Movies Like Greetings from Sumatra

Forrest Gump

Community rank #132 · 1994

A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.

MANTAGI

2026

This film follows a spiritual and physical journey from upstream to downstream along the Batanghari River. Through five narrative fragments, viewers are invited to see how water bears silent witness to the lives of the people of Jambi—from a place of purification, a source of life, to a victim of ecosystem destruction.

Nicobar Islands: A Monkey's Long Tale

2024

Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol

2010

Amy Pond and Rory Williams are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way the Eleventh Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?

An Adventure in Space and Time

2013

Actor William Hartnell felt trapped by a succession of hard-man roles while wannabe producer Verity Lambert was frustrated by the TV industry's glass ceiling. Both of them were to find unlikely hope and unexpected challenges in the form of a Saturday tea-time drama. Allied with a team of unusual but brilliant people, they went on to create the longest running science fiction series ever made.

The Browning Version

1951

Andrew Crocker-Harris has been forced from his position as the classics master at an English public school due to poor health. As he winds up his final term, he discovers not only that his wife, Millie, has been unfaithful to him with one of his fellow schoolmasters, but that the school's students and faculty have long disdained him. However, an unexpected act of kindness causes Crocker-Harris to re-evaluate his life's work.

Secret Lives of Orangutans

2024

Follow a multi-generational orangutan family through their treetop triumphs and travails in this immersive documentary narrated by David Attenborough.

True Grit

1969

The murder of her father sends a teenage tomboy on a mission of 'justice', which involves avenging her father's death. She recruits a tough old marshal, 'Rooster' Cogburn because he has 'true grit', and a reputation of getting the job done.

Shadows in Paradise

1986

Nikander, a rubbish collector and would-be entrepreneur, finds his plans for success dashed when his business associate dies. One evening, he meets Ilona, a down-on-her-luck cashier, in a local supermarket. Falteringly, a bond begins to develop between them.

A Question of Faith

2017

When Tragedy Strikes three Families, their Destiny forces them on a coverging path and mercy as the challenges of their fate could also resurrect their beliefs

Imagine

2012

A blind teacher breaks the rules to help a female student rediscover the pleasures of life.

Reading Lolita in Tehran

2024

As Islamic morality squads stage arbitrary raids in Tehran and as fundamentalists seize hold of the universities, Azar Nafisi, an inspired teacher, secretly gathers six of her most committed female students to read forbidden western classics. Unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, they soon removed their veils, their stories intertwining with the novels they read: just like the heroines of Nabokov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James or Jane Austen, the women in Nafisi’s living room dare to dream, hope and love as we experience the complexity of the lives of individuals facing political, moral and personal siege.

Ariel

1988

A Finnish man goes to the city to find a job after the mine where he worked is closed and his father commits suicide.

Chris Packham: In Search of the Lost Girl

2018

In 1998, Chris Packham met a hunter-gatherer tribe in remote Sumatra. 20 years later, he goes in search of the same tribe to search for the girl whose photograph he took.

Sunday in August

2004

A couple on a boat. Their love is burnt out. But how to let go when souls are entangled?

Eleanor the Great

2025

94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.

Each Dawn I Die

1939

A corrupt D.A. with governatorial ambitions is annoyed by an investigative reporter's criticism of his criminal activities and decides to frame the reporter for manslaughter in order to silence him.

Smothered

2025

After surviving an accident, Alif, a micro-painting artist, is told by his doctor that his memory hasn’t fully recovered. When a woman claiming to be his mother comes to visit, Alif begins to sense something is wrong—he doesn’t recognize her face, and he suspects she might not be his mother.