Below you can find a selection of moving films that explore various situations in which dignity and resilience emerge in difficult moments in life.
1. Dance in the dark
In this film the artist Björk plays an emigrant from Eastern Europe who during the 60s, he is going to live in the United States with his son. There she will try to stay positive by imagining that her misadventures, related to lack of resources, illness and the difficulties of raising her son, are part of musicals in which she has the main role.
2. Bicycle thief
One of the great classics of cinema that is, at the same time, one of the saddest films ever made It tells the life of Antonio, a worker who lives with his family in conditions of misery in post-war Italy. A precarious job posting posters helps him to somewhat improve the living conditions of his home after meeting, but that changes when on his first day his bicycle, essential to keep his job, is stolen. At that moment, Antonio and his son begin a search with the intention of recovering her.
Two brothers go to the Middle East to investigate their family roots and fulfill their mother’s last wishes. In Lebanon They will find traces of a past sunk in the war between religions but also in a series of secrets.
4. Lilya forever
This film talks about the life of a young woman who, to try to escape the misery that prevails in her city with the disappearance of the Soviet Union, tries to start a new life in Sweden. This trip will bring her into contact with white slavery and drug addiction
5. Schindler’s List
One of Steven Spielberg’s most famous films is the tragic Schindler’s List, set during the Second World War. In her The story is told of a man who, by gaining the trust of the Nazis, manages to save the lives of a group of Jews turning his factory into a shelter.
A melancholic and moving film The story is about a couple preparing to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. However, during this transit news appears that changes everything: her husband’s first love, something that is already very far away in time, has appeared frozen to death in the Swiss Alps.
7. I am Sam
In this moving and sad film, Sean Penn plays a man with intellectual disabilities who fights to keep custody of his daughter Her lawyer, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, will defend her case at first with strict professionalism and maintaining a clear distance, but this changes as she sees the determination with which her client tries to prevent him from being separated from her. her daughter
8. Far from her
A married couple entering retirement age is preparing to enjoy the moments of rest and intimacy that their new life offers. However, These perspectives change when the wife begins to experience the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease
Animated films are also capable of offering very sad films, and Grave of the Fireflies is the paradigmatic example of this. It is about the life of a young Japanese man who, during the Second World War, he cannot reach the shelter where his mother is waiting for him while a bombing falls. With his little sister he will try to survive in a region where food is scarce.
10. Cinema Paradiso
A tribute to both old cinema and life in an Italy in which everyone in the neighborhood knows each other and gathers to attend film screenings. The protagonist evokes his childhood memories, when helped the cinema operator handle the projection tapes
Other sad movies
If you still have tears to shed, here are other sad movies that you might really like.
11. The rules of the cider house
Tobey Maguire plays a young man who, after spending time at the orphanage, decides to leave it to see the world.
12. The pianist
Another of the great classics of cinema, directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody, who plays a Jew who tries to live with dignity in Poland occupied by the Nazis. Essential.
13. Toy Story 3
Curiously, the last film in a saga focused on children’s audiences is alsoone of the saddest films about growing up and the transition to adolescence (although, yes, maintaining a positive message).
14. Dead Poets Society
One of the films for which actor Robin Williams is most remembered, he plays a teacher who changes the lives of his students through poetry.
Sean Penn plays a man awaiting capital punishment who, for a week before he is killed by lethal injection, talks to a nun (Susan Sarandon) who will try to make the young man find peace. in his last moments.
16. American beauty
Kevin Spacey plays a father who is going through a major life crisis, experiencing both his marriage and his work life with monotony. The fact that he begins to feel a strong attraction for his daughter’s friend shakes his life.
17. Atonement
One of the saddest films created in the UK, Atonement tells about the stormy relationship between a young woman and the man her sister is attracted to.
18. Hachiko
American remake of the Japanese film that tells about the famous dog who went to a train station every day to wait for his handler.
19. The Madison Bridges
A very well-known film that is worth revisiting from time to time. One of the few love stories starring mature people.
20. Hotel Rwanda
A film set in the Rwandan civil war. The manager of a hotel decides to use the place where he works to shelter both his Hutu family and several Tutsi neighbors. Based on a true story.
21. Still Alice
The story of a woman who, around 50 years old, is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. At that moment she begins her struggle to manage this situation, with a routine of questions that she must ask herself every day, and combine it with the changes that she must make in her relationship with her children.
22. The green mile
A well-known film about the death penalty, forgiveness and acceptance, with some of the most moving scenes in cinema.
23. Big Fish
A film that mixes large doses of fantasy with a dramatic tone towards the end.
24. The Elephant Man
This film shows the life of a man with an extremely disfigured head who tries to live with dignity in 19th century London.
25. Magnolia
Several stories that intersect to form a melting pot of examples of honesty, improvement and forgiveness.
