Best movies like Paradesi

In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.

A doctor's sophisticated wife joins him at his remote Asian practice to try and patch up their marriage. Increasingly violent friction between local rubber plantation workers and the authorities force both parties to make decisions.

Wealthy landlord Sarkar decides to direct all waste into the village to make space for his real estate project. However, the poor villagers agitate against his plan and the protest is led by Balraj.

John is a man of many talents, including one forbidden skill: he can read. When he teaches a young slave girl named Sarny to read and write, she learns an unforgettable lesson about the power of words and the true meaning of freedom.

The North Star is the story of Benjamin "Big Ben" Jones and Moses Hopkins, two slaves who escaped from a Virginia plantation and made their way to freedom in Buckingham, Pennsylvania in 1849. Big Ben's 6 foot 10 inch size and a record bounty for his safe return make him the focus of every slave hunter on the east coast. Their journey exposes them to danger and cruelty; however it also exposes them to the unexpected kindness of the people involved in the Underground Railroad. These experiences will change Ben and Moses forever. Upon reaching the relative safety of Mt. Gilead Church on Buckingham Mountain, Ben and Moses get to experience life as free men and cross paths with historical figures such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Joshua and Jonathan Fell. Their freedom also allows them to experience heroism, romance and treachery. Written by LuckPig Studios

Raja Babu is a rich, spoiled, country bumpkin who lives a carefree, luxury lifestyle until the girl he loves rejects him and his parents reveal that he was adopted.

A kind-hearted young man is thrown out of his corrupt home town of West Rome, Oklahoma. He falls asleep and dreams that he is back in the days of olden Rome, where he gets mixed up with court intrigue and a murder plot against the Emperor.

India has finally won independence from British rule, and there are signs of progress among the population. One such sign of progress is in the village where two childhood sweethearts, namely Jeet and Vijay live. Vijay lives with his mom and brother Ratan. Ratan, who lives abroad, returns home to India, with all new ideas of progress and advancement. This is not met well with some of the villagers, including Jeet and Vijay themselves. Ratan overhears a conversation that Vijay is not his real brother, and asks Vijay to leave the house, despite of his mother's protests. Self-respecting Vijay leaves the house, and Ratan plans to marry Jeet, and schemes with some villagers that will revolutionize his plans for progress, and make Vijay the culprit.

In a village in eastern Turkey, tales of the economic success of Turks in Switzerland inspire Haydar to convince his wife Meryem that they must go. He sells their livestock and small plot of land in exchange for passage for two. He wants to leave their seven children in the care of the eldest and his parents; his father advises him to take one son to be educated in Europe, as economic insurance. The three set off for Istanbul, Milan, and Switzerland, stowing away on a ship. At Lake Como, they pay the rest of their money to unprincipled men who abandon them at an Alpine pass before a blizzard. Father and son are separated from Meryem. Will anyone reach the land of promise?

Shobha lives a poor lifestyle along with her widower dad, Murari, in a village. One day a gypsy, Mangal, comes to her rescue when she is being chased by a bull, both continue to meet and fall in love with each other. Shortly thereafter she is abducted and taken to a man named Dildaar. Before she gets molested, she is rescued by Mangal, returns home to find that her father has passed away. When she refuses to marry Lalaji, he spreads rumors about her, and the villagers subsequently disown and blacklist her. She decides to go and live with Mangal, who is the son of Sardar Babbar, at the gypsy camp, but Mangal refuses to have to do anything with her. Subsequently Mangal returns to Shobha, apologizes, and both patch-up. Then Shobha's life is shattered when she comes across evidence that it was actually Mangal who abducted her, while Mangal himself faces many challenges and may even be killed for betraying his people.

Amitabha Roy is a Calcutta-based scriptwriter, driving around in the country to collect material for a film. His vehicle breaks down in a small town. A tea planter, Bimal Gupta, offers hospitality for the night. Amitabha is forced to accept the offer as he has no alternative.

Avtaar Krishen lives a poor lifestyle with his wife, Radha, and two sons, Ramesh and Chander. He works in a factory and toils hard so that his sons can get the necessary education, and live a better lifestyle. He gets injured and crippled while working, but is compensated adequately by his employer, Bawaji.

In a small village in Darjeeling, Sahuji the merchant has weaved a web of corruption in every layers of the social fabric. And he is also involved in rampant smuggling of goods across the border, and everyone from the local jeweler to the local police inspector are part of his intricate web. While the father has created a position of influence by spreading corruption, his son Kaaliram has ushered in a reign of terror. Desperate villagers make a plea to the owner of the tea garden, who calls (presumably) the higher ups in police force and they promise to send someone.

A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.

Warren Maxwell, the owner of a run-down plantation, pressures his son, Hammond, to marry and produce an heir to inherit the plantation. Hammond settles on his own cousin, Blanche, but purchases a sex slave when he returns from the honeymoon. Meanwhile, Warren buys a new Mandingo slave named Mede to breed and to earn money as a prize-fighter.

A Nazi doctor—along with the Sonderkomando, Jews who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow Jews—find themselves in a moral grey zone.

Colonial tea planter John Wiley (Peter Finch), visiting England at the end of World War II, wins and weds lovely English rose Ruth (Dame Elizabeth Taylor) and takes her home to Elephant Walk, Ceylon, where the local elephants have a grudge against the plantation. Ruth's delight with the tropical wealth and luxury of her new home is tempered by isolation as the only white woman in the district; her husband's occasional imperious arrogance; a mutual physical attraction with plantation manager Dick Carver (Dana Andrews), and the hovering, ominous menace of the hostile elephants.

With Gandhi My Father, producer Anil Kapoor and director Feroz Abbas Khan have shed light onto Gandhi the person, rather than Gandhi the icon. Using Gandhi’s political career as a canvas, the film paints a picture of his intricate, complex, and strained relationship with his son Harilal Gandhi.

Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.

Beautiful young Virginian Jane steps down from her proper aristocratic upbringing when she marries down-to-earth surveyor Matt Howard. Matt joins the Colonial forces in their fight for freedom against England. Matt will meet Jane's father in the battlefield.

The film celebrates the survival of the human spirit against overwhelming odds and highlights the need for underprivileged children's education. Its a film based on former indian president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and is aimed at inspiring the poor to educate their children. Written by DaGambit Chhotu's peasant village is ruined by drought, so his ma drops the boy with uncle Bhati, who runs a tea stand at the city outskirts. Clever Chottu, who calls himself Kalam after the self-made Indian president, soon outsmarts uncle's adult assistant and makes friends with the loneliest boy in the palace, now a hotel, a prince his age.

Amy, the wife of an English governor, falls in love with Parithi, a villager, and they run away. However, they are caught and she is taken back to London. Years later, she comes back in search of him.

As her adolescence gives way to the obligations of motherhood, troubled Gemma matures in Motherwell, her Scottish hometown, heavily dependent on the steel industry. Unfortunately for her, her hedonistic way of understanding the world does not fit in with the philosophy of the rest of the villagers, so trouble soon follows.

Two men separated by 100 years are united in their search for freedom. In 1856 a slave, Samuel Woodward and his family, escape from the Monroe Plantation near Richmond, Virginia. A secret network of ordinary people known as the Underground Railroad guide the family on their journey north to Canada. They are relentlessly pursued by the notorious slave hunter Plimpton. Hunted like a dog and haunted by the unthinkable suffering he and his forbears have endured, Samuel is forced to decide between revenge or freedom. 100 years earlier in 1748, John Newton the Captain of a slave trader sails from Africa with a cargo of slaves, bound for America. On board is Samuel's great grandfather whose survival is tied to the fate of Captain Newton. The voyage changes Newton's life forever and he creates a legacy that will inspire Samuel and the lives of millions for generations to come.

A number of slaves risk their lives to escape their masters with their only help coming from the famous secret slave escape network.

Successful author Veronica finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the mind-bending mystery before it's too late.

On a photo shoot in Ghana, an American model slips back in time, becomes enslaved on a plantation and bears witness to the agony of her ancestral past.

Twenty-year-old Joseph and his sixteen-year-old sister Suzanne live in the merciless conditions of an intemperate foreign land with their widowed mother. Their mother attempts to exert a hold on her children by involving them in the family's run-down rice plantation. However the siblings seek liberation, and look for this in their romantic lives. Suzanne becomes involved with Michael and Joseph finds a love interest in Claude.

Pedro returns home to a small mountain village in Guerrero, Mexico after years of working in the US. He finds his daughters older, and more distant than he imagined. His wife still has the same smile. Having saved some earnings from two trips to the US, he hopes to now finally make a better life with his family, and even to pursue his dreams on the side by starting a band: Copa Kings. He cherishes the everyday moments with his family. The villagers think this year's crop will be bountiful. There is also good work in a growing city an hour away. But the locals are wise to a life of insecurity, and their thoughts are often of family members or opportunities far away, north of the border. While working in the fields, Pedro meets and begins to mentor a teenager who dreams of the US. That place somehow always feels very present, practically knocking at the door. "Aquí y Allá" is a story about hope, and the memories and loss of what we leave behind.

A freedom fighter faces opposition from both his father and an ambitious police officer.

The story of the film is loosely based on a novel named 'Godavari Kathalu', written by BVS Rama Rao. The film is set in 1986, in Bangarappeta village near Rajahmundry. Malli (Aadhi) and Chitra (Lakshmi Manchu) is a newlywed couple who are forced to battle it out against a devastating flood of the River Godavari. They lose all hope of survival, so they decide to narrate the darkest moments of their lives to each other after they find a support to rest on.

Widowed Govindi lives a poor lifestyle in Haripur along with two sons, Gungaram and Jumna. While Jumna is studious, Gungaram is the opposite, but has a good heart and decides to use his earnings to ensure his brother gets a decent education. After her employer, Hariram, accuses Govindi of theft, the shock kills her. After her passing, Gungaram works for Hariram while Jumna goes to the city to study and becomes a police officer. His first assignment is in Haripur, where he will be forced to confront Gungaram, who is now is the leader of a dreaded band of killer bandits.

In Southern Rhodesia in the 1940s, city-dweller Mary marries farmer Dick Turner and is plucked from the comforts of her cosmopolitan life and forced to live on his unsuccessful farm. Mary slowly goes insane and has a sexual affair with her black servant, Moses. When the affair is discovered, Mary asks Moses to leave the farm, but he returns and murders her.

Curse of the Starving Class is a play by Sam Shepard, considered the first of a series on family tragedies. Drama about a dirt-poor 1950's-era farm family. Dad's a foul talking drunk and Mom is desperately trying to save what's left of their family life.

A Kentucky slave fights for his freedom from cruel overseer whose mistress eventually joins Davis and the other slaves in their revolt.

Radha is a resolute mother, who strives hard against poverty and a lecherous money lender to feed her two sons who grew up with contrasting temperament.

A documentary film by Peter I. Chang which traces the life of the Japanese musician Hisao Shinagawa through his early years as a folk singer in Tokyo to his current occupation as a street performer in Los Angeles.

Shakuntala grows up in poverty, part of the lowest cast in Indian society. At a young age she decides to improve her position and make a better life for herself through studying hard. But at the age of 12 she is brutally raped by the Chief of her village, humiliated and dishonored she is unable to get justice. Forced into an arranged marriage with a drunkard, the marriage doesn't last. But tragedy strikes again as she is gang raped again by the Chief together with a mob of villagers. When rescued by Nadeem, an outlaw bandit, she is taught the skills on how to avenge herself. Gun in hand she seeks revenge for everything she and other women like her, have had to endure. Her name instills dread and fear, but this is just the start of her journey for justice and retribution.

Set in the summer of 1942 during WWII, the film traces the trajectory of simple people thrown into extraordinary lives, revealing the heart-warming flame of hope and humanity that endures, even in times of war and dispair. As young Julien, his family and a group of friends traverse the French countryside after fleeing the institution they called home, Julien must deal with his father's extreme violence and his mother's rosy fantasies and once again form a family that society tries to forget.

Jamie leaves the children's home to live with his paternal grandmother. After working in a mine and in a tailor's shop, he is conscripted into the RAF, and goes to Egypt, where he is befriended by Robert, whose undemanding companionship releases Jamie from self-pity.

Circa 1940 in Trinidad, still a British Colony, lives Ganesh Ramseyor, of East Indian origin, along with his wife, Leela. He longs to reach out to people, especially to Hindus, in order to promote the Hindu Faith, and be known as a writer. He does get considerable success, so much so that he becomes famous as a miracle worker, having cured a man of sharing intimacy with his bicycle; prevented a man from believing that he can fly; and convincing a young woman to end her fast. His fame spreads all over the island and thousands throng to seek his blessings, which he does dole out quite benevolently, without charging any fees from the poor and the needy. He then decides to spread his wings by challenging the local politician Pandit Narayan Chandrashekhar alias Cyrus T., and takes over The Hindu Organization, thence opening his way to a seat in the prestigious Member of the Legislative Assembly

The astounding story of Tanya Kach made international headlines when she revealed she had been living in captivity for 10 years, just a stone's throw from her home. True Stories gains key insight into how a 14-year-old girl vanished without trace, only to resurface a decade later, still living within the same community. Her school security guard, Thomas Hose, a man 24 years her senior, had kept Tanya as his sex slave, occasionally letting her out of the house into town after four years, yet no one in their small community recognised her as the missing girl. Now, with exclusive access, Tanya Kach recounts her 10-year hell and, for the first time, the many sides to this disturbing and tragic story are told through the key characters, including Tanya's estranged family, her high school friends and the police who worked on the missing person investigation.

A young girl and her brother come of age at their great grandmother's house in Virginia during the 1940s. After a family tragedy, a young girl moves from New York with your younger brother to live with their great grandmother on a Virginia farm and comes closer to understanding the land and roots that inspired her father's writings while discovering herself, the love of family, and the power of truly believing.

Artistically inclined villager Avdhut Kale struggles to find his place in the metropolis of Pune. His work and the mounting societal pressures of what is expected of him is a disconnect from his true self. Moreover, his passivity towards life is made apparent through his discourses with friends and family, who voice their perspective of life. Trijya traces the journey of Avdhut and how he faces the reality of his own dreams and aspirations about life in a large Indian city. It takes us through the challenges of today's modern way of life and the compromises one inevitably makes along the way to find peace and a place we can call our own.

This film is based on the true story of Pastor Martin Neimuller, who was sent to Dachau concentration camp for criticising the Nazi party. The small German village of Altdorf in the 1930's has to come to terms with Chancellor Hitler and the arrival of a platoon of Stormtroopers (preceded by a flock of sheep). The Stormtrooper go about teaching and enforcing 'The New Order' but Pastor Hall is a kind and gentle man who won't be cowed. Some villagers join the Nazi party avidly, some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life but Pastor Hall takes his convictions to the pulpit.

Pili lives in rural Tanzania, working the fields for less than $1 a day to feed her two children and struggling to manage her HIV-positive status in secret. When she is offered the chance to rent a sought-after market-stall, Pili is desperate to have it. But with only two days to get the deposit together, Pili is forced to make increasingly difficult decisions with ever-deepening consequences. How much will she risk to change her life?

An American businessman travels to Hong Kong to find out why his tea plantation isn't making money. When he gets there he discovers that his business partner has been growing something on the plantation, but it isn't tea. Complications ensue.

In Mexico, a poor Yaqui Indian loses his family through the actions of a racist Mexican officer named Martinez.

After losing his family in a car accident and seeing his latest work bomb, famous novelist, Kennedy Sait, becomes a recluse and turns to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain he feels. Struggling to make it through day to day, Kennedy's life is turned around after meeting his neighbor's new wife, Patricia. Infatuated with her, she becomes his "muse" and she not only inspires him to create again, but she also inspires him to live again. But his infatuation with her, becomes a dangerous obsession. And so he doesn't lose Patricia, he kidnaps her and keeps her prisoner in his attic. Police comb the neighborhood, hoping to find a trace of the missing woman, never knowing that she is right under their noses the whole time. Patricia tries keeping a level head and is always looking for a way to escape, though she fears she may never break free of her capture as Kennedy's grasp on reality continues on a frightening downward spiral.

Haria lives with his widowed and elderly grandmother at a tea estate and works as Elephant Driver. He has no knowledge of his biological father, as his mother died at the time of his birth. He meets and falls in love with a gypsy girl, Gulabi, and both want to get married. But Gulabi has another suitor, none other than Ajay, the only son of the tea estate owner. When Ajay finds out that Gulabi loves Haria, he plans to get rid of Haria, but fails. He waits for the right moment, and has his men abduct Gulabi. But before he could have his way with her, she is rescued by Raja, but Ajay subsequently shoots Raja to death. An enraged Haria wants to kill Ajay in return, but Ajay's dad stops him from doing so. Then Ajay's dad finds out a secret about his past life, and decides to change his last will and testament. Ajay finds out about this and lays in wait with a shotgun to kill his very own father - and anyone else who dares to stand in his way