Social films
by alelio | created - 12 Nov 2019 | updated - 08 Jan 2023 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. I, Daniel Blake (2016)
R | 100 min | Drama
After surviving a heart-attack, a 59-year-old carpenter must fight bureaucratic forces to receive Employment and Support Allowance.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Dave Johns, Hayley Squires, Sharon Percy, Briana Shann
Votes: 64,756 | Gross: $0.26M
2. The Fool (II) (2014)
116 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Dima Nikitin is an ordinary honest plumber who suddenly decides to face the corrupt system of local politics in order to save the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dormitory, which is about to collapse.
Director: Yuriy Bykov | Stars: Artyom Bystrov, Natalya Surkova, Yuriy Tsurilo, Boris Nevzorov
Votes: 16,404
3. Lilya 4-Ever (2002)
R | 109 min | Crime, Drama
Sixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Russia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life.
Director: Lukas Moodysson | Stars: Oksana Akinshina, Artyom Bogucharskiy, Pavel Ponomaryov, Lyubov Agapova
Votes: 49,369 | Gross: $0.18M
4. Capernaum (2018)
R | 126 min | Drama
While serving a five-year sentence for a violent crime, a 12-year-old boy sues his parents for neglect.
Director: Nadine Labaki | Stars: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole, Kawsar Al Haddad
Votes: 105,284 | Gross: $1.66M
5. The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)
Not Rated | 127 min | Drama, War
Against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald
Votes: 54,589 | Gross: $1.83M
6. Bread and Roses (2000)
R | 110 min | Drama
Two Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody, Elpidia Carrillo, Jack McGee
Votes: 6,069 | Gross: $0.53M
7. Ladybird Ladybird (1994)
R | 101 min | Drama
Maggie, an unmarried mother of four children by four different men who abused her, leaves her kids home alone one night. A fire injures them and child services takes custody. Maggie fails to regain custody of her children.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Crissy Rock, Vladimir Vega, Sandie Lavelle, Mauricio Venegas
Votes: 3,816 | Gross: $0.15M
8. Bound by Honor (1993)
R | 180 min | Crime, Drama
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on step-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, Benjamin Bratt, Enrique Castillo
Votes: 34,004 | Gross: $4.50M
9. Underground (1995)
Not Rated | 167 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Two underground black marketeers, Marko and Blacky, sell weapons to the Communist resistance in wartime Belgrade, living the good life along the way.
Director: Emir Kusturica | Stars: Predrag 'Miki' Manojlovic, Lazar Ristovski, Mirjana Jokovic, Slavko Stimac
Votes: 61,229 | Gross: $0.17M
10. Diamonds of the Night (1964)
Not Rated | 67 min | Drama, War
Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. The film goes beyond the themes of war and anti-Nazism and concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
Director: Jan Nemec | Stars: Ladislav Jánsky, Antonín Kumbera, Ilse Bischofova, Jan Riha
Votes: 2,902
11. A Fantastic Woman (2017)
R | 104 min | Drama
Marina, a transgender woman who works as a waitress and moonlights as a nightclub singer, is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend.
Director: Sebastián Lelio | Stars: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim
Votes: 27,268 | Gross: $2.02M
12. Moonlight (I) (2016)
R | 111 min | Drama
A young African-American man grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Alex R. Hibbert
Votes: 331,650 | Gross: $27.85M
13. Fish Tank (2009)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama
Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.
Director: Andrea Arnold | Stars: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender, Kierston Wareing, Rebecca Griffiths
Votes: 65,024 | Gross: $0.37M
14. Desert Flower (2009)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama
Waris Dirie, born 1965 in Somalia, flees at thirteen when sold to be a mans fourth wife. She works as a maid at the Somalian embassy in London, then in a McDonald's where she's discovered and becomes an international top model. Then, in 1997 she speaks up against female genital mutilation.
Director: Sherry Hormann | Stars: Soraya Omar-Scego, Idriss Abdillahi Houfaneh, Awa Saïd Darar, Roun Daher Aïnan
Votes: 14,195 | Gross: $0.04M
15. Promised Land (2012)
R | 106 min | Drama
A salesman for a natural gas company experiences life-changing events after arriving in a small town, where his corporation wants to tap into the available resources.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski, Hal Holbrook
Votes: 39,890 | Gross: $7.60M
16. The Tale (2018)
TV-MA | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
A woman filming a documentary on childhood rape victims starts to question the nature of her childhood relationship with her riding instructor and running coach.
Director: Jennifer Fox | Stars: Laura Dern, Jason Ritter, Common, Elizabeth Debicki
Votes: 19,695
17. Made in Dagenham (2010)
R | 113 min | Comedy, Drama, History
A dramatization of the 1968 strike at the Ford Dagenham car plant, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination.
Director: Nigel Cole | Stars: Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Andrea Riseborough, Jaime Winstone
Votes: 16,064 | Gross: $1.09M
18. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)
PG-13 | 94 min | Drama, War
Through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp, a forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences.
Director: Mark Herman | Stars: Asa Butterfield, David Thewlis, Rupert Friend, Zac Mattoon O'Brien
Votes: 246,240 | Gross: $9.03M
19. Milk (I) (2008)
R | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of American gay activist Harvey Milk, who fought for gay rights and was elected as California's first openly gay official.
Director: Gus Van Sant | Stars: Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna
Votes: 179,815 | Gross: $31.84M
20. The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1971, twenty-four male students are selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez | Stars: Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Billy Crudup, Olivia Thirlby
Votes: 46,108 | Gross: $0.64M
21. The Railway Man (2013)
R | 116 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A former British Army officer, who was tortured as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II, discovers that the man responsible for much of his treatment is still alive and sets out to confront him.
Director: Jonathan Teplitzky | Stars: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Stellan Skarsgård, Jeremy Irvine
Votes: 42,636 | Gross: $4.44M
22. 22 July (2018)
R | 143 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
A three-part story of Norway's worst terrorist attack in which over seventy people were killed. 22 July looks at the disaster itself, the survivors, Norway's political system and the lawyers who worked on this horrific case.
Director: Paul Greengrass | Stars: Anders Danielsen Lie, Jonas Strand Gravli, Jon Øigarden, Maria Bock
Votes: 37,530
23. Fruitvale Station (2013)
R | 85 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.
Director: Ryan Coogler | Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand
Votes: 85,856 | Gross: $16.10M
24. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
R | 157 min | Drama, History, Thriller
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong
Votes: 318,815 | Gross: $95.72M
25. V for Vendetta (2005)
R | 132 min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi
In a future British dystopian society, a shadowy freedom fighter, known only by the alias of "V", plots to overthrow the tyrannical government - with the help of a young woman.
Director: James McTeigue | Stars: Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Rupert Graves, Stephen Rea
Votes: 1,178,879 | Gross: $70.51M
26. The Insult (2017)
R | 113 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.
Director: Ziad Doueiri | Stars: Adel Karam, Kamel El Basha, Camille Salameh, Diamand Abou Abboud
Votes: 18,069 | Gross: $1.00M
27. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)
PG-13 | 129 min | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow
Votes: 105,159 | Gross: $31.85M
28. Half Nelson (2006)
R | 106 min | Drama
An inner-city junior high school teacher with a drug habit forms an unlikely friendship with one of his students after she discovers his secret.
Director: Ryan Fleck | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Shareeka Epps, Jeff Lima
Votes: 91,891 | Gross: $2.69M
29. Metalhead (2013)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama
A girl is caught between the life that took her brother and her own inability to strike out on her own. In her grief, she finds solace in the dark music of Black Metal and dreams of becoming a rock star.
Director: Ragnar Bragason | Stars: Thora Bjorg Helga, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir, Sveinn Ólafur Gunnarsson
Votes: 7,865
30. Blindspotting (2018)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
While on probation, a man begins to re-evaluate his relationship with his volatile best friend.
Director: Carlos López Estrada | Stars: Daveed Diggs, Rafael Casal, Janina Gavankar, Jasmine Cephas Jones
Votes: 32,874 | Gross: $4.33M
31. Munich (2005)
R | 164 min | Action, Drama, History
After the Black September capture and massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, five men are chosen to eliminate the people responsible for that fateful day.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Marie-Josée Croze, Ciarán Hinds
Votes: 238,208 | Gross: $47.40M
32. The Reader (2008)
R | 124 min | Drama, Mystery, Romance
Post-WWII Germany: Nearly a decade after his affair with an older woman came to a mysterious end, law student Michael Berg re-encounters his former lover as she defends herself in a war-crime trial.
Director: Stephen Daldry | Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Jeanette Hain
Votes: 259,723 | Gross: $34.19M
33. A Prophet (2009)
R | 155 min | Crime, Drama
A delinquent Muslim man struggles to get by in prison until he is taken under the wing of a powerful mob boss. But his gradual rise through the mob's ranks brings him in conflict with his mentor.
Director: Jacques Audiard | Stars: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif, Reda Kateb
Votes: 102,159 | Gross: $2.08M
34. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)
R | 121 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma, a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.
Director: Wolfgang Becker | Stars: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas
Votes: 152,604 | Gross: $4.06M
35. 101 Reykjavík (2000)
Not Rated | 88 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
Will the 30 y.o. Hlynur ever move out of his mother's apartment in Reykjavík? Social welfare keeps him passive but things change when his mother's Spanish friend, Lola, arrives and stays through Xmas and New Year's Eve.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Stars: Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Victoria Abril, Hanna María Karlsdóttir, Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir
Votes: 9,936 | Gross: $0.01M
36. Beasts of No Nation (2015)
TV-MA | 137 min | Drama, War
A drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country.
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga | Stars: Abraham Attah, Emmanuel Affadzi, Ricky Adelayitor, Andrew Adote
Votes: 86,804 | Gross: $0.08M
37. Blood Diamond (2006)
R | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
A fisherman, a smuggler, and a syndicate of businessmen match wits over the possession of a priceless diamond.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly, Kagiso Kuypers
Votes: 585,773 | Gross: $57.37M
38. The Salt of the Earth (2014)
PG-13 | 110 min | Documentary, Biography, History
The life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who has spent forty years documenting societies in hidden corners of the world.
Directors: Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Wim Wenders | Stars: Sebastião Salgado, Wim Wenders, Lélia Wanick Salgado, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Votes: 23,438 | Gross: $1.34M
39. Marie Antoinette (2006)
PG-13 | 123 min | Biography, Drama, History
The retelling of France's iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 14 to her reign as queen at 19 and to the end of her reign as queen, and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Steve Coogan
Votes: 121,823 | Gross: $15.96M
40. Das Experiment (1966 TV Movie)
90 min | Drama
Director: Rolf von Sydow | Stars: Carl-Heinz Schroth, Gunnar Möller, Ernst Fritz Fürbringer, Alexander Golling
Votes: 41
41. Experimenter (2015)
PG-13 | 98 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1961, famed social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of radical behavior experiments that tested ordinary humans' willingness to obey authority.
Director: Michael Almereyda | Stars: Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder, Jim Gaffigan, Anthony Edwards
Votes: 19,676 | Gross: $0.16M
42. La haine (1995)
Not Rated | 98 min | Crime, Drama
24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz | Stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili
Votes: 196,267 | Gross: $0.31M
43. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
PG-13 | 121 min | Biography, Drama, History
Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, houses over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, Africa.
Director: Terry George | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Joaquin Phoenix, Xolani Mali
Votes: 372,144 | Gross: $23.53M
44. The Florida Project (2017)
R | 111 min | Drama
Set over one summer, the film follows precocious six-year-old Moonee as she courts mischief and adventure with her ragtag playmates and bonds with her rebellious but caring mother, all while living in the shadows of Walt Disney World.
Director: Sean Baker | Stars: Brooklynn Prince, Bria Vinaite, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Rivera
Votes: 128,251 | Gross: $5.90M
45. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
TV-PG | 113 min | Biography, Drama, History
Against all the odds, a thirteen-year-old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.
Director: Chiwetel Ejiofor | Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Maxwell Simba, Felix Lemburo, Robert Agengo
Votes: 44,345
46. Anti-Social (2015)
Not Rated | 116 min | Crime
Central London, today: Dee is an anarchic street-artist confronting the system; Marcus is an armed robber on a jewelry-store crime-wave. For the two brothers, being Anti-Social is a way of life.
Director: Reg Traviss | Stars: Gregg Sulkin, Meghan Markle, Josh Myers, Christian Berkel
Votes: 2,288
47. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
R | 119 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover innocent of a crime he didn't commit.
Director: Barry Jenkins | Stars: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Teyonah Parris
Votes: 52,478 | Gross: $14.92M
48. Green Book (2018)
PG-13 | 130 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A working-class Italian-American bouncer becomes the driver for an African-American classical pianist on a tour of venues through the 1960s American South.
Director: Peter Farrelly | Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali, Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco
Votes: 570,928 | Gross: $85.08M
49. The Ides of March (2011)
R | 101 min | Drama, Thriller
An idealistic staffer for a new presidential candidate gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail.
Director: George Clooney | Stars: Paul Giamatti, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ryan Gosling
Votes: 230,656 | Gross: $40.96M
50. Waste Land (2010)
Not Rated | 99 min | Documentary
On the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro is Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill, where men and women sift through garbage for a living. Artist Vik Muniz produces portraits of the workers and learns about their lives.
Directors: Lucy Walker, Karen Harley, João Jardim | Star: Vik Muniz
Votes: 9,360 | Gross: $0.19M
51. Gomorrah (2008)
Not Rated | 137 min | Crime, Drama
Scampia Vele is the Corbusian architecture which has become a stronghold for Mafia of Naples, Italy.
Director: Matteo Garrone | Stars: Gianfelice Imparato, Salvatore Abbruzzese, Toni Servillo, Simone Sacchettino
Votes: 51,201 | Gross: $1.58M
52. Skin (II) (2008)
85 min | Drama, History
Raised in a home broken by wartime trauma, the frustrated teenage son of a Dutch Holocaust survivor starts down a path of further tragedy when he finds belonging in a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads.
Director: Hanro Smitsman | Stars: John Buijsman, Chris Comvalius, Guus Dam, Robert de Hoog
Votes: 1,084
53. Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
TV-MA | 117 min | Drama
In World War II Italy, four fascist libertines round up nine adolescent boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of physical, mental, and sexual torture.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, Uberto Paolo Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti
Votes: 65,781
54. The Commune (2016)
Not Rated | 111 min | Drama
A story about the clash between personal desires, solidarity and tolerance in a Danish commune in the 1970s.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg | Stars: Trine Dyrholm, Fares Fares, Ulrich Thomsen, Lars Ranthe
Votes: 8,237 | Gross: $0.04M
55. A Separation (2011)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Votes: 258,422 | Gross: $7.10M
56. Incendies (2010)
R | 131 min | Drama, Mystery, War
Twins journey to the Middle East to discover their family history and fulfill their mother's last wishes.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Lubna Azabal, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, Maxim Gaudette, Mustafa Kamel
Votes: 200,035 | Gross: $6.86M
57. Dogman (2018)
Not Rated | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A timid dog groomer living in a poor suburb sells cocaine on the side and stays out of trouble, while trying to deal with his unstable, violent acquaintance who is a menace to the whole neighborhood.
Director: Matteo Garrone | Stars: Marcello Fonte, Edoardo Pesce, Nunzia Schiano, Adamo Dionisi
Votes: 29,741 | Gross: $0.15M
58. Beanpole (2019)
Unrated | 130 min | Drama, War
1945, Leningrad. WWII has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Two young women search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins.
Director: Kantemir Balagov | Stars: Viktoria Miroshnichenko, Vasilisa Perelygina, Andrey Bykov, Igor Shirokov
Votes: 12,248
59. Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)
101 min | Drama, History, War
Aida is a translator for the UN in the small town of Srebrenica. When the Serbian army takes over the town, her family is among the thousands of citizens looking for shelter in the UN camp.
Director: Jasmila Zbanic | Stars: Jasna Djuricic, Izudin Bajrovic, Boris Ler, Dino Bajrovic
Votes: 38,189
60. Responsible Child (2019 TV Movie)
90 min | Drama
Factual drama, based on true cases in the UK, following Ray (a 12-year-old boy) and his experience of the UK legal system that puts him on trial for murder.
Director: Nick Holt | Stars: Billy Barratt, James Tarpey, Tom Burke, Neal Barry
Votes: 1,123
61. The Justice of Bunny King (2021)
101 min | Drama
A triumph over adversity tale about women fighting their way back from the bottom of society.
Director: Gaysorn Thavat | Stars: Essie Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Lively Nili, Bridie Sisson
Votes: 726
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