Movies like The Pad

If you like "The Pad" you are looking for psychological, melancholic and tension movies about / with character study, friendship, deception, working class, moral dilemma, identity and intimate themes of Drama genre shot in Poland.
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 Pad (1980)
 6.4
 33
The Pad (1980)
Original name: Meta
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 65 min.
Story: Two former classmates (one an honest working man with a wife and children, the other a conman) meet at a train station. The conman comes to stay with his old friend and slowly begins to assume the role of master of the house, taking the place of the father and husband. Made for television with a screenplay by Marek Nowakowski. The film sat on a shelf for 9 years, and was shown only on the wave of solidarity in 1980. Awards: 1981 - 8 Polish Film Festival, Gdańsk, special jury prize.
Style: psychological, melancholic, tension, suspenseful, sinister
Plot: character study, friendship, deception, working class, moral dilemma, identity, intimate, betrayal, impostor, alienation, power struggle, switching roles, machismo, social realism, slow burn, claustrophobia, moral corruption, nostalgia, class conflict, renaissance, con artists, criminal, poverty, card playing, loss of job ...
Place: eastern europe

Movie in categories

Most similar movies to The Pad

The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out melancholic, psychological, art house and tension films with plots about character study, intimate, slow burn, social realism, alienation, identity and working class mostly in Drama genres. Some movies like The Pad: Orange (2012), In Her Place (2014), Twelve Thousand (2019), Green Sea (2020), Blue Hour (2021). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
 5.5
 17
Orange (2012)
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 142 min.
Story: A lorry driver gives a lift to a stranger, unaware of the consequences of this action. Yakobi, a lorry driver works at a dairy farm. He marries Saritha without anyone's knowledge and they have a baby. One day, a stranger named Muthu asks Yakobi ...
Style: tension, suspense, grim, psychological
Plot: trust, stranger, secrets, deception, betrayal, family drama, dairy farm, character study, moral dilemma, parenthood, everyday life, small town life ...
Similarity:
95%
 6.7
 186
In Her Place (2014)
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada, South Korea
Duration: 115 min.
Story: A wealthy couple seeks to secretly adopt the unborn child of an impoverished and troubled rural teenager, in this slow-burning and ultimately shocking drama from writer-director Albert Shin.
Style: tension, art house, atmospheric, melancholic, grim ...
Plot: adoption, pregnancy, motherhood, moral ambiguity, poverty, class conflict, intimate, character study, secrets, ethical dilemma, social inequality, domestic drama ...
Place: south korea, korea, asia, canada
Similarity:
73%
Twelve Thousand (2019)
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 111 min.
Story: While he loses his clandestine work, and because he believes that Maroussia and him will no longer be able to love each other as well, Frank leaves to earn as much as she: twelve thousand, just what it takes to have a year before them. No more no ...
Style: melancholic
Plot: employment, working life, poverty, working class, realism, urban, slice of life, intimate, resilience, character study, social realism, sacrifice ...
Time: 2010s
Place: france
Similarity:
69%
 6.5
 1K
Green Sea (2020)
Genre: Drama
Country: Greece, Germany
Duration: 94 min.
Story: Anna has lost her memory but she hasn’t forgotten how to cook. One night she shows up in a working-class neighborhood. There she meets Roula and gets a job as a cook and a place to stay at his shabby seaside tavern. In the kitchen, amidst the ...
Style: emotional, melancholic, independent film
Plot: cooking, amnesia, female protagonist, food, identity, memory loss, character study, seaside, community, everyday life, friendship, working class ...
Place: greece, europe
Similarity:
67%
Movie in collections
betrayal movies
17334
melancholic movies
14074
impostor movies
1277
alienation movies
1564
 8.5
 16
Blue Hour (2021)
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 104 min.
Story: Lee, an anxious young man living in rural Alberta, is about to start a new job in road construction. Confounded by the news of an illness in the family and masculinity stereotypes-- Lee must decide whether to stay or go.
Style: indie film, melancholic, contemplative, bleak, psychological
Plot: machismo, male protagonist, introspection, anxiety, character study, isolation, small town, identity, coming of age, intimate, responsibility, uncertainty ...
Similarity:
65%
Zebras in Wyoming (2017)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Story: A prisoner soon has his guard questioning his own world-view.
Style: thought provoking, psychological, tension, intense, existential ...
Plot: prisoner, security guard, prison, character study, power, confined, power struggle, claustrophobia, moral dilemma, isolation, identity, moral ambiguity ...
Place: wyoming
Similarity:
59%
 5.6
 265
Miss Osaka (2021)
Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark, Norway, Japan
Duration: 90 min.
Story: Ines, who wants to change who she is and become someone else in order to cover up her insecurities. When she accompanies her boyfriend Lucas on a business trip to Norway, Ines meets a half-Japanese tourist, Maria, who instantly fascinates her. ...
Style: psychological, tense, atmospheric, suspenseful, art house ...
Plot: self discovery, obsessive love, female protagonist, identity, character study, impostor, double life, deception, identity theft, slow burn, moral ambiguity, danger ...
Place: japan, osaka japan
Similarity:
58%
Committee Kurrollu (2024)
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 156 min.
Story: Go back in time and experience a roller coaster ride of emotions with the Committee Kurrollu.
Style: tension, heartfelt, melancholic, reflective
Audience: adult
Plot: friendship, village life, betrayal, small town, slice of life, intimate, families, moral dilemma, resilience, regret, reconciliation, coming of age ...
Similarity:
57%
Movie in collections
The Constant Factor (1980)
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 87 min.
Story: The main character in this effective, convincing drama is Witold (Tadeusz Bradecki) who is high in what later would be termed the "emotional quotient" or the ability to bounce back from adverse, tragic circumstances. Witold has been ...
Style: existential, melancholic, bleak, intellectual, tragic
Plot: corruption, grief, character study, moral dilemma, family drama, existential crisis, bureaucracy, frustration, social realism, betrayal, class struggle, anti hero ...
Time: year 1980
Place: eastern europe, poland, himalaya
Similarity:
57%
 6.7
 29
Bonobo (2014)
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 103 min.
Story: A happily married young couple must carefully evaluate their relationship and trust in one another, plus own moral standing when a potentially seedy yet highly financial offer is presented to them in a time of recession.
Style: realistic, psychological, tension, independent film, suspense
Plot: marriage, financial crisis, couples, relationships, moral dilemma, infidelity, character study, moral ambiguity, temptation, trust, young couple, secrets ...
Similarity:
56%
Beyond the Ocean (2000)
Genre: Drama
Country: Russia, USA, Austria
Duration: 89 min.
Story: A young pregnant woman arrives in New York City from Russia, and her mind drifts to the past when she was coming of age in a coal mining town in Russia.
Style: melancholic, emotional, intercultural, realistic, grim ...
Plot: immigrant, pregnancy, coming of age, flashback, outsider, trauma, loneliness, search for father, character study, dark past, isolation, identity ...
Place: new york, russia
Similarity:
52%
The Portuguese House (2025)
Genre: Drama
Country: Portugal, Spain
Duration: 114 min.
Story: The disappearance of his wife leaves Fernando, a quiet geography teacher, completely devastated. Aimless, he impersonates another man as a gardener at a Portuguese country house, where he forms an unexpected friendship with the owner.
Style: melancholic, emotional, psychological, atmospheric, existential ...
Plot: grief, loss, character study, loneliness, identity, intimate, country house, memory, minimalism, friendship, impostor, gardener ...
Similarity:
50%
 6.1
 34
Nautilus (1990)
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:
49%
The Caretaker (2017)
Genre: Drama
Country: Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil
Duration: 85 min.
Story: Juan has become the laughingstock of the small fishing village, due to his wife being unfaithful and getting pregnant by another man. He has left fishing and now obsessively cares for an ostentatious mansion of a wealthy family from the capital. One ...
Style: psychological, tension, melancholic, suspense, tragic
Plot: caretaker, isolation, loneliness, small town, humiliation, jealousy, infidelity, moral dilemma, alienation, machismo, obsession, intimate ...
Time: 2010s
Similarity:
49%
 6.8
 1K
Enemies (2025)
Genre: Drama
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story: Chimo turns 18 years and comes from a humble and supportive family. Since childhood he was bullied and even today, while working multiple jobs and dreaming of starting his own business, he continues to face his bully: El Rubio. When Chimo has the ...
Style: emotional, intense, tension
Audience: teen drama
Plot: coming of age, friendship, revenge, rivalry, bullying, adolescence, youth, working class, neighborhood, teen angst, transformation, redemption ...
Similarity:
45%
According to Ben Adams (2016)
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 105 min.
Story: Bored with his usual routine, the devil gets arrested just to see what will happen.
Style: thought provoking, existential, allegory, psychological, philosophical ...
Plot: religious, belief, supernatural, identity crisis, character study, moral dilemma, deception, psychiatric hospital, hospital, intimate, confined, satire ...
Similarity:
44%
 4.4
 40
Happy Baby (2016)
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 85 min.
Story: An abused, former orphan living in San Francisco returns to New York to reconnect with the love of his life and understand how his past has shaped his future. It's a semi-autobiographical work based on the book of the same name originally ...
Style: emotional, psychological, realistic, independent film, semi autobiographical ...
Plot: character study, trauma, foster home, male protagonist, lost love, introspection, identity, literary, memory, urban, intimate, self discovery ...
Place: new york, san francisco
Similarity:
40%
 6.6
 547
Spiral (1978)
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 83 min.
Story: In what appears to be an inexplicable incident, a man drives up to a resort hotel in midwinter, throws away his car keys, enters, and proceeds to agitate everyone he meets with his urgency -- a message he is somehow unable to communicate. Then he ...
Style: atmospheric, psychological, suspense, sinister, tense ...
Plot: renaissance, snow, winter, mountain, alienation, isolation, obsession, symbolism, character study, slow burn, tourist, suspicion ...
Place: poland, eastern europe
Similarity:
39%
Movie in collections
Slave and courtesan (2016)
Genre: Drama
Country: Côte d'Ivoire, Guadeloupe
Story: A small group of people meet in a guest house lost in the middle of nowhere. Disconnected from everything, each will try to understand his destiny. Trapped by the past, they each have to find the key to their existence, like « shadows walking ...
Style: melancholic, philosophical, art house, poetic, atmospheric ...
Plot: destiny, character study, isolation, existentialism, redemption, memory, alienation, secrets, identity, moral ambiguity, haunting, claustrophobia ...
Similarity:
39%
 6.7
 326
Tess (2016)
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: disturbing, suspense, captivating, emotional, independent film ...
Plot: pregnancy, afrikaans, female protagonist, sex worker, prostitute, motherhood, sex work, unwanted pregnancy, troubled past, changing lives, prostitution, unplanned pregnancy ...
Place: africa, south africa
Similarity:
38%
 6.2
 134
The Reject (2007)
Genre: Drama
Country: Serbia
Duration: 97 min.
Story: A man whose life is on the verge of collapse looks for new inspiration in this drama from Serbian filmmaker Milos Radivojevic. On was once a reporter, but now makes his living working as a public relations man for a banking firm. On is in his ...
Style: realistic, reflective, melancholic, existential, art house ...
Plot: midlife crisis, character study, alienation, identity crisis, alcoholism, male protagonist, social realism, domestic drama, slow burn, boredom, intimate, mature ...
Time: 2000s
Similarity:
38%
 6.4
 75
Gra (1969)
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:
37%
 7.1
 765
The Calm (1976)
Genre: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 81 min.
Story: A young man in his twenties leaves prison after a three-year sentence. He wants to start a new life in a place where he is not known and dreams only of a job, a wife and a family. He succeeds partially in fulfilling these dreams, but then runs into ...
Style: bleak, melancholic, period piece
Plot: corruption, class conflict, character study, social realism, working class, redemption, betrayal, alienation, solidarity, loneliness, realism, rehabilitation ...
Time: year 1970, year 1980, year 1976, year 1978, year 1977 ...
Place: poland
Similarity:
37%
Movie in collections
 6.5
 2K
Soul Kicking (2006)
Genre: Drama
Country: Greece, Cyprus
Duration: 107 min.
Story: Takis is trapped. Takis tries to escape. Takis wants money. He's got a family, a baby, a home... Takis is being cheated. He loves her and he suffers... Takis can't take it at work. He's besieged by savages. But his boss tops them ...
Style: melancholic, intense, dark, psychological, tragic
Plot: working class, desperation, family crisis, betrayal, male protagonist, anger, oppression, isolation, alienation, revenge, realism, slow burn ...
Time: 2000s
Place: athens greece
Similarity:
36%
Komola Rocket (2018)
Genre: Drama
Country: Bangladesh
Duration: 95 min.
Story: A manifestation of lives of people coming from different classes and beliefs in a steamer as they set out for their journeys. Things start to get out of hand when the steamer gets stuck amidst the passage and deepest secrets and desires start to ...
Style: tension, atmospheric
Plot: social commentary, social realism, class conflict, slice of life, high society, character study, lower class, secrets, confined, moral ambiguity, family drama, lust ...
Similarity:
35%
 5.3
 186
Dragonflies (2022)
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:
35%
Migratory Birds (2018)
Genre: Drama
Country: Chile
Duration: 83 min.
Story: Diego is hosting a farewell party in his house before he leaves on a trip that no one knows about.
Style: reflective, emotional, melancholic, realistic, tension ...
Plot: secrets, house party, introspection, intimate, relationships, bittersweet, friendship, regret, single, identity, character study, slice of life ...
Similarity:
35%
 4.6
 264
Seaburners (2014)
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 89 min.
Story: Denise, a botanist, is working in the swamps in a part of Turkey, planting and researching local flora. In her evenings she sometimes meets with her lover Hamit, a simple man at first glance. But he is making his living with human trafficking which ...
Style: melancholic, atmospheric, tense, crime drama, bleak ...
Plot: human trafficking, secrets, moral ambiguity, exploitation, desperation, smuggling, poverty, betrayal, social realism, survival, isolation, character study ...
Place: istanbul turkey, turkey, black sea
Similarity:
35%
 6.7
 55
White Trash (1983)
Genre: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 62 min.
Story: The precise portrait of people in the Berlin neighborhood, their longings, despairs and paltry consolations
Style: melancholic, bleak, existential
Plot: character study, striptease, alcoholism, slice of life, realism, alienation, abandonment, working class, midlife crisis, sexuality, social realism, blue collar ...
Time: 80s
Place: west berlin west germany
Similarity:
34%
A Minute of Silence (1998)
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 88 min.
Story: In a dying French mining town near the German border, the last miners are preparing to strike. Marek and Mimmo, two young miners and friends, have different views on the impending strike.
Style: bleak, melancholic, realistic, tension, political
Plot: strike, working class, friendship, protest, class struggle, blue collar, poverty, unemployment, social realism, small town, solidarity, male friendship ...
Similarity:
34%