Movies like Hourglass
If you like "Hourglass" you are looking for melancholic, poignant and atmospheric movies about / with father son relationship, memory, family drama, madness, loneliness, childhood and sadness themes of Drama and War genre shot in Serbia or Hungary.
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.
Hourglass (2007)
112
Original name: Fövenyóra
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Serbia, Hungary
Duration: 110 min.
Story:
A story of a Jewish-Hungarian-Serbian family. The plot is centered about trying of an adult son to reconstruct his childhood dream of and memories. Looms, but a sunken world, the central European town with its figures, the way to experiencing deep and see a sensitive boy, his father, who by their fears that penetrate to the bone and the final humiliation of acting madness escapes and becomes a lonely, pathetic buffoon in the drama of life.
Style:
melancholic, poignant, atmospheric, tragicomedy, period piece, surreal
Plot:
father son relationship, memory, family drama, madness, loneliness, childhood, sadness, nostalgia, identity, intimate, dream, isolation, loss of innocence, humiliation, loss, small town, identity crisis, longing, bittersweet, trauma, guilt, social realism, dark humor, world war two, investigation ...
Time:
year 1942
Place:
central europe, balkan
Most similar movies to Hourglass
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out melancholic, period piece, art house and bleak films with plots about loss, identity, memory, isolation, family drama, grief and intimate mostly in Drama, War and History genres. Some movies like Hourglass: Strange Gardens (2003), Liten Ida (1981), My Father (2003), Evening Bells (1986), A Pale View of Hills (2025). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
Lucien, 14, can’t understand why his father, a serious and respected teacher, makes a fool of himself by dressing up as a clown and giving a show. André, Lucien’s father’s best friend, feels for the teenager and decides to reveal something ...
Style:
suspense, disturbing, tense, captivating, poignant ...
Plot:
world war two, occupied france, occupation, sabotage, resistance, french resistance, friendship, nazi occupation, german occupation, father son relationship, family secret, fight ...
Time:
1940s, year 2003
Place:
france
Similarity:
95%
166
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Norway, Sweden
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
Little Ida's mother is working for the Germans during WW2, and she is also having a relationship with a German SS-officer. Ida is experiencing the problems of having a mother who is involved with the enemy, without being old enough to ...
Style:
historical drama, period piece, melancholic, realistic, bleak ...
Plot:
world war two, mother daughter relationship, collaboration, family drama, loss of innocence, trauma, betrayal, guilt, intimate, identity, haunting, moral ambiguity ...
Time:
1940s
Similarity:
94%
306

Genre: Drama, War
Country: Italy, Brazil, Hungary
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
A man who grew up an orphan finally gets to meet his father: The psychopath Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz surgeon who performed genetic experiments on concentration camp refugees during WWII.
Style:
suspense, captivating, intense, serious, disturbing ...
Plot:
world war two, nazi, father son relationship, psychopath, family reunited, orphan, parent child relationship, experiment, father son reunion, war criminal, concentration camp, holocaust ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
brazil
Similarity:
75%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Trials and tribulations of a Croatian Communist intellectual in the turbulent years before, during and after WW2.
Style:
melancholic, historical drama, bleak, intellectual, atmospheric ...
Plot:
world war two, communism, moral dilemma, character study, trauma, identity crisis, occupation, political persecution, repression, persecution, loss, survival ...
Time:
1940s, 1950s
Place:
former yugoslavia, croatia, balkan
Similarity:
73%
Genre: Drama, History, War
Country: Japan, UK, Poland, Singapore
Duration: 123 min.
Story:
Dual timelines explore a Japanese widow's memories spanning post-war Nagasaki in 1950s and England during 1980s Cold War era, unraveling secrets that intertwine her past and present experiences across borders.
Style:
period piece, reflective, melancholic, atmospheric, historical drama ...
Plot:
widow, female protagonist, trauma, grief, memory, secrets, post war, mother and daughter, loss, regret, family secret, identity ...
Time:
1950s, 60s, 80s, 20th century, year 1982 ...
Place:
england
Similarity:
55%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: France, Italy, Czechoslovakia
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
This enigmatic, plodding story concerns a man who may or may not have betrayed a resistance fighter in his hometown during World War II. He has supposedly been shot down by the Nazis and wanders into town. Mourning the death of an unseen comrade, he ...
Style:
existential, psychological, art film, meditative, melancholic ...
Plot:
world war two, moral ambiguity, ambiguity, deception, betrayal, ethical dilemma, suspicion, identity, memory, resistance, character study, small town ...
Similarity:
52%
50
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Sharon and her ten year old son Bayo live in Tickle Cove on the shores of Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland like generations of their family have before them. Sharon hates her life there. She dreams of moving to Toronto - where her now deceased mother was ...
Style:
emotional, melancholic, independent film, period drama
Plot:
fishing, small town, fishing village, sea, family drama, tradition, mother son relationship, father son relationship, working class, longing, village life, storytelling ...
Place:
newfoundland, toronto ontario canada
Similarity:
50%
Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Following the death of his estranged father, Louis is left feeling he hasn't achieved as much as he had hoped for. A chance encounter with figures from his past triggers a set of events that shakes his perception of life.
Style:
poignant, melancholic, emotional, reflective, art house ...
Plot:
grief, coming of age, self discovery, mourning, loss, family drama, realism, male protagonist, bittersweet, chance meeting, intimate, memory ...
Similarity:
44%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 128 min.
Story:
The story of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl who went into hiding with her family in Amsterdam and became a victim of the Holocaust.
Style:
heartbreaking, bleak, reflective, historical drama, tension ...
Plot:
world war two, nazi occupation, children in wartime, tragedy, persecution, holocaust, fear, loss, anti semitism, isolation, teenage protagonist, peril ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
amsterdam
Similarity:
44%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Azerbaijan, Mexico, Switzerland, UK, Turkey
Duration: 89 min.
Story:
Davud returns from war to find everyone in his village has succumbed to a strange illness and has decomposed. His sister, the only survivor, is slowly rotting away herself. Davud is troubled by his memories as a soldier, as he confronts the only ...
Style:
existential, bleak, reflective, grim, atmospheric ...
Plot:
isolation, loneliness, survivor, trauma, loss, grief, moral ambiguity, mourning, war veteran, post war, post apocalyptic, moral dilemma ...
Similarity:
43%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Croatia
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
A young American is trying to find a man from her past, but he is never to be found, during the largest conflict on European soil since World War II – the battle of Vukovar. It is a search of identity and truth at a place where truth is selective, ...
Style:
captivating, thrilling, psychological, reflective, emotional ...
Plot:
identity, obsessive quest, problem, conflict, identity crisis, waking up, trauma, quest, freedom, truth, redemption, connection ...
Place:
croatia
Similarity:
43%
1K
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey, Germany
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
Basri, 55 year old, every day walks for miles along the tracks working as a railroad watchman. His nagging thought is finding his son. Eighteen years ago, while the boy was studying at the university in Istanbul, the police took him into custody for ...
Style:
melancholic, bleak, art house, existential, tragic ...
Plot:
loss, grief, waiting, mourning, guilt, loner, missing person, trauma, father son relationship, loneliness, regret, isolation ...
Similarity:
42%
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Colourful 'optimistic tragedy' of a poor family in Ukraine, living in the Carpathian mountains near the Romanian border, during the Second World War. This epic, which won the grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival in 1971, chronicles a ...
Style:
historical drama, emotional, bleak, period piece, melancholic ...
Plot:
world war two, survival, tragedy, family drama, poverty, occupation, family bonds, political conflict, loss, identity, loss of innocence, nationalism ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
ukraine, soviet union, romania, poland, ussr
Similarity:
41%
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 94 min.
Story:
A woman in love, a weak man, a father stumbling with his emotions, an uncle dependent on the past and a teenager meet at Zagor’s boarding house. Despite the serenity of the house, they all struggle to find the peace that they each need.
Style:
psychological, realistic, contemplative, melancholic, art house ...
Plot:
boarding house, character study, teenager, father son relationship, love, household, slice of life, domestic drama, intimate, memory, isolation, loss ...
Place:
turkey
Similarity:
40%
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 92 min.
Story:
Two mental patients bond in an imaginary heaven where nothing bad can ever happen, only to realize that being cured of their condition would mean accepting the harsh realities of life. He lives in a mental hospital, but escapes to his own private ...
Style:
melancholic, poignant, art house
Plot:
mental illness, trauma, escapism, character study, imaginary world, delusion, psychiatric hospital, sadness, loneliness, grief, surrealism, loss of innocence ...
Similarity:
40%
Genre: Drama
Country: Uruguay, Spain, Argentina
Duration: 84 min.
Story:
Two young people learn about love as politics turn their world upside down in this drama from director Ana Diez. After a long and successful career as a soccer player, Xavi retires from the game and moves to Spain, where one day to his surprise he ...
Style:
romantic drama, melancholic, emotional, reflective, period piece
Plot:
exile, longing, nostalgia, coming of age, bittersweet, flashback, political repression, immigration, intimate, reminiscence, loss of innocence, father son relationship ...
Time:
70s
Place:
uruguay, spain
Similarity:
39%
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
A middle-aged man sets out on a symbolic journey through past, present, and future to learn why an old friend committed suicide, and learns much about his own life along the way.
Style:
reflective, existential, melancholic, bleak, philosophical ...
Plot:
suicide, memory, existential crisis, symbolism, loss, midlife crisis, self discovery, guilt, flashback, mature, regret, isolation ...
Place:
poland
Similarity:
39%
245
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Germany, France
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
During the Nazi era, a Jewish woman on the run takes a trolley which passes near the Warsaw ghetto, where the uprising battle is taking place, and some passengers are struck by stray bullets. They take temporary refuge in an empty building, and ...
Style:
tension, period piece, bleak, historical drama, atmospheric ...
Plot:
world war two, holocaust, nazi occupation, suspicion, hiding, anti semitism, survival, fear, neighbor, moral ambiguity, memory, accomplice ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
poland, warsaw poland
Similarity:
38%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 169 min.
Story:
Spring, 1941. Sixteen-year-old Toshihiko attends school in the coastal town of Karatsu, where his aunt cares for his ailing cousin. Immersed in the seaside's nature and culture, Toshihiko soon befriends the town's other extraordinary ...
Style:
surreal, art house, suspense, psychological, tense ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
world war two, wartime, adolescence, symbolism, coming of age, life is a bitch, teenager, wartime life, surrealism, teenage life, anti war, bittersweet ...
Time:
year 1941
Place:
japan, pearl harbor
Similarity:
36%
485

Genre: Drama
Country: Estonia, UK
Duration: 86 min.
Story:
Magnus, a handsome teenager, wants to commit suicide and his father tries to change his mind.
Style:
psychological, emotional, melancholic, realistic, independent film ...
Audience:
teen drama
Plot:
suicide, father son relationship, coming of age, family drama, intimate, mental illness, redemption, bittersweet, healing, dark humor, alienation, isolation ...
Time:
2000s
Place:
estonia
Similarity:
35%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 82 min.
Story:
The men of a small town on the edge of nowhere mysteriously disappear, one by one, leaving women and children behind to fend for themselves in a desolate and dreamlike world.
Style:
bleak, melancholic, atmospheric, surreal, poetic
Plot:
small town, abandonment, coming of age, family drama, adolescence, loss, isolation, desolation, mysterious disappearance, grief, motherhood, slow burn ...
Time:
future
Place:
california
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
When Bertha dies, her granddaughter Iris inherits her house and finds herself back in the home where she and her cousin used to play dressing-up in the summer holidays. While she wanders from room to room, she gropes her way through memories and ...
Style:
family saga, melancholic, contemplative, reflective, emotional ...
Plot:
memory, family drama, inheritance, family secret, grief, mourning, nostalgia, flashback, house, homecoming, literary, adaptation ...
Time:
20th century
Place:
northern germany
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: Argentina
Duration: 78 min.
Story:
A married couple uproot their entire family and move to Puerto Rico where the familial tree promptly dies in the face of relentless poverty and depression in this down-beat drama, the directorial debut of Argentine filmmaker Torre-Nilsson.
Style:
emotional, poignant, bleak, period piece, atmospheric ...
Plot:
family drama, parent child relationship, marriage, grief, loss, desperation, social realism, dysfunctional family, relocation, melancholy, isolation, survival ...
Time:
60s
Place:
puerto rico
Similarity:
34%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama, War
Country: Hungary
Duration: 118 min.
Story:
Film about the Holocaust. A Jewish family is allowed to keep the flat they have always lived in and to live a relatively normal life. One day their 10-year old son disappears. He has been sent to a deportation camp which seems like paradise except ...
Style:
bleak, emotional, medical horror, period piece, historical drama
Audience:
adult
Plot:
world war two, concentration camp, suffering, holocaust, jewish family, persecution, oppression, survival, deportation, anti war, loss of innocence, family drama ...
Time:
1940s
Place:
europe, eastern europe, hungary
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min.
Story:
An estranged father and son spend the day ambling around a cemetery, wandering the wilderness, searching for family, and stumbling through disharmony and heartache.
Style:
melancholic, atmospheric, dramatic, serious, harsh ...
Plot:
father son relationship, son, father, father and son, cemetery, character study, estrangement, family drama, family relations, alienation, parents and children, estranged son ...
Similarity:
34%
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
A little boy, craving for his father's attention, imagines a made-up "Mr. President" who looks just like his father but is caring and attentive.
Style:
psychological, melancholic, poignant, black and white, art house ...
Audience:
kids
Plot:
child, imaginary friend, father son relationship, imagination, boy, childhood, longing, delusion, mental health, neglect, abandonment, family drama ...
Place:
poland
Similarity:
33%
Genre: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Two young boys, Valerio and Christian, form a powerful friendship over the summer.
Style:
psychological, emotional, suspense, captivating, dramatic ...
Plot:
friendship, assassination attempt, terrorism, loss of innocence, family drama, coming of age, father son relationship, childhood, trauma, fear, friends, family problems ...
Time:
70s, 80s
Place:
rome italy
Similarity:
33%
Genre: Drama
Country: France, Italy, Algeria
Duration: 101 min.
Story:
Based on a novel that Albert Camus was working on when he died, we follow Jacques Comery as he travels back to Algeria in 1957, a place full of childhood memories. The country is split between those wanting to remain a part of France, and those ...
Style:
realistic, contemplative, sentimental, atmospheric, psychological ...
Plot:
childhood, youth, family relations, society, social issues, identity, memory, adaptation, reminiscence, literary, autobiography, homecoming ...
Time:
20th century, 50s
Place:
africa, algeria, north africa
Similarity:
33%
Genre: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 98 min.
Story:
In a small Polish town in the summer of 1939, a married painter and a young Jewish woman begin an affair. Based on the novel by Marek Sołtysik.
Style:
historical drama, melancholic, period piece, emotional, tense ...
Plot:
world war two, forbidden love, tragic romance, small town, infidelity, intimacy, passion, interfaith relationship, loss, tragedy, adultery, betrayal ...
Time:
1930s
Place:
poland
Similarity:
32%
195
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 100 min.
Story:
Anna, 50 years old, moves into her new house. Rooms are full of boxes which contain a lot of things and plenty of memories. Anna has lived many lives and her past comes out of these boxes. Her parents surely, but also her children and their fathers, ...
Style:
poignant, art house, melancholic, bleak, atmospheric ...
Plot:
midlife crisis, female protagonist, memory, family drama, loss, reflection, regret, ghost, family secret, grief, aging, introspection ...
Place:
brittany
Similarity:
32%
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