Best movies like The End of the Rainbow

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The End of the Rainbow Starring Udo Samel, Heinz Hoenig, Thomas Kufahl, Slavica Ranković, and more. If you liked The End of the Rainbow then you may also like: 101 Rent Boys, Working Girls, Christiane F., Secret Love: The Schoolboy and the Mailwoman, Punish Me 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.

Uwe Friessner’s first feature, At the End of the Rainbow, follows the exploits of a West Berlin teenager named Jimmi who ekes out a living through petty theft and part-time hustling, hangs out in punk clubs, and who, for reasons which this film subtly details, is thoroughly unemployable. Drawing on his own experience in trying to help a young runaway who eventually committed suicide, Friessner wrote into Jimmi’s story several older students who attempt to find work for him, and who give him shelter for a time in their commune.

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101 Rent Boys

Paid 50 dollars for their time, 101 male prostitutes -- spanning all ages, ethnicities, and personal backgrounds -- are questioned by the filmmakers about their lives.

Working Girls

A lesbian college graduate, trying to bankroll her own photography business, works as a high-priced New York City escort.

Christiane F.

This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 70s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14 years old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-storey apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by the 'Sound', a new disco with most modern equipment. Although she's legally too young, she asks a friend to take her. There she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene.

Secret Love: The Schoolboy and the Mailwoman

A 17 year old boy falls in love with a 37 year old woman. As if this wouldn't be enough they are of different social classes and she is married.

Punish Me

Angelina Maccarone's intense drama deals with the obsessive relationship between a confused teenager and an elder woman. Elsa Seifert successfully works as probation officer, but the relationship to her longtime companion is in trouble since their common daughter moved out. Then she gets to know Jan, a 16-years-old offender, who frankly offers to submit himself sexually to her. Although being shocked in the beginning, Elsa gets more and more attracted by the young man...

My Own Private Idaho

In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.

Bliss

Two young people in Berlin, a refugee and a homeless punk, form a relationship.

Center of My World

A strange family: 17-year-old Phil lives with his mother and twin sister in an old mansion on the outskirts of town. When he returns from summer camp, the mood in the mansion has soured somehow. Phil doesn’t worry about it, hanging out with his best friend Kat instead. When he starts to feel attracted to a mysterious new student at school, Phil is plunged into emotional turmoil only exacerbated by the trouble at home.

Dog Pound

Three juvenile delinquents arrive at a correctional center and are put under the care of an experienced guard.

Engel & Joe

A love story of a 17 year old punk-rocker and a 15 year old runaway girl.

Flesh

A heroin junkie works as a prostitute to support his habit and fund an abortion needed by the girlfriend of his lesbian wife. His seedy encounters with delusional and damaged clients, and dates with drag queens and hustlers are heavy on sex, drugs and decadence.

Girl Lost

Girl Lost tackles the issue of underage prostitution as told through the eyes of a wayward teen. Groomed by her own mother to work in the underbelly of Los Angeles, the young girl struggles to survive in this dark world.

Fabian: Going to the Dogs

In 1930s Berlin, Dr. Jakob Fabian, who works by day in advertising for a cigarette company and by night wanders the streets of the city, falls in love with an actress. As her career begins to blossom, prospects for his future begin to wane.

L.I.E.

In the space of a week, Howie loses nearly everything and everyone he knows and is left to navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised.

House of Boys

It is 1984. Frank (Layke Anderson) is a determined English teenager who runs away from high school to find an alternative gay lifestyle in Amsterdam. He finds a home and a job at the "House of Boys", a bar-cum-brothel run by a strict Madame (Udo Kier) who has an eye for what his punters crave. Frank works his way up from barman to on-stage dancer and falls in love with some of his housemates Jake (Ben Northover). The first intimations of what is described as 'the gay cancer', casts a long shadow over Frank's tight-knit group of friends. Yet despite the troubles that cloud the hopes and dreams of young Frank, his perseverance, along with support from a willing doctor (Stephen Fry), will carry him through. House of Boys is a glamorous, colourful coming-of-age story that lifts the lid on an exciting world of sex and music, where deep passions suddenly turn into a struggle for courage.

Sugar

Cliff receives an unusual 18th birthday gift from his younger sister — marijuana, alcohol, a subway token and the mission to lose his virginity. This results in Cliff meeting a young street hustler named Butch. At first, as Butch introduces Cliff to gay street life in Toronto, Cliff is excited by his new relationship. But as the two grow closer, he finds that Butch has problems, including drug addiction, that are cause for serious concern.

Streetwise

This documentary about teenagers living on the streets in Seattle began as a magazine article. The film follows nine teenagers who discuss how they live by panhandling, prostitution, and petty theft.

Moritz, Dear Moritz

15-year-old Moritz lives in a posh area of Hamburg, but his parents did not care about it. The teenager suffers from ridicule of his classmates and finds refuge in his dreams and playing the saxophone. Only when he joins a band and began performing there Moritz pulled out of the vicious circle, and finds love with new friends...

The Cakemaker

Thomas, a young German baker, is having an affair with Oren, an Israeli married man who has frequent business visits in Berlin. When Oren dies in a car crash in Israel, Thomas travels to Jerusalem seeking for answers regarding his death. Under a fabricated identity, Thomas infiltrates the life of Anat, his lover’s newly widowed wife, who owns a small Café in downtown Jerusalem. Thomas starts to work for her, creating German cakes and cookies that bring her Café to life. Thomas finds himself involved in Anat’s life in a way far beyond his anticipation. To protect the truth he will stretch his lie to a point of no return.

Desire Will Set You Free

Desire Will Set You Free is a feature film that explores life in contemporary Berlin with an often critical and sometimes humorous eye. Based on a true story, the plot follows the relationship of an American writer of Israeli/Palestinian descent and a Russian aspiring artist working as a hustler, offering access to the city's vibrant queer and underground scenes while examining the differences between expatriate and refugee life. Our characters travel through Berlin's layered history and unique subcultural landscape; on their adventures they discover influences and remnants of the Weimar Republic, WWII, the Bowie years, and punk.

Punk Berlin 1982

1980: 19 year old Robert, fed up with Hippy phoniness and bourgeoise narrow mindedness alike, flees the German provinces for West Berlin. A tour de force through the glorious dirt of West Berlin ensues. Full of sex, drugs, love and PUNK.

Making Of A Prostitute

A drama directed by Gustav Ehmck, a teenager lays a small bundle on the tracks, but before the oncoming train can cross it, an older woman saves the baby from certain death. She keeps little Sophie with her and raises her to be a well-behaved girl.

Jet Boy

A coming-of-age story of a reluctant 13-year-old hustler named Nathan who will do whatever it takes to feel loved.

Das Wunder von Berlin

East Germany, 1988: working as a state security service agent, Jürgen Kaiser is loyal to the party line, but worried about his son Marco, a punk. As he is arrested after a concert, Marco is forced to join the army, where he surprisingly identifies with socialism and believes he has to defend his country against the capitalist enemy. While Jürgen is astonished, his wife Hanna and Marco's girlfriend Anja, supporting the civil rights movement, don't like his new attitude...

Via Appia

Frank, a HIV infected former Lufthansa steward, goes back to Rio from Germany with a film crew to look for Mario, a young man with whom he had a one night stand. Before Mario departed the morning after, he left a message scrawled in soap on the bathroom mirror: 'Welcome to the AIDS club'. Frank and his director hire a fast talking hustler named José (Guilherme di Padua) to help them to find Mario who seems alway to have just left whenever they arrive. Via Appia is the nickname of a Rio district where male prostitutes hang out...

How to Have Sex

Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday—drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.

Yung

This film follows four young girls into the vibrant, hedonistic subculture of Berlin. Janaina, 17, earns money by making Internet pornography. Her best friend, Emmy, 18, finds the whole city intoxicating, without realizing that she's getting deeper and deeper into a cycle of addiction. Joy muses about love when she doesn't happen to be selling drugs. And Abbie, 16, dreams of escaping to Los Angeles.

Bliss

Two sex workers meet in a Berlin brothel. In a place where the female body is a commodity, they experience moments of happiness. A feisty love story about attraction, fears and self-determination.

Drifter

Moritz follows a boyfriend to Berlin and is soon abandoned by him. Alone in the big city, he embarks on a journey through a wide range of queer experience. Only through a new circle of queer friends does he develop his own ideas of sexuality and masculinity, leading him to a clearer self-identity.

Strapped

A routine trick propels a tall, dark, cynical hustler into a series of life-changing encounters in this drama. But this amicable and sexually efficient rent boy begins to look at himself differently when he finds himself lost in a maze-like apartment building. As he wanders through the building, he tricks with a variety of johns; sex is the commonality, but out of that commodity comes raw, unguarded emotions for all.

Forty Deuce

A young hustler tries to get drug money by selling a boy to a middle-aged man; his plans are disrupted when the kid dies.

Prince in Hell

The story is set soon after the reunification of West and East Germany, and is about the disintegrating relationship between Jockel a political activist and Stefan a heroin junkie, and their involvement with a bisexual Micha. A 2nd plot line is concerned with Micha's young son Sascha, and his life in a rundown world of drugs and poverty. His fascination with the creepy, exhibitionist puppeteer Firlefanz, whose grotesque puppets enact a gay fairy tale paralleling the relationship of Stefan and Jockel. Central to the disintegration of these characters is the drug dealer Ingolf, who 'pulls their strings' with heroin, instead of puppet wires.

Love, Money, Love

David, a recently fired scrapyard worker and Marie, a prostitute, both about 20 years old, meet on New Year's Eve in Berlin and decide to run away together. As David's arm is plastered from an accident Marie continues to prostitute herself to finance their restless journey through the Ruhr area. Their love and their will to survive guide them though all problems.

The Last Years of Childhood

A juvenile offender is handed over to authorities at age 13 and placed in an institution in this somber social drama. Martin is a petty thief who enjoys stealing and looks up to his older brother. When he is informed that his brother has died, Martin runs away from the reform school. He passes through various institutions and is labeled as incorrigible because of his refusal to comply with the rules of society. A dedicated child psychologist tries to save Martin when he entertains thoughts of suicide.

Blackmail Boys

After moving to Chicago for art school, Sam begins turning tricks to help pay the bills. His longtime, long-distance boyfriend Aaron can't stand to be apart and finally joins him, determined to find enough work so that Sam can give up having sex for money. When the two decide to tie the knot and move to a state where they can marry, their financial worries intensify...until Aaron spies on Sam with a prominent client, and everything changes. This sweet and sexually explicit love story becomes an exhilarating extortion tale. contains graphic sexuality

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