20 best movies like Familiar Ground (2011)

Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.

After an accidental drug overdose, a talented teenage DJ goes to live with his estranged father in a small Army town, where he gets to the bottom of his own pain and learns empathy for others.

A young couple Andrei and Nadya get lost in a deep Siberian forest. It’s where they start their thorny way of fighting inner fears and working on the mistakes they made in the past. The forest is a metaphor of life where this couple has gone astray. Or maybe it’s the garden of Eden to which the persecuted have finally found their way back.

A controlling father’s attempts to ensure that his two children succeed in high school backfire after his son experiences a career-ending sports injury. Their familial bonds are eventually placed under severe strain by an unexpected tragedy.

Blackfella Charlie is getting older, and he's out of sorts. The intervention is making life more difficult on his remote community, what with the proper policing of whitefella laws that don't generally make much sense, and Charlie's kin and ken seeming more interested in going along with things than doing anything about it. So Charlie takes off, to live the old way, but in doing so sets off a chain of events in his life that has him return to his community chastened, and somewhat the wiser.

Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with bizarre consequences.

Single mom Laura, along with her awkward 14 year-old son Henry is forced to drive Jack, her estranged, care-free pot dealing father across country after he's kicked out of yet another nursing home.

Corey refuses to let his emotionally disturbed younger brother Jimmy be institutionalized, and the two run away together. They soon join forces with a resourceful girl, who notices that Jimmy has a special talent: he is a "wizard" at video games and can achieve the high score on absolutely everything he plays. Evading their parents and a sinister bounty hunter, the trio head for a climactic showdown at the national video game championships in California.

Matt Ryder is convinced to drive his estranged and dying father Benjamin Ryder cross country to deliver four old rolls of Kodachrome film to the last lab in the world that can develop them before it shuts down for good. Along with Ben's nurse Zooey, the three navigate a world changing from analogue to digital while trying to put the past behind them.

A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.

A young woman decides to make positive changes in her life by training for the New York City Marathon.

A young married woman from Montreal's Orthodox Jewish community finds freedom from the strictures of her faith through her relationship with a young man who is mourning the death of his estranged father.

Evgeniy's hobby is to send fake letters to real countries. He has collected a letter from every country except New Zealand, and he sends a letter there. Things turn worst when he actually receives a letter from someone there.

Strangers in their own birthplace, a camp 16-year-old, lollipop-sucking Dany and his 18-year-old brother Odysseus cross the entire country (along with pet rabbit Dido ) in search of their Greek father, who they only know as “The Nameless”, after the death of their Albanian mother. They hope to get Greek passports and citizenship but on the journey they encounter racism and prejudice.

The popular rapper comes on tour in St. Petersburg. His fans adore and wait, he is at the peak of fame, he is confident in himself. Together with the star, his manager, musicians and a girl come. Suddenly an attempt is made on a musician. He miraculously manages to escape death, but his manager decides to hire a security guard. It turns out that the guard is ... a girl. She is a professional in her field, but in the brutal world of rap, a woman has a difficult time.

After winning a popular TV talent contest, Yar seems set for success. But his joy is short lived as his hopes and dreams collapse around him. Pushed by his friends and family to find ‘a proper job’, Yar refuses to quit. As he drives ahead in pursuit of his dreams, he doesn’t realize that it’s at the cost of his soul. He’s got one last chance to make it, and nothing’s going to stand in his way.

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

On this night, no one sleeps in the area. Gray is trying to find a way out of depression. His girlfriend Julia is trying to find care and understanding. Crust's friend in love with her is trying to find a way to be with her. And Krasta's friends Vova and Kostya are trying to find 10 grams of hashish for a party. They are all very tired, but they can’t stop trying. Therefore, they smoke, sniff and drink. After all, if they stop, they have absolutely nothing left.

Celebrated European actor Sophie Bernard is in Montreal shooting a movie, and she's taking the opportunity to visit her gay son Thomas in the hope of bridging the rift that's grown between them. But Thomas has his own agenda for their time together; he intends to finally get some answers as to the identity of his father. Meanwhile, at Ville-Marie Hospital, paramedic Pierre struggles with PTSD, and though he has support in Marie, a nurse who keeps the overflowing emergency room running, it's uncertain whether he'll remain able to cope with the high intensity of his work. Each of these four characters is dealing with emotional damage — and on one dark Montreal night, their lives will all intersect in a fateful occurrence at Ville-Marie.

Orphaned siblings Pari and Chotu embark on a journey to restore Chotu's eyesight.

In 1957 Pierre Duran, a graduate of the École Normale, comes to Moscow on a university exchange. Here he gets acquainted with the ballerina of the Bolshoi Theatre, Kira Galkina, and the photographer Valeri Uspensky. Thanks to this acquaintance, Pierre plunges into the cultural life of the capital, not only official but also underground culture. He starts an affair with Kira. But his studies and his acquaintance with Soviet life are not Pierre’s only aim. He is searching for his father, the White officer Tatischev, who was arrested in the late 1930s. Their meeting is the film’s climax. During his year in Moscow Pierre lives a whole life, absolutely unlike everything that he knew before. When Pierre returns to Paris, he hopes to see Kira again some time. In the pocket of his jacket he has a microfilm with the issue of the underground journal “Gramota”.

A young Israeli man absconds to Paris to flee his nationality, aided by his trusty Franco-Israeli dictionary.

One day, driving aimlessly around the outskirts of town after a trivial domestic quarrel, a writer named Tomas accidentally hits and kills a child. Will he be able to move on?

Suspecting that the cecassion of the tides may indicate an impending earthquake, Seismologist Alice arrives in her hometown of Baie-Comeau, Quebec to commence her investigation. Soon confronted by numerous figures from her past, the unusual weather and inexplicable behavior of the citizens lead Alice to believe that something beyond her comprehension is occurring to her old hometown...

A woman's consuming love forces her to bear the clone of her dead beloved. From his infancy to manhood, she faces the unavoidable complexities of her controversial decision.

A story of a successful businessman who falls in love with a silent movies actress and starts to look everywhere for a woman who looks exactly like her.

An intimate story set during the 1860s in which a young Irish woman Sarah and her family find themselves on both sides of the turbulent wars between British and Maori during the British colonization of New Zealand.

High school student Yuki Hase (Kento Yamazaki) wants to become close with classmate Kaori Fujimiya (Haruna Kawaguchi) who is alway by herself. Kaori Fujimiya refuses to become close with Yuki Hase, because she forgets her friends every new Monday. Even though Kaori tells Yuki why she doesn't want to become friends, Yuki still wants to become close to her.

Jess, age 18, and Moss, age 12 are second cousins in the dark-fire tobacco fields of rural Western Kentucky. Without immediate families that they can relate to, and lacking friends their own age, they only have each other. Over the course of a summer they venture on a journey exploring deep secrets and hopes of a future while being confronted with fears of isolation, abandonment and an unknown tomorrow.

Two women get on the highway heading to Santa Fe. Marilyn dreams of winning a contest held by a famous belly dancing company, while her friend, Mona, has a secret: she's a fugitive from justice - accused of her mother-in-law's death.

When a woman tries to outwit her husband's sexy young mistress, the unexpected consequences include starring as King Lear in a very amateur production - with the mistress, an aspiring actress, playing The Fool.

Djam, a young Greek woman, is sent to Istanbul by her uncle Kakourgos, a former sailor with a passion for Rebetiko, to find a rare part that will repair their boat. In Istanbul, she encounters Avril, a nineteen-year-old French girl, alone and without any money, who came to Turkey as a voluntary worker with refugees. Djam, generous, cheeky, unpredictable, and free-spirited, takes Avril under her wing on the way to Mytilene. A journey filled with encounters, music, sharing, and hope.

Ivan Locke has worked hard to craft a good life for himself. Tonight, that life will collapse around him. On the eve of the biggest challenge of his career, Ivan receives a phone call that sets in motion a series of events that will unravel his family, job, and soul.

A narrative feature film inspired by the events known as the Beltway sniper attacks.

A road movie that follows three young men yearning after their ideals.

As we follow a mother and her son, we delve into a past marred by an accident that tears them apart. She will become a renowned artist and healer, and he will grow into his own and a peculiar falconer who bears the marks of a double absence. In the present, a young journalist will bring about an encounter between the two that puts the very meaning of life and art into question, so that we may contemplate the possibility of living life to its fullest, despite the uncertainties littering our paths.

A couple on a deep-wilderness hike become hopelessly lost within an aggressive black bear's territory.

Set against the gorgeous landscape of Armenia, Here chronicles a brief but intense relationship between an American satellite-mapping engineer (Foster) and an expatriate photographer (Azabal) who impulsively decide to travel across the remote countryside. As their trip comes to an end, the two must decide where to go from Here

Hector is a quirky psychiatrist who has become increasingly tired of his humdrum life. As he tells his girlfriend, Clara, he feels like a fraud: he hasn’t really tasted life, and yet he’s offering advice to patients who are just not getting any happier. So Hector decides to break out of his deluded and routine driven life. Armed with buckets of courage and child-like curiosity, he embarks on a global quest in hopes of uncovering the elusive secret formula for true happiness. And so begins a larger than life adventure with riotously funny results.

Determined to leave the ravages of war behind, 38 year old Gian Singh resigns from the British Indian Army to a quiet life. His world is soon thrown in turmoil, when he suddenly finds himself responsible for the life of a 17 year old girl, traumatized by the events that separated her from her family.

As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes.

To find his therapy dog, a 17-year-old escapes from juvie and embarks on a journey of reconnection with his brother and grandmother through Cantabria.

A small town policeman must investigate a suspicious hunting accident. The investigation and other events result in him slowly disintegrating mentally.

A bush pilot in nothern Canada who with the aid of modernity thinks he can handle it all & knows it all. After reluctantly agreeing to transport a local indian girl to a medical facility his light plane crashes & they have to survive whilst finding their way back to civilization. Along the journey the man finds a new respect for the native ways as they battle to survive the elements.

An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father.

In Cairo on her own as she waits for her husband, Juliette finds herself caught in a whirlwind romance with his friend Tareq, a retired cop. As Tareq escorts Juliette around the city, they find themselves in the middle of a brief affair that catches them both unawares.

The main character of the movie is a young man from downtown Moscow. He got everything from his father - his money, car, university. Sasha wants to live his life differently, but doesn't know how... He dreams of being Tsoi or van Gogh. One day Sasha meets Masha, an extraordinary and complex woman. Her mother, an aged actress, is an alcoholic and trying to take her own life. Sasha decides to help the girl

A scientist readies a boat after his warnings of an Earth-destroying flood are ignored. However, after the disasters reach a peak level of destruction those who maligned the scientist now turn to him in desperation, as he and other refugees look to save the world and stop the disaster using the two Supercolliders on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Pregnant out of wedlock, an educated young woman is pressured by her father into an arranged marriage with a lonely farmer in this drama set during WWII.

The protagonist Mikhail Nosov is a simple worker. His life consists of work at the machine tool and loneliness in a small rented apartment, TV, the Internet and visiting cheap night clubs. Once Nosov gets acquainted with a prostitute by the name of Diana. Nosov likes Diana and hires her as escort. Diana should live in his apartment. However, Diana turns out completely different to what Nosov imagined her to be, and his life takes an abrupt turn: unexpectedly he goes against his firm principles, changes priorities and understands that life is not as one- dimensional as it seemed to him from the conversations with colleagues and news programmes.