Movies like Tess 2016
If you like "Tess" you are looking for captivating, suspense and disturbing movies about / with pregnancy, afrikaans, female protagonist, sex worker, prostitute, motherhood and sex work 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.
Tess (2016)
326
Genre: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
When sex worker Tess falls pregnant, she has to fight to keep her past from swallowing her whole.
Style:
captivating, suspense, disturbing, emotional, independent film, melancholic, art house, psychological, intense, erotic
Plot:
pregnancy, afrikaans, female protagonist, sex worker, prostitute, motherhood, sex work, prostitution, changing lives, social problems, unwanted pregnancy, unplanned pregnancy, confronting the past, troubled past, shame, identity, branding iron, social realism, character study, intimate, survival, relationships, poverty, urban, redemption ...
Time:
contemporary
Place:
africa, south africa
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Tess
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out psychological, captivating, melancholic and emotional films with plots about female protagonist, character study, poverty, survival, social realism, intimate and social problems mostly in Drama genres. Some movies like Tess: Elisa K (2010), Alanis (2017), The Perfect Cheerleader (2019), Her Way (2021), The Bacchus Lady (2016). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
237
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 71 min.
Story:
Eleven-year-old Elisa (Claudia Pons) lives with her father (Hans Richter) in Spain following the breakup of her parents. Elisa goes to a fair with her father, and meets one of his friends (Jordi Gracia), a successful jeweler. Days later, a change ...
Style:
suspense, disturbing, psychological, captivating, bleak ...
Plot:
child rape, female protagonist, mother daughter relationship, childhood trauma, sexual abuse, family relations, troubled past, confronting the past, tragic past, shame, haunting, coming of age ...
Place:
spain
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 59 min.
Story:
Follows Megan, who in a desperate attempt to keep her new job at a Welsh warehouse, presses Alys – who is pregnant – to get her "pick rate" up, putting her and her baby at risk.
Style:
suspense, psychological, disturbing, captivating, realistic ...
Plot:
workplace, warehouse, job, life, worker, pregnant woman, social commentary, coworker, life is a bitch, social problems, new job, female protagonist ...
Place:
wales, britain
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 82 min.
Story:
A young Buenos Aires mother and sex worker suffers the hypocrisy of the laws that are supposed to protect her, in this compelling, profoundly political drama about the dismal choices foisted upon vulnerable women.
Style:
captivating, suspense, tense, art house
Audience:
toddlers
Plot:
mother and son, sex worker, prostitution, sex scene, feminism, money problems, social misfits, financial problem, life is a bitch, single mother, white trash, social problems ...
Place:
buenos aires argentina
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
When college freshman Cassie earns a spot on the cheerleading squad, she is overjoyed about the new friendships, status, and access to social events that come along with being on the team. When she meets Terry, the charismatic President of the ...
Style:
suspense, tense, disturbing, captivating, dark ...
Plot:
cheerleader, cheerleading, female protagonist, prostitution, college, forced prostitution, college student, sexual attraction, seduction, scandal, exploitation, deception ...
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
723
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Marie, an independent and militant woman, has never needed anyone's help, including when it comes to raise her son. When the latter is expelled from his certificate of professional competence training class, Marie cannot accept it. Dreaming of ...
Style:
captivating, psychological, disturbing, dramatic, realistic ...
Plot:
prostitution, mother son relationship, prostitute, prostitute mother, female protagonist, single mother, motherhood, family drama, financial problem, blind ambition, money problems, life is a bitch ...
Similarity:
23%
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
So-young, an elderly prostitute working in Seoul, tries to take care of a young Korean-Filipino child she meets in a hospital and make ends meet. So-young's life takes a dark turn when several of her old clients try to reconnect with her.
Style:
suspense, psychological, disturbing, grim, melancholic ...
Plot:
prostitution, prostitute, social realism, social problems, life philosophy, society, social relations, elderly, elderly woman, aging, moral ambiguity, loneliness ...
Place:
seoul
Similarity:
22%
465
Genre: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
Malu — a mercurial, unemployed actress living with her conservative mother in a precarious house in a Rio de Janeiro slum — tries to deal with her strained relationship with her own adult daughter while surviving on memories of her glorious ...
Style:
emotional, thrilling, psychological, captivating, melancholic ...
Plot:
female protagonist, mother daughter relationship, character study, motherhood, family drama, poverty, family problems, family relations, social problems, relationship problems, kids and family, problem ...
Place:
rio de janeiro, brazil
Similarity:
22%
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland, Hungary
Duration: 119 min.
Story:
A story of a mother who had to change her profession from a teacher to a high class prostitute to make a living.
Style:
emotional, realistic, intense, melancholic, period piece ...
Plot:
prostitution, female protagonist, sacrifice, survival, poverty, mother and daughter, motherhood, social realism, branding iron, moral dilemma, class struggle, resilience ...
Time:
90s
Place:
moscow russia, warsaw poland
Similarity:
22%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Story:
Brazilian native Priscilla Paredes is intent on staying in Montreal, despite the expiration of her student visa. Out of desperation, she takes a job as an exotic dancer at the Elixir, a downtown strip club, where she meets Milagro, a headstrong ...
Style:
emotional, independent film, art house, multicultural
Plot:
strip club, lesbian, survival, female protagonist, sex work, poverty, working class, immigration, friendship, desperation, realism, female empowerment ...
Place:
montreal, quebec
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 70 min.
Story:
The story of three women and the circumstances that led each to get involved in prostitution as call girls.
Style:
realistic, period piece, psychological, intense, retro ...
Plot:
sex work, prostitution, sexuality, character study, women's issues, prostitute, exploitation, survival, taboo, branding iron, urban, social realism ...
Time:
60s
Similarity:
21%
90
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
Martina gets pregnant from her selfish boyfriend. Without knowing exactly what to do, she travels to Berlin to find her own father, the one she never met.
Style:
thrilling, captivating, psychological, emotional, melancholic ...
Plot:
pregnancy, self discovery, female protagonist, identity, pregnant woman, lifestyle change, changing lives, unplanned pregnancy, introspection, life is a bitch, motherhood, journey ...
Place:
mexico city, berlin germany
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Tunisia, France, Canada, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Aicha, a Tunisian mother gifted with prophetic dreams, lives in the isolated north of Tunisia with her husband Brahim and young son Adam. The family lives in anguish after the departure of the eldest sons Mehdi and Amine to the violent embrace of ...
Style:
emotional, psychological, melancholic, atmospheric, intense ...
Plot:
female protagonist, trauma, motherhood, isolation, grief, domestic drama, secrets, family conflict, small village, darkness, guilt, moral ambiguity ...
Place:
north africa
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany, Greece
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
A nightmarish crisis occurs after a pregnant young Greek immigrant takes a job as a nanny to a young professional couple, in this stunning drama from Germany’s Christian Zübert.
Style:
emotional, captivating, psychological, intense, tense ...
Plot:
nanny, pregnancy, female protagonist, family drama, motherhood, responsibility, immigration, loss of child, grief, guilt, unwanted pregnancy, social problems ...
Time:
2010s
Place:
athens greece
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 80 min.
Story:
For Ella, the death of her alcoholic father leaves her with nothing but debt and the bitter memory of a complicated past. Abandoned by her mother at a young age, she has sacrificed her life, opportunities, and love to care for a man she resents, but ...
Style:
road movie, psychological, thrilling, captivating, emotional ...
Plot:
road trip, death of father, family drama, grief, loss, self discovery, coming of age, changing lives, lifestyle change, relationships, grownups, couple relations ...
Place:
south africa
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 111 min.
Story:
Jeong-eun is dispatched to a subcontracting company. She tries to fit in, but her co-workers aren’t comfortable around her and she’s completely new to field work. Despite all that, she wants to stay on for a year and then return to headquarters, ...
Style:
disturbing, captivating, psychological, emotional, realistic ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
female protagonist, worker, workplace, social problems, discrimination, women's rights, working class, co worker co worker relationship, coworker, civil rights, classism, adaptation ...
Place:
korea
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
A high-school girl who lives in a rural town in Japan struggles to define her own way in life. To help her impoverished family she works as a video fetish performer which leads to problems for her and her family with a criminal underworld.
Style:
psychological, captivating, thrilling, tense, emotional ...
Audience:
teen drama
Plot:
coming of age, desperation, high school, poverty, problem, teenage life, life is a bitch, social problems, teenager, money problems, japanese girl, female protagonist ...
Time:
2010s
Place:
japan
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 127 min.
Story:
Wandering around the streets, Sejin, a pregnant teen, gets to know Juyeong and reunites with Jaepil and Sinji. The four musketeers go through a series of misfortunes, bumping into masochistic/sadistic characters and experiencing the brutality and ...
Style:
disturbing, suspense, tense, psychological, captivating ...
Plot:
homeless teenager, pregnant teenager, troubled teen, poverty, teenager, social problems, life is a bitch, teenage pregnancy, coming of age, teenage life, social misfits, relationship problems ...
Similarity:
20%
729
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
After getting laid off, young single-mom Beth finds herself living in her car and struggles to hide her homelessness from her estranged brother Ben.
Style:
psychological, thrilling, captivating, emotional, independent film ...
Plot:
homelessness, single mother, female protagonist, poverty, social problems, dysfunctional family, life is a bitch, family relations, relationship problems, poor family, family problems, social issues ...
Similarity:
20%
Movie in collections
173
Genre: Drama
Country: Cyprus, Israel, Slovenia
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
Chara’s family is everything to her, and yet she sometimes ponders a life without them. When she strikes up a hesitant friendship with a young girl, she is inexorably forced to confront a painful past and to answer a burning question: Is ...
Style:
emotional, melancholic, realistic, psychological, atmospheric ...
Plot:
motherhood, domestic drama, character study, identity, female protagonist, gender roles, intimate, realism, family secret, trauma, friendship, intimacy ...
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
A successful, young writer's first pregnancy is overshadowed by her complicated relationship with reality.
Style:
captivating, psychological, disturbing, tense, existential ...
Plot:
pregnancy, female protagonist, pregnancy and birth, writers, lifestyle, social climber, unplanned pregnancy, problem, male female relationship, family relations, writer's life, mental health ...
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: Austria
Duration: 78 min.
Story:
An unexpected letter forces siblings Bernhard and Lydia to confront each other and to deal with their family history.
Style:
captivating, psychological, emotional, disturbing, dark ...
Plot:
family relations, prostitute, family history, brother sister relationship, guilt, trauma, family secret, family problems, parents and children, family drama, shame, self discovery ...
Similarity:
20%
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:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
After two decades in prison Widmer, a former German RAF-terrorist, is released. He meets Valerie, his next door neighbour. The young woman tries to get her life back on track after she lost child custody for her little son. She shows some interest ...
Style:
crime drama, psychological, captivating, thrilling, serious ...
Plot:
relationships, raf, terrorism, guilt, male female relationship, life is a bitch, love affair, couple relations, tragic past, confronting the past, ex convict, secrets ...
Place:
west germany
Similarity:
20%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
After getting out of jail, where she learned to care for the sick, Alma, an albino woman, is determined to recover at any cost something much more important than her own freedom. In order to do so, Alma must spend her nights taking care of Clemente, ...
Style:
emotional, psychological thriller, melancholic, intense, atmospheric ...
Plot:
fear of death, obsession, female protagonist, compassion, character study, loneliness, moral ambiguity, redemption, domestic drama, manipulation, isolation, slow burn ...
Place:
mexico city
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 81 min.
Story:
Feature film.
Style:
thrilling, captivating, psychological, bleak, noir ...
Plot:
exploitation, sex work, prostitution, poverty, social problems, problem, life is a bitch, pimp, realism, street life, urban, survival ...
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 198 min.
Story:
Sawa Yamagishi worked as a nursing-care helper. The family for an old man asked Sawa to sleep with him, which led her to lose her job. Now, she has nowhere to go. Sawa finds elderly people in trouble and gets involved in their lives. Meeting them, ...
Style:
disturbing, psychological, captivating, emotional, melancholic ...
Plot:
elderly couple, nurse, female protagonist, loneliness, character study, caregiver, relationship problems, elderly, physician, changing lives, isolation, healing ...
Time:
2010s
Place:
japan
Similarity:
19%
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:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min.
Story:
Beth is a helpline volunteer – part of the small army that gets on the phone every night across America, fielding calls from all kinds of people feeling lonely, broken, hopeless. Over the last year the tide has become a tsunami. As Beth goes ...
Style:
emotional, heartfelt, thrilling, captivating, psychological ...
Plot:
social issues, volunteer, telephone call, social problems, empathy, social worker, loneliness, compassion, mental health, relationship problems, trust, character study ...
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
Álex and Cata, two young women who live on the outskirts of the city, a desolate place full of empty stores and ramshackle bars where dreams end up fading, have been preparing their escape all their lives.
Style:
psychological, thrilling, captivating, emotional, bleak ...
Plot:
poverty, moral dilemma, escape, social realism, social problems, money problems, women, female protagonist, poor, lifestyle, dysfunctional family, choice ...
Time:
2020s
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
'Forever Tomorrow' weaves a narrative out of the speeches given in AA meetings, the interrupted life of a party girl, a young couple who have lost their connection to one another, and the relationships Aaron, a rent boy, and his clients ...
Style:
thrilling, captivating, psychological, independent film, realistic ...
Plot:
alcoholism, relationships, recovery, homelessness, redemption, addiction, rent boy, life is a bitch, male female relationship, penance, character study, urban ...
Similarity:
19%
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