Best movies like Arboretum
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Arboretum Starring Oskar Bökelmann, Niklas Doddo, Volker Figge, Elena Halangk, and more. If you liked Arboretum then you may also like: West, NVA, The Notebook, The Outsiders, Rabbit à la Berlin and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Erik and his best friend Sebastian are two teenagers in a small town on the German border that once ran between East and West. Their parents are struggling with their own demons and they are bullied at school. Life doesn't seem to offer the two outsiders any perspective either. And so they start planning their revenge on their tormentors and do shooting exercises with the old NVA rifle of Erik's father. Driven by a voice from the swamp, Erik increasingly drifts into the darkness. Only when he meets a young punk girl his world suddenly turn upside down. And so he has to choose between what makes him happy and his dark thoughts, which seem inseparable from his friendship with Sebastian. But in a world of violence, there is inevitably an escalation that will shake the foundations of the small village on the edge of the former German-German border forever.
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The Notebook
In a village on the Hungarian border, two young brothers grow up during war time with their cruel grandmother and must learn every trick of evil to survive in the absurd world of adults.
The Outsiders
When two poor Greasers, Johnny and Ponyboy, are assaulted by a vicious gang, the Socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbulent chain of events.
Rabbit à la Berlin
The untold story about wild rabbits which lived between the Berlin Walls. For 28 years Death Zone was their safest home. Full of grass, no predators, guards protecting them from human disturbance. They were closed but happy. When their population grew up to thousands, guards started to remove them. But rabbits survived and stayed there. Unfortunately one day the wall fell down. Rabbits had to abandon comfortable system. They moved to West Berlin and have been living there in a few colonies since then. They are still learning how to live in the free world, same as we - the citizens of Eastern Europe.
American Girl
A pregnant teenager is determined to leave her trailer park home with the hope of living a happy family life.
The Dark Angel
Kitty Vane, Alan Trent, and Gerald Shannon have been inseparable friends since childhood. Kitty has always known she would marry one of them, but has waited until the beginning of World War I before finally choosing Alan. Gerald graciously gives them his blessing. Then, Gerald and Alan go to war. Angered over a misunderstanding involving Alan and Kitty, Gerald sends Alan on a dangerous mission that will change all their lives forever.
Dear Wendy
In a blue-collar American town, a group of teens bands together to form the Dandies, a gang of gunslingers led by Dick Dandelion. Following a code of strict pacifism at odds with the fact that they all carry guns, the group eventually lets in Sebastian, the grandson of Dick's childhood nanny, Clarabelle, who fears the other gangs in the area. Dick and company try to protect Clarabelle, but events transpire that push the gang past posturing.
Edge of the City
An army deserter and a black dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager.
The Homesman
When three women living on the edge of the American frontier are driven mad by harsh pioneer life, the task of saving them falls to the pious, independent-minded Mary Bee Cuddy. Transporting the women by covered wagon to Iowa, she soon realizes just how daunting the journey will be, and employs a low-life drifter, George Briggs, to join her. The unlikely pair and the three women head east, where a waiting minister and his wife have offered to take the women in. But the group first must traverse the harsh Nebraska Territories marked by stark beauty, psychological peril and constant threat.
This Is England
A story about a troubled boy growing up in England, set in 1983. He comes across a few skinheads on his way home from school, after a fight. They become his new best friends, even like family. Based on experiences of director Shane Meadows.
Aloha Summer
It's the 60s and a bunch of crazy teenagers meet in the beautiful island of Hawaii during their summer holidays. Although they come from different backgrounds, they hang out together and shake up the island! They surf, dance, drink, fight and fall in love. As the summer approaches its end, they find themselves inseparable, friends for a lifetime...
Beneath the Harvest Sky
A teen drama set during the fall potato harvest in a small northern Maine town.
Hunter Hunter
A fur trapper leaves his wife and daughter behind to kill a rogue wolf in the remote wilderness, but they soon become increasingly worried when their peaceful existence is disrupted.
The Tunnel
Inspired by true events, Olympic swimmer Harry Melchior defects from East Germany in the 1960s and hatches a daring plot to help his sister and others flee East Berlin through a 145-yard underground tunnel.
Paper Boys
A ragtag bunch of teenage door to door salesmen wreak havoc and spread the news of their coming of age in this summer before they begin their college lives. It centers around Sean, a sexually confused and drug afflicted teen who just can't seem to shake off his dysfunctional family history. Paper Boys is an adventure into the psychology of sales as a metaphor for life as these young "Glengarry Glen Ross" wannabes terrorize a suburban neighborhood near everyone!
'Gator Bait
Desirée lives deep in the swamp and supports herself and her siblings by poaching. After an accident involving Deputy Billy and a friend, the Sheriff, Deputy and a family of locals go after Desirée. Soon the hunters become the hunted as she exacts her revenge for their violence against her family.
An die Grenze
19-year-old NVA soldier, Alex Karow, is sent to the West German-East German border in May 1974, shortly after Willy Brandt's resignation and during the World Cup. The army is dominated by brutal rituals, tolerated or used by the officers. Alex understands that the ideals of balance, democracy and human dignity are propaganda. The question of what happens when the other appears in the sights of the Kalashnikov occupies the soldiers day and night, interrupted almost exclusively by the games of the World Cup with the historic encounter between the GDR and the FRG. Alex draws strength from his love for Christine, a confident tractor driver who lives in the neighbouring village. Christine encourages him not to do what his father expects, but to follow his dream of becoming a photographer. But when her brother sends Alex's photo from the border fortifications to the West, everything gets out of control...
And Then I Go
Two teenage outsiders are demoralized daily at school, until an idea for vengeance offers them a terrifying release.
The Marsh
Two social outcasts in 19th century Eastern Europe, Alexandre and Ulysse, become friends and settle down to live alone on the edge of a marsh that is reputedly haunted by demons, monsters and goblins. These two men have been outcasts all their lives. Alexandre was raised in a nomad family that traveled from town to town, being rejected by the people of his homeland. Due to his physical abnormalities, Ulysse has always been pushed aside ever since his childhood. When a strange murder is committed in a nearby village, the peasants turn their suspicions on Alexandre and Ulysse, because they are different. In the eyes of the villagers, they are demons that must be hunted, burned and killed.
Inherit the Viper
Since the death of their father, the Riley siblings have kept their heads above water by illegally dealing in painkillers. Josie is managing the business with an iron fist, when her brother, War veteran Kip, is concerned that the risky business is increasingly turning them into outsiders in their small community. While Kip wants to keep his younger brother out of their illegal endeavors, his younger brother is already making plans of his own.
A Snapshot of Forever
Wedding photographer Jessie Brooke's happy small town life is turned upside down when a famous Hollywood actor shows up at her parent's lakeside vineyard for his sister's wedding.
Christmas Unwrapped
Charity, an ambitious reporter, learns the true meaning of Christmas when she investigates Erik Gallagher, a beloved member of the town who insists all the gifts he provides every Christmas are from none-other than Santa himself.
Due East
Mary Faith Rapple, a bright high school senior, has never been part of the "in crowd." She teaches a night class, cares for her widowed father and pretty much keeps to herself. When a fellow loner moves to Due East, she finds herself in a relationship for the first time, leading to a small town scandal that changes her life forever.
The Truth About Alex
Brad Stevens and Alex Prager are best friends. They are both popular high school students and key members of the football team. Brad is up for nomination to West Point, and Alex is a talented pianist who’s counting on his football skills to land him a university scholarship. But their lives are turned upside down when one day Alex admits that he is gay.
Border Guns
A cowboy drifting around the border gets mixed up with Mexican revolutionary gun smuggling when he becomes friends and rivals with the chief smuggler.
Night at the Eagle Inn
Fraternal twins spend a hellish night at the remote inn their father disappeared from the night they were born.
Hunting Buddies
Lifelong friends Layne, Riley, Dom and Jake return to their home town in Minnesota for their annual hunting trip...but this year is different. Animosity is running high and each one of them is wrestling with their own demons - the once inseparable group is tearing apart at the seams. When one of them mysteriously disappears in the middle of the hunting trip, they must band together to find him but what they discover will test their friendship and change all of their lives forever.
When We Own The World
Three young men, all of them outsiders, become friends: Richy (16), who is teased at school, Tim (16), who has moved from the west with his parents and has difficulties getting used to his new life, and Marco (18), who has problems coping with his parents' separation and the rejection he experiences from his father. Richy admires the strong and uncommunicative Marco.
Shores of Hope
In this vivid historical drama set in 1980s East Germany, two dockworkers and best friends who dream of escaping the repressive regime are forced to choose their loyalties when the state police promise them safe passage out of the country — if they inform on their co-workers and union leader.
West
East Germany. Summer, late 70's. Three years after her boyfriend Wassilij's apparent death, Nelly Senff decides to escape from behind the Berlin wall with her son Alexej, leaving her traumatic memories and past behind. Pretending to marry a West German, she crosses the border to start a new life in the West. But soon her past starts to haunt her as the Allied Secret Service begin to question Wassilij's mysterious disappearance. Is he still alive? Was he a spy? Plagued by her past and fraught with paranoia, Nelly is forced to choose between discovering the truth about her former lover and her hopes for a better tomorrow.