Movies like The Cruel Embrace
If you like "The Cruel Embrace" you are looking for psychological, touching and bleak movies about / with mental disorder, youth, misfit, family relations, parents and children, life is a bitch and dysfunctional family themes of Drama genre shot in Belgium or France.
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 Cruel Embrace (1987)
197
Original name: Les Noces barbares
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Nicole (Marianne Basler) gives birth to a mentally challenged boy after she is gang-raped by American soldiers at the close of World War II in this grim dramatic tragedy. Young Ludo is hidden in the attic of the family home and continues to yearn for his mother's affection. Nicole enters into a loveless marriage with an older man who agrees to adopt Ludo, but her deteriorating mental health leads her to sloth and alcoholism. Ludo is sent off to an asylum, but escapes and takes up residence on a deserted beach in an old tanker that has run aground. This feature won the grand prize at the 1987 Barcelona Film Festival.
Style:
psychological, touching, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Plot:
mental disorder, youth, misfit, family relations, parents and children, life is a bitch, dysfunctional family, isolation, mentally challenged, family problems, single parent, confined, haunted by the past, estrangement, human nature, mentally unstable, kids in trouble, rape, mother, rape victim, mother son relationship, female director
Time:
1940s, 20th century, 40s
Place:
europe, belgium
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to The Cruel Embrace
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, serious, touching and emotional films with plots about family relations, parents and children, family problems, dysfunctional family, life is a bitch, estrangement and youth mostly in Drama genres. Some movies like The Cruel Embrace: When Andrew Came Home (2000), A Night for Dying Tigers (2010), The Hanged Man (2008), Mother and Son (1997), Nobody Owns Me (2013). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
A mother searches for five years to find her kidnapped son in this fact-based drama. Unexpectedly the boy is found, but the reunion is not as she hoped. She now has to deal with five years of abuse that the boy suffered at the hands of his ...
Style:
touching, serious, realistic, emotional, sad
Plot:
kids in trouble, kidnapping, coming of age, dysfunctional family, parents and children, captivity, family in crisis, estrangement, family problems, danger, single parent, confined ...
Time:
90s
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
The night before Jack (Gil Bellows) is slated to begin a five-year prison sentence for murder, his wife, Melanie (Jennifer Beals), and assorted siblings gather for a dinner to bid Jack farewell and good luck on his trip up the river. But the party ...
Style:
realistic, emotional, psychological, captivating, dark comedy ...
Plot:
dysfunctional family, family relations, haunted by the past, family problems, estrangement, couple relations, family secret, sibling rivalry, family drama, conflict, parents and children, regret ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
canada
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, Ireland
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
Two lovers break the law and struggle to stay together when carnal obsession causes tempers to flare.
Style:
emotional, serious, realistic, psychological, captivating ...
Audience:
teens
Plot:
rape, blackmail, teenage rape, mad love, young lovers, haunted by the past, life is a bitch, youth, teenager, love, party, kidnapping ...
Time:
20th century, 80s, 21st century
Place:
spain
Similarity:
100%
Genre: Drama
Country: Russia, Germany
Duration: 73 min.
Story:
A slow and poignant story of love and patience told via a dying mother nursed by her devoted son. The simple narrative is a thread woven among the deeply spiritual images of the countryside and cottage.
Style:
slow cinema, aesthetic, depressing, realistic, psychological ...
Plot:
art, biopic, countryside, childhood, youth, mother and son, landscape, mental disorder, artist, minimal dialogue, spirituality, underground ...
Time:
year 1997, 90s
Place:
soviet union, russia
Similarity:
100%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, Luxembourg, France
Duration: 78 min.
Story:
A tale of deliverance. Laura, 27 years old, lives alone in the outskirts of a large town. She learns that her father is in a coma, after a serious car accident. She decides to visit him at the hospital as a last opportunity to settle old scores, ...
Style:
realistic, serious, psychological, captivating, touching ...
Plot:
hospital, introspection, haunted by the past, estrangement, family relations, hopes, dysfunctional family, father daughter relationship, revenge, car accident, family secret, nudity ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
belgium, europe
Similarity:
24%
Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 104 min.
Story:
The story of a lone father's relationship with his daughter, of the destructive power of alcohol, of a child's vulnerability, but also of love, betrayal and socialist politics in 1970s Sweden. A unique and moving story freely based on Åsa ...
Style:
touching, bleak, emotional, serious, realistic ...
Plot:
working class, parents and children, life turned upside down, single parent, disorder, dysfunctional family, family problems, family relations, youth, parents, children, addiction ...
Time:
20th century, 80s, 70s
Place:
eastern europe
Similarity:
24%
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, France
Duration: 109 min.
Story:
A man trying to keep himself afloat and marry the woman he loves sees all that's dear to him threatened in this drama. Marcus (Sam Louwyck) works as a maintenance man for a Belgian power company, keeping lines and electrical towers in repair ...
Style:
realistic, captivating, touching, atmospheric, gloomy ...
Plot:
family relations, estrangement, workplace, family life, parents and children, human nature, unfulfillment, love, working class, accident, father daughter relationship, life is a bitch ...
Place:
europe, belgium, rotterdam netherlands
Similarity:
23%
895
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 115 min.
Story:
A man attempts to reclaim the life that prison took from him but his dark past threatens to ruin everything.
Style:
serious, realistic, touching, sincere, gloomy
Plot:
redemption, starting over, haunted by the past, life is a bitch, society, parents and children, family relations, family problems, estrangement, dysfunctional family, hopes, job seeking ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
belgium
Similarity:
22%
Movie in collections
139
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, France, Luxembourg
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
A sixteen year-old girl living with her widowed father in the Ardennes forest befriends a twenty-two year old orphan whose manipulative aunt contrives to keep him immature in the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Stéphan Carpiaux. A tragic ...
Style:
emotional, realistic, atmospheric, psychological, captivating ...
Plot:
fall in love, teenage life, family relations, coming of age, parents and children, family problems, single parent, unfulfillment, confined, youth, woods, isolation ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
europe, belgium
Similarity:
22%
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
Shy, gentle half-wit Dennis, whose only obsession is train-spotting, is released early on account of good behavior after a rape sentence. His parents who run a modest barbershop, skeptic André and Rita, desperately try to keep him out of girl ...
Style:
touching, captivating, serious, emotional, contemplative ...
Plot:
family relations, misfit, society, life is a bitch, hopes, rehabilitation, parents and children, forced into action, jail, punishment, rape, prison ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
europe, belgium
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 105 min.
Story:
Antonio and Emma have been separated for years, but he does not accept when Emma dates other men. Indeed Antonio proves obsessive, aggressive and intrusive, and again threatens Emma to hurt the children: little Kevin, shy and introverted, and the ...
Style:
serious, realistic, suspense, psychological, bleak ...
Plot:
crumbling marriage, dysfunctional family, losing-it hero, obsession, ex husband, life is a bitch, breaking point, parents and children, mentally unstable, danger, family problems, violent content ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
italy, europe
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, Netherlands
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
In a part of Flanders where flax is the main crop, farmer Vermeulen rules his estate like an 'old school' patriarch, stern and authoritarian, nobody else's word is ever taken seriously, just scolded fools, he rather risks being wrong ...
Style:
realistic, serious, sincere, atmospheric, emotional ...
Plot:
homestead, family relations, power relations, estrangement, family problems, farm, social relations, human nature, countryside, family life, family in crisis, village life ...
Time:
1900s, 20th century
Place:
belgium, europe, france
Similarity:
21%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
An introverted teenager tells his parents he is going on a ski trip, but instead spends his time alone in a basement.
Style:
touching, atmospheric, serious, stylized, freeze frame ...
Plot:
youth, heroin addict, teenage life, estrangement, dysfunctional family, family problems, confined, life is a bitch, dishonesty, parents and children, addiction, coming of age ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
italy, europe, rome italy
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
A successful author, Liz, searches for her daughter, Rachel, in the Sinai Desert. There she meets a Bedouin storyteller who relays the unusual love story of a Western tourist and the son of a Bedouin Sheik named Najim. Their relationship is torn ...
Style:
psychological, serious, touching, emotional, sexy ...
Audience:
girls' night
Plot:
love affair, culture clash, haunted by the past, forbidden love, estrangement, couples, family problems, missing child, parents and children, on the run, danger, single parent ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
20%
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
He can deliver a breathtaking speech on the American soul to flabbergasted schoolboys, get mixed up in the private lives of his citizens, and even get his 18-year-old daughter to swear that never, but never, would she leave home. Meet Simon Wolberg, ...
Style:
sincere, emotional, serious, realistic, touching ...
Plot:
family in crisis, family relations, parents and children, estrangement, family problems, dysfunctional family, family life, hopes, siblings relations, crumbling marriage, unfulfillment, midlife crisis ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
france, europe
Similarity:
20%
603
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 106 min.
Story:
Rome, early 20th century: a wealthy psychiatrist, who runs an asylum for women and lacks imagination in his practice, must find a wet nurse for his infant when his wife panics after childbirth. He brings a peasant, Annette, to Rome, forcing her to ...
Style:
contemplative, realistic, sincere, psychological, touching ...
Plot:
nanny, dysfunctional family, adoption, politics, power relations, babies and infants, society, master and servant, single parent, love and romance, couples, parents and children ...
Time:
20th century
Place:
europe, rome italy
Similarity:
20%
244
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 107 min.
Story:
Lyon, France in 1970s, Sibylle, Corinne, and Georgette are sisters who share everything, as they live with their Italian mother. Sibylle is the only blonde in the family, except for their father who abandoned them, and she feels isolated. She dreams ...
Style:
realistic, serious, emotional, touching, sentimental ...
Plot:
sisters, family relations, family problems, youth, introspection, parents and children, siblings relations, dysfunctional family, self discovery, obsessive quest, single parent, coming of age ...
Time:
70s, 20th century, 21st century
Place:
italy, lyon, europe, france
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min.
Story:
Drama - When Zak and his girlfriend Delphina visit his estranged father in the Catskills, they find him suffering from dementia and inadvertently uncover a dark family secret from WWII: an impossible sacrifice Zak's grandfather (Eli Wallach) ...
Style:
emotional, psychological, realistic, captivating, serious ...
Plot:
haunted by the past, holocaust, life is a bitch, memory loss, estrangement, parents and children, deportation, uncover truth, jew persecution, past, world war two, elderly ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
usa, new york
Similarity:
19%
Movie in collections
424
Genre: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
Life is tough for Chol-Min - his mother died during labor, forcing him to grow up alonge with his stoic police officer father. However, Chol-Min lives a high-spirited life and roams around town with his own mutt, a half-bred police dog, making ...
Style:
psychological, captivating, gloomy, contemplative, touching ...
Plot:
coming of age, redemption, fighting crime, family relations, single parent, teenage life, hopes, adoption, small town, estrangement, society, parents and children ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
south korea, asia, korea
Similarity:
19%
3K
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Belgium, Japan
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
Three sisters share a connection to a violent incident from their childhood reunite to for the chance to come to terms with their past.
Style:
realistic, serious, emotional, erotic, touching ...
Plot:
childhood trauma, false accusation, sister sister relationship, haunted by the past, family problems, estrangement, family relations, parents and children, disability, mother daughter relationship, male female relationship, wrongful conviction ...
Time:
20th century, 80s
Place:
paris france, europe, france
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
A psychiatrist tries to help a suicidal woman who despises her grown daughter.
Style:
psychological, touching, realistic, serious, sincere ...
Plot:
clinic, parent child relationship, family problems, estrangement, dysfunctional family, power relations, family relations, doctors and patients, parents and children, therapy, mother daughter relationship, mother ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min.
Story:
Seemingly autobiographical story of a woman overwhelmed with trying to please everyone except herself, and not finding any answers until she's admitted to a rehab center by her parents. Eventually here is where she finds her answers.
Style:
realistic, touching, serious, psychological, emotional ...
Plot:
nervous breakdown, rehabilitation center, rehabilitation, drug abuse, mental institution, parents and children, family problems, life is a bitch, doctors and patients, addiction, family relations, power relations ...
Time:
20th century, 80s
Place:
usa
Similarity:
19%
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Like many Native families, Lena Mahikan grew up in the cycle of abuse. Her father, a residential school survivor, was an alcoholic until he killed himself when Lena was 10. Her mother, only 14 years her senior, turned to the slots. By the time Lena ...
Style:
realistic, serious, sincere, emotional, gloomy ...
Plot:
small town, haunted by the past, native american, single parent, life is a bitch, society, social misfits, danger, youth, dysfunctional family, parents and children, family in crisis ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
canada
Similarity:
18%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
In 1971, in the small town of Shirley Falls, in Maine, the odd and lonely secretary Isabelle Goodrow raises her teenager daughter Amy alone. She has only two friends in her job among her gossiper colleagues. When her overprotected daughter is ...
Style:
touching, serious, realistic, sexual, sexy
Plot:
parents and children, teenage life, love and romance, family life, dysfunctional family, friendship, single parent, youth, family problems, disgraced, teachers and students, isolation ...
Time:
70s, 20th century
Place:
maine, new england
Similarity:
18%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
As things unravel for a struggling single mother in Las Vegas, she must decide what she's willing to give up to get by.
Style:
realistic, serious, captivating, emotional, psychological ...
Plot:
poverty, moral dilemma, life is a bitch, society, working class, parents and children, family problems, down on your luck, single mother, youth, homeless, single parent ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
las vegas, usa
Similarity:
18%
426
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
Living in rural New South Wales, working-class single mother Rhia is struggling to evade debt collectors and raise three young daughters. The eldest, and hardened beyond her years, Lou blames Rhia for the departure of her father, who walked out 10 ...
Style:
realistic, emotional, touching, psychological, captivating ...
Plot:
alzheimer's disease, family relations, mental illness, parents and children, aging, unfulfillment, estrangement, family in crisis, youth, forgetfulness, abandonment, debt collector ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
australia, new south wales
Similarity:
18%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
Life, love, and the fear of failing... Lilli Black, battling her painful memories and the secrets surrounding her dying father, collides into the complicated and obsessive life of Morrison Wiley on the streets of New York City. This peculiar love ...
Style:
psychological, realistic, serious, independent film, gloomy
Plot:
introspection, haunted by the past, family relations, family life, dysfunctional family, life is a bitch, estrangement, mental illness, human nature, family problems, couples, love affair ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
new york, usa
Similarity:
18%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
Marc is a passionate cyclist and urban slacker who avoids work and responsibility. Marc's life changes from one moment to the next when he suffers a life-changing accident. He can either wallow in self-pity or tackle the beast called life with ...
Style:
serious, touching, sincere, psychological, emotional ...
Plot:
cyclist, life is a bitch, couple relations, hopes, disability, parents and children, human nature, misfit, human spirit, redemption, family relations, new love ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
europe, germany
Similarity:
18%
Genre: Drama
Country: Israel
Duration: 111 min.
Story:
Now that Itzhak's father is in a coma, and dying, Itzhak is finally willing to visit him, thus breaking a ten-year silence. During his visits to the hospital, Itzhak, a beaten and reserved man, is frustrated to find himself neglected by his own ...
Style:
realistic, psychological, emotional, touching, serious ...
Plot:
estrangement, family relations, dysfunctional family, family problems, parents and children, family life, siblings relations, grandfather granddaughter relationship, hospital, husband wife relationship, coma, family secret ...
Time:
21st century
Place:
israel, middle east
Similarity:
18%
284
Genre: Drama
Country: Belgium, France
Duration: 88 min.
Story:
A South African spinster (Jane Birkin) murders her father (Trevor Howard) after he rapes the wife of the black foreman for his plantation.
Style:
contemplative, serious, realistic, emotional, atmospheric ...
Plot:
sexual abuse, rape and revenge, murder, rape, heartache, feminist, homestead, angst, servant, minimal dialogue, loneliness, violent content ...
Time:
year 1985, 20th century, 80s
Place:
south africa, africa
Similarity:
18%
Related movie lists
