernando meets Alexis, a ...
Style: disturbing, meditative, thought provoking, rough, contemplative ...
Plot: gay, murder, vengeance, poverty, lgbt, drug dealing, teenage life, fall in love, love affair, drug, writers, life is a bitch ...
Time: 90s
Place: colombia, los angeles, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.0
 4K
Tough Enough (2006)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 98 min.
Story: From the youth directed novel of the same name by Greogor Tressnow comes a film by Detlev Buck that is a realistic portrait of life in the section of Berlin called Neukölln. It’s about power and weakness, delinquents and victims, and the ...
Style: realistic, suspenseful, serious, tense, rough ...
Audience: teen drama
Plot: juvenile delinquency, street gang, youth gang, coming of age, gang, bullying, friendship, urban ghetto, urban ghetto life, parents and children, high school life, murder ...
Time: 21st century
Place: germany, berlin germany
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.9
 9K
Pixote (1980)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 128 min.
Story: Pixote, a 10-year-old runaway boy, is arrested on the streets of Sao Paulo during a police round-up homeless people. Pixote endures torture, degradation and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of the runaways are murdered by ...
Style: disturbing, depressing, bleak, realistic, rough ...
Plot: prostitution, street kid, sex with a minor, boy, coming of age, children, anal rape, child rape, breast feeding, loneliness, homeless, tragedy ...
Time: 20th century, 80s, year 1981
Place: brazil, latin america, rio de janeiro, africa, sao paulo brazil
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.7
 3K
Joe the King (1999)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: A destitute 14 year old struggles to keep his life together despite harsh abuse at his mother's hands, harsher abuse at his father's, and a growing separation from his slightly older brother. Petty thefts for food grow into more major ...
Style: emotional, harsh, tense, rough, grim ...
Plot: coming of age, children, dysfunctional family, child abuse, working class, youth, boy, redemption, poverty, childhood, corporal punishment, debt ...
Time: year 1999, 70s, 90s
Place: usa, new york
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.4
 63K
Bad Education (2004)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Two children, Ignacio and Enrique, know love, the movies and fear in a religious school at the beginning of the 1960s. Father Manolo, director of the school and its professor of literature, is witness to and part of these discoveries. The three are ...
Style: disturbing, neo noir, sexy, controversial, melancholic ...
Audience: chick flick
Plot: sexual abuse, transsexual, gay, child abuse, transvestism, boarding school, male nudity, teacher, transsexuality, gender, lgbt, coming of age ...
Time: year 2004, 80s, 70s, 20th century, 60s ...
Place: spain, madrid, iberian peninsula, europe
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 7.6
 6K
The Thief (1997)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 96 min.
Story: In 1946, a soldier fathers a child then dies before its birth. Jump to 1952: on a train, the child and his mother meet a handsome soldier who makes a play for her. She accepts. Posing as a married family, the soldier finds them a rooming house where ...
Style: bleak, realistic, sincere, serious, gloomy ...
Plot: coming of age, orphanage, betrayal, death, soldier, family relations, cons and scams, parents and children, hospital, drinking, communism, revolution ...
Time: 50s, post world war two, year 1997, 20th century, 1940s ...
Place: russia, soviet union, siberia, black sea
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Free Will (2006)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 163 min.
Story: After nine years in psychiatric detention Theo, who has brutally assaulted and raped three women, is released. Living in a supervised community, he connects well with his social worker Sascha, finds a job at a print shop and even a girlfriend, ...
Style: bleak, psychological, serious, realistic, sincere ...
Plot: sexual abuse, mental illness, life is a bitch, love and romance, hopes, couples, guilt, sex scene, moving, love letter, lgbt, mental disorder ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
The Mudge Boy (2003)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min.
Story: Duncan Mudge, mid-teens, lives apart from his rural world populated by his distant father and rough local kids. His main companionship is a chicken left after his mother's death until the neighbor's son befriends him.
Style: disturbing, touching, serious, emotional, controversial ...
Plot: bullying, gay teenager, gay, first gay sexual experience, lgbt teen, coming of age, lgbt, youth, father son relationship, sexual abuse, gays and lesbians, boyhood ...
Time: 21st century
Place: vermont
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.4
 25K
If.... (1968)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 111 min.
Story: The film is a caustic portrait of a traditional English boys’ boarding school, where social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects in the Upper Sixth. But three ...
Style: surreal, disturbing, controversial, dark comedy, stylized ...
Audience: teens
Plot: revolution, social satire, boarding school, private school, school shooting, coming of age, boys' school, violence, teacher, adolescence, surrealism, corporal punishment ...
Time: year 1968, 60s, 20th century
Place: england, britain, europe, california
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.4
 16K
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, Germany, Spain
Duration: 106 min.
Story: Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.
Style: disturbing, realistic, sentimental, bleak, depressing ...
Audience: teens, toddlers, teen drama
Plot: heroin, coming of age, innocence lost, drug dealing, juvenile delinquency, prison, drug dealer, downfall, dysfunctional family, family relations, teenager, life is a bitch ...
Time: year 2002, 90s, 2000s, 21st century
Place: scotland, glasgow scotland, europe, united kingdom
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Movie in collections
 7.1
 33K
Mean Creek (2004)
Genre: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Teenagers living in small-town Oregon take a boat trip for a birthday celebration. When they get an idea to play a mean trick on the town bully, it suddenly goes too far. Soon they're forced to deal with the unexpected consequences of their ...
Style: disturbing, psychological, suspenseful, suspense, intense ...
Audience: teens, teen drama
Plot: prank, friendship, kids in trouble, small town, vengeance, coming of age, teenager, bullying, revenge, bully, guilt, childhood ...
Time: year 2004, 21st century
Place: oregon
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.5
 237K
Sleepers (1996)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 147 min.
Story: Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
Style: disturbing, sadistic, harsh, suspenseful, suspense ...
Audience: family friendly, teens, teen drama
Plot: lawyer, courtroom drama, child abuse, vengeance, friendship, childhood, rape, sexual abuse, haunted by the past, pedophilia, pedophile, murder trial ...
Time: 90s, 60s, 20th century, 80s
Place: new york, usa, madison square garden manhattan new york city, manhattan new york city
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000)
Genre: Drama, Crime
Country: Morocco, Tunisia, France, Belgium, USA
Duration: 99 min.
Story: Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Since they left Dib and his gang, they have been living on the portside of Casablanca. They live in constant fear of Dib's ...
Style: serious, captivating, rough, bleak, crying ...
Plot: homeless, street kid, youth, juvenile delinquency, teenage life, poverty, kids in trouble, life is a bitch, friendship, society, gang, vengeance ...
Time: 90s
Place: africa, middle east, maghreb, morocco
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 5.9
 2K
The Riverman (2004)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story: A series of interviews are conducted with convicted serial killer Ted Bundy in hopes of gaining insight into the Green River Killer who is terrorizing Seattle.
Style: serious, psychological, rough, disturbing, suspenseful ...
Plot: serial killer, psychopath, investigation, profiler, mind game, life is a bitch, true crime, police detective, woman in danger, killer, murder, violence ...
Time: 21st century
Place: seattle, florida, washington d.c.
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 7.4
 44K
Man Bites Dog (1992)
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 95 min.
Story: The activities of rampaging, indiscriminate serial killer Ben are recorded by a willingly complicit documentary team, who eventually become his accomplices and active participants. Ben provides casual commentary on the nature of his work and ...
Style: dark comedy, mockumentary, black comedy, disturbing, black and white ...
Plot: serial killer, rape, murder, brutality, found footage, gory, society, satire, rape and revenge, manipulation, macabre, visceral ...
Time: 20th century, 90s, year 1992
Place: europe, brussels, belgium, brussels belgium
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
 6.9
 44K
Trust (2010)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 106 min.
Story: A suburban family is torn apart when fourteen-year-old Annie meets her first boyfriend online. After months of communicating via online chat and phone, Annie discovers her friend is not who he originally claimed to be. Shocked into disbelief, her ...
Style: realistic, emotional, teen, serious, sexy ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, teen drama
Plot: sexual abuse, investigation, bullying, father daughter relationship, teenager, teenage girl, rape and revenge, child abuse, sex, internet, innocence lost, teenage life ...
Time: year 2010, 2010s, 20th century, 21st century
Place: california, usa, cleveland ohio, milwaukee wisconsin, chicago ...
⇓ similarity ⇓
100%
Mysterious Skin (2004)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA, Netherlands
Duration: 105 min.
Story: A teenage hustler and a young man obsessed with alien abductions cross paths, together discovering a horrible, liberating truth.
Style: disturbing, depressing, psychological, independent film, realistic ...
Audience: teens, chick flick, teen drama
Plot: child abuse, coming of age, gay, sexual abuse, homosexuality, homosexual, pedophilia, male rape, child molestation, youth, homosexual rape, haunted by the past ...
Time: 90s, year 2004, 2000s, near future, y2k ...
Place: kansas, new york, usa
⇓ similarity ⇓
67%
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