Best "slum" Movies of All Time

61 movies found (page 1/3):

District 9(2009)

FSK: 16+ years

3.7/5 (with 4,205 votes)

Thirty years ago, aliens arrive on Earth. Not to conquer or give aid, but to find refuge from their dying planet. Separated from humans in a South African area called District 9, the aliens are managed by Multi-National United, which is unconcerned with the aliens' welfare but will do anything to master their advanced technology. When a company field agent contracts a mysterious virus that begins to alter his DNA, there is only one place he can hide: District 9.

Directed by Neill Blomkamp - With Sharlto Copley, David James, Nathalie Boltt, Sylvaine Strike, John Sumner, Jed Brophy, ...

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Elite Squad(2007)

FSK: 18+ years

| 1h 55min | Drama, Action, Crime

4.0/5 (with 977 votes)

In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.

Directed by José Padilha - With Wagner Moura, Fernanda Machado, André Ramiro, Caio Junqueira

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Slumdog Millionaire(2008)

FSK: 12+ years

| 2h | Drama, Romance / Love

3.9/5 (with 4,758 votes)

A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".

Directed by Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan - With Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Mahesh Manjrekar, ...

Capernaum(2018)

FSK: 12+ years

| 2h 6min | Drama

4.1/5 (with 716 votes)

Zain, a 12-year-old boy scrambling to survive on the streets of Beirut, sues his parents for having brought him into such an unjust world, where being a refugee with no documents means that your rights can easily be denied.

Directed by Nadine Labaki - With Nadine Labaki, Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw

West Side Story(1961)

FSK: 12+ years

| 2h 32min | Crime, Drama, Romance / Love

3.7/5 (with 799 votes)

In the slums of the upper West Side of Manhattan, New York, a gang of Polish-American teenagers called the Jets compete with a rival gang of recently immigrated Puerto Ricans, the Sharks, to "own" the neighborhood streets. Tensions are high between the gangs but two romantics, one from each gang, fall in love leading to tragedy.

Directed by Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins - With Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, ...

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The Young and the Damned(1950)

FSK: 16+ years

| 1h 25min | Crime, Drama

4.0/5 (with 200 votes)

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent, criminal life in the festering slums of Mexico City, among them the young Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

Directed by Luis Buñuel - With Miguel Inclán, Roberto Cobo, Víctor Manuel Mendoza, Alfonso Mejía, Stella Inda, Alma Delia Fuentes, ...

Tsotsi(2005)

FSK: 12+ years

| 1h 34min | Crime, Drama

3.5/5 (with 136 votes)

The South African multi-award winning film about a young South African boy from the ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster. Tsotsi, who left home as a child to get away from helpless parents, finds a baby in the back seat of a car that he has just stolen. He decides that it his responsibility to take care of the baby and in the process learns that maybe the gangster life isn’t the best way.

Directed by Gavin Hood - With Presley Chweneyagae, Zola, Ian Roberts, Terry Pheto

City of Men(2007)

FSK: 16+ years

| 1h 46min | Drama

3.6/5 (with 122 votes)

Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.

Directed by Paulo Morelli - With Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha, Jonathan Haagensen

Gully Boy(2019)

2h 36min | Drama, Music

3.7/5 (with 72 votes)

A coming-of-age story based on the lives of street rappers in Mumbai.

Directed by Zoya Akhtar - With Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturvedi

Dodes'ka-den(1970)

2h 20min | Drama

3.5/5 (with 52 votes)

This film follows the daily lives of a group of people barely scraping by in a slum on the outskirts of Tokyo. Yet as desperate as their circumstances are, each of them—the homeless father and son envisioning their dream house; the young woman abused by her uncle; the boy who imagines himself a trolley conductor—finds reasons to carry on.

Directed by Akira Kurosawa - With Kamatari Fujiwara, Kin Sugai, Kunie Tanaka, Jitsuko Yoshimura, Hisashi Igawa, Tatsuo Matsumura, ...

Manila in the Claws of Light(1975)

2h 7min | Drama, Mystery

3.7/5 (with 25 votes)

A young fisherman from a provincial village arrives in the capital on a quest to track down his girlfriend, who was lured there with the promise of work and hasn’t been heard from since. In the meantime, he takes a low-wage job at a construction site and witnesses life on the streets, where death strikes without warning, corruption and exploitation are commonplace, and protests hint at escalating civil unrest.

Directed by Lino Brocka - With Bembol Roco, Hilda Koronel, Lou Salvador, Jr., Tommy Abuel

The Super(1991)

1h 24min | Comedy

3.0/5 (with 44 votes)

Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards.

Directed by Rod Daniel - With Joe Pesci, Vincent Gardenia, Rubén Blades, Carole Shelley, Madolyn Smith Osborne, Stacey Travis, ...

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Miracle in Milan(1951)

FSK: 12+ years

| 1h 40min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

3.6/5 (with 90 votes)

Once upon a time an old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Toto, enters an orphanage. Toto leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. The squatters discover oil in the land and Toto sees a vision of the old woman who gives him a magic dove that will grant him anything he wishes.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica - With Francesco Golisano, Emma Gramatica, Paolo Stoppa, Guglielmo Barnabò, Brunella Bovo, Anna Carena, ...

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Awaara(1951)

2h 48min | Drama, Music, Romance / Love

3.7/5 (with 25 votes)

A petty thief is put on trial for the attempted murder of a lawyer. Through a series of flashbacks, the intertwining lives of the thief, the lawyer, and the thief's defense lawyer are illustrated.

Directed by Raj Kapoor - With Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Prithviraj Kapoor, Leela Chitnis, Shashi Kapoor, K. N. Singh, ...

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Insiang(1976)

1h 35min | Drama

3.6/5 (with 24 votes)

A story about the life of a young girl living with her mother in the slums of Manila, which becomes unbearable when her mother's young boyfriend moves in with them.

Directed by Lino Brocka - With Hilda Koronel

The Prince and the Pauper(1937)

1h 58min | Adventure, Drama, Kids & Family, Fantasy

3.4/5 (with 15 votes)

Two boys – the prince Edward and the pauper Tom – are born on the same day. Years later, when young teenage Tom sneaks into the palace garden, he meets the prince. They change clothes with one another before the guards discover them and throw out the prince thinking he's the urchin. No one believes them when they try to tell the truth about which is which. Soon after, the old king dies and the prince will inherit the throne.

Directed by William Keighley, William Dieterle - With Errol Flynn, Billy Mauch, Claude Rains, Barton MacLane, Henry Stephenson, Alan Hale, ...

Lower City(2005)

1h 38min | Drama

3.2/5 (with 37 votes)

Best friends Deco and Naldinho co-own a cargo boat in Brazil's Salvador da Bahia. They give a ride to a sultry prostitute named Karinna, and soon both men fall prey to her considerable sexual charms, pushing the bounds of their friendship to the limit.

Directed by Sérgio Machado - With Alice Braga, Wagner Moura, Lázaro Ramos, Fernanda de Freitas

Isle of Flowers(1989)

13min | Documentary

4.0/5 (with 84 votes)

A tomato is planted, harvested and sold at a supermarket, but it rots and ends up in the trash. But it doesn’t end there: Isle of Flowers follows it up until its real end, among animals, trash, women and children. And then the difference between tomatoes, pigs and human beings becomes clear.

Directed by Jorge Furtado

Mere Pyare Prime Minister(2019)

1h 44min | Drama

3.6/5 (with 4 votes)

A story about four children living in a Mumbai slum in India. An eight-year old Kanhu writes a letter to the Prime Minister after a dramatic incident with his mother.

Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

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The Zone(2007)

1h 37min | Thriller, Drama

3.2/5 (with 49 votes)

Residents of an enclosed neighborhood in the middle of Mexico DF are shocked by a violent crime, and for one resident in particular, young Alejandro, the drama is ratcheted up when he encounters the lone kid who escaped the event and is hiding out within the neighborhood's borders.

Directed by Rodrigo Plá - With Maribel Verdú, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Daniel Tovar, Alan Chávez, Blanca Guerra, Carlos Bardem, ...

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Mahogany(1975)

1h 49min | Drama, Romance / Love

3.0/5 (with 8 votes)

Tracy, an aspiring designer from the slums of Chicago puts herself through fashion school in the hopes of becoming one of the world's top designers. Her ambition leads her to Rome spurring a choice between the man she loves or her newfound success.

Directed by Berry Gordy - With Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Anthony Perkins, Beah Richards, Marisa Mell, ...

Madras(2014)

2h 36min | Drama, Action

4.1/5 (with 13 votes)

A portrayal of the lives of the people living in North Madras, focusing on the politics inside the slums and how their plight remains the same, despite the political class luring them constantly during elections.

Directed by Pa. Ranjith - With Karthik Siva kumar

None But the Lonely Heart(1944)

1h 53min | Drama, Romance / Love

3.1/5 (with 19 votes)

When an itinerant reluctantly returns home to help his sickly mother run her shop, they're both tempted to turn to crime to help make ends meet.

Directed by Clifford Odets - With Cary Grant, Ethel Barrymore, Barry Fitzgerald, June Duprez, Jane Wyatt, George Coulouris, ...

Bus 174(2002)

1h 58min | Documentary, Crime

3.7/5 (with 60 votes)

Documentary depicts what happened in Rio de Janeiro on June 12th 2000, when bus 174 was taken by an armed young man, threatening to shoot all the passengers. Transmitted live on all Brazilian TV networks, this shocking and tragic-ending event became one of violence's most shocking portraits, and one of the scariest examples of police incompetence and abuse in recent years.

Directed by José Padilha - With Sandro Rosa do Nascimento

Once Upon a Time in Rio(2008)

1h 57min | Drama

3.7/5 (with 37 votes)

Situated just above the awe-inspiring Ipanema beach in Rio is the Cantagalo slum. Every day, floods of Cantagalo residents make their way down the mountain, only to disappear into their surroundings as part of the invisible working-class that cleans apartments, works in restaurants, and sells food along the scenic, sun-drenched shores. Young Dé (Thiago Martins) is just such a man. Dé lives with his mother Bernadette (Cyria Coentro) in a cramped Cantagalo apartment, selling hot dogs on the beach in order to make the rent. His brother Beto was killed when Dé was just a young boy, and his adopted brother Carlão (Rocco Pitanga) has been jailed for a robbery that he didn't commit. One day, while working on the beach, Dé meets Nina (Vitória Frate). Nina is the only child of a successful lawyer named Evandro (Paulo César Grande), who's none to happy to discover that his daughter is dating a member of the lower class. How...

Directed by Breno Silveira - With Thiago Martins, Vitória Frate, Rocco Pitanga, Paulo César Grande, Cyria Coentro, Marcos Pitombo, ...

Noisy Requiem(1988)

2h 30min | Drama, Crime

3.2/5 (with 9 votes)

In the slums of Osaka, various marginalized misfits have their own interpretations of love. Completely alienated from the outside world, they commit sexual perversions, violence and cannibalism.

Assault on the Pay Train(1962)

1h 42min | Crime, Drama

4.0/5 (with 11 votes)

Based on true events in Rio de Janeiro, in 1960, when a gang having the infamous outlaw Tião Medonho as a leader performed a sensational railroad hold-up on a train carrying a small fortune.

Directed by Roberto Farias

Megacities(1998)

1h 34min | Documentary

3.5/5 (with 9 votes)

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of five different metropolitan cities.

Directed by Michael Glawogger

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Back Door to Heaven(1939)

1h 25min | Crime, Drama

3.0/5 (with 1 vote)

The life of a young kid, who starts stealing small things to fit in with the "cool crowd".

Directed by William K. Howard - With Wallace Ford

They Shall Have Music(1939)

1h 45min | Kids & Family, Music, Drama

3.0/5 (with 4 votes)

The future is bleak for a troubled boy from a broken home in the slums. He runs away when his step father breaks his violin, ending up sleeping in the basement of a music school for poor children.

Directed by Archie Mayo - With Jascha Heifetz, Joel McCrea, Andrea Leeds, Gene Reynolds, Walter Brennan, Porter Hall, ...

Movies: Best "slum" Movies

District 9(2009)

Elite Squad(2007)

Slumdog Millionaire(2008)

Capernaum(2018)

West Side Story(1961)

The Young and the Damned(1950)

Tsotsi(2005)

City of Men(2007)

Gully Boy(2019)

Dodes'ka-den(1970)

Manila in the Claws of Light(1975)

The Super(1991)

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Miracle in Milan(1951)

Awaara(1951)

Insiang(1976)

The Prince and the Pauper(1937)

Lower City(2005)

Isle of Flowers(1989)

Mere Pyare Prime Minister(2019)

The Zone(2007)

Mahogany(1975)

Madras(2014)

None But the Lonely Heart(1944)

Bus 174(2002)

Once Upon a Time in Rio(2008)

Noisy Requiem(1988)

Assault on the Pay Train(1962)

Megacities(1998)

Back Door to Heaven(1939)

They Shall Have Music(1939)

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