Highest-Rated Movies about 'Rural Life', Sort by Popularity

Tuya's Marriage (2006), Vizontele (2001), Sweet Land (2005), Shame (1968), Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945), Down in the Delta (1998), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Salesman (1969) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Rural Life movies.

#1. Tuya's Marriage (2006)

Storyline: Married to and in love with disabled peasant Ba'toer, Tuya (Yu Nan) is forced to divorce him and find a new husband to support both them and their two children when an injury leaves her unable to work. After a series of men refuse to look after Ba'toer, Tuya finds herself torn between wealthy, recently divorced oilman and schoolmate Bao'lier, who promises to provide for her husband's medical care, and her neighbor, Sen'ge, whose wife has recently left him.

Plot Keywords: wife, husband, wealthy man, neighbor, son, bleak, gripping ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#2. Vizontele (2001)

Storyline: The residents of a Turkish village have never seen TV. That changes when a transmitter is installed and the mayor, Nazmi (Altan Erkekli), gets a set. Everyone is curious, but because the transmission is bad they lose interest. A theater owner, Latif (Cezmi Baskin), spreads rumors about the dangers of TV, hoping to keep people interested in seeing his overplayed movies. Nazmi and the town eccentric, Deli Emin (Yilmaz Erdogan), search for a better signal to win everyone over to their side.

Plot Keywords: mayor, villager, entrepreneur, electrician, eccentric, theater owner, amusing ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#4. Shame (1968)

Storyline: During civil war, two musicians retreat to a rural island to farm. They are apolitical; a neighbor sometimes gives them a fish; wine is a luxury. They love each other, but there are problems: the war upsets Jan, he is weepy, too sensitive; Eva wants children, he does not. The war suddenly arrives: rebels attack, neighbors die. When the other side restores order, Jan and Eva are arrested as collaborators. After frightening and roughing them up, the local colonel releases them; then he begins appearing at their farmhouse: to talk or to pursue Eva? He gives her money. The rebels return; chaos ensues. Jan becomes violent and murderous; they flee. Can they escape? If so, to what?—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: husband, wife, colonel, musician, brooding, emotional, profound ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#5. Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)

Storyline: A Wisconsin farming family takes on the struggles and rewards of rural life. Martinius Jacobson (Edward G. Robinson) is a humble Norwegian farmer, working his small farm with only the help of his wife, Bruna (Agnes Moorehead), and his young daughter, Selma (Margaret O'Brien). Selma and her cousin, Arnold (Jackie "Butch" Jenkins), witness many dramatic episodes over the course of a year, including a neighbor's barn fire, a raging flood and a brief visit from a traveling circus elephant.

Plot Keywords: farmer, daughter, editor, wife, cousin, neighbor, heartwarming ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#6. Down in the Delta (1998)

Storyline: Sinclair family matriarch Rosa Lynn (Mary Alice) raises enough money to help her two grandchildren and drug-addicted adult daughter, Loretta (Alfre Woodard), move to a small Mississippi town in order to escape the dangers of inner-city Chicago. There, Loretta and her kids are taken in by her gruff uncle, Earl (Al Freeman Jr.), who attempts to instill a work ethic and sense of history in his niece. With the help of Earl's tough love, Loretta does her best to put her past demons behind her.

Plot Keywords: single mother, grandmother, uncle, wife, son, daughter, touching ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#7. What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993)

Storyline: What's Eating Gibert Grape is a beautifully shot movie of tenderness, caring and self-awareness that is set amongst the fictional working class one street town Endora. Centred around the Grape family Ellen and Amy and their two brothers Arnie and Gilbert, who, along with their morbidly obese widowed mother Bonnie Grape are striving to survive and coexist with the absence of a father figure, low wage work and seventeen-year-old Arnie's severe mental condition. It is in this awkward and extremely one sided affair that the unfortunate Gilbert has to constantly, while working for the town's slowly dying convenience store, take care of his younger brother Arnie. Gilbert's life, his future, is thwarted he knows this, but it is in this guardian angel that his love and bond for Arnie cannot, and will not, be let go. That is until the free spirit of Becky arrives in town, and with her grandmother are stranded for the week while waiting for parts for their vehicle. This realization unties new ...

Plot Keywords: young man, brother, sister, mother, housewife, love interest, moving ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#8. Salesman (1969)

Storyline: Filmmakers (and brothers) Albert and David Maysles follow four employees of a company that makes expensive, ornate, illustrated bibles as they attempt to sell the items door-to-door to less-than-interested customers, who are mainly poor or lower-middle-class Catholics with little money to spend on pretty Bibles.—Gary Dickerson <slug@mail.utexas.edu>

Plot Keywords: employee, husband, housewife, rival, old man, bleak, somber ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#9. Travelers and Magicians (2003)

Storyline: The two men embark on parallel, if separate, journeys. Their yearning is a common one--for a better and different life. Dondup, delayed by the timeless pace of his village, is forced to hitchhike through the beautiful wild countryside of Bhutan to reach his goal. He shares the road with a monk, an apple seller, a papermaker and his beautiful young daughter, Sonam. Throughout the journey, the perceptive yet mischievous monk relates the story of Tashi. It is a mystical fable of lust, jealousy and murder, that holds up a mirror to the restless Dondup, and his blossoming attraction to the innocent Sonam. The cataclysmic conclusion of the monk's tale leaves Dondup with a dilemma--is the grass truly greener on the other side?—Sujit R. Varma

Plot Keywords: government official, buddhist, monk, young man, widower, daughter, dreamy ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#10. Songcatcher (2001)

Storyline: After being denied a promotion at the university where she teaches, Doctor Lily Penleric, a brilliant musicologist, impulsively visits her sister, who runs a struggling rural school in Appalachia. There she stumbles upon the discovery of her life - a treasure trove of ancient Scots-Irish ballads, songs that have been handed down from generation to generation, preserved intact by the seclusion of the mountains. With the goal of securing her promotion, Lily ventures into the most isolated areas of the mountains to collect the songs and finds herself increasingly enchanted - not only by the rugged purity of the music, but also by the raw courage and endurance of the local people as they carve out meaningful lives against the harshest conditions. It is not, however, until she meets Tom - a handsome, hardened war veteran and talented musician - that she's forced to examine her motivations. Is the "Songcatcher," as Tom insists, no better than the men who exploit the people and extort their land?—Sujit R. Varma

Plot Keywords: professor, sister, orphan, veteran, reverend, engaging, emotional ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#12. La Pointe Courte (1956)

Storyline: There are two parts to this film: sequences of life in the fishing village of La Pointe Courte (a government inspector's visit, the death of a child) alternate with others following a couple - He is from La Pointe Courte, she is Parisian - coming to terms with their changing relationship.—Alison Smith <mla22@cc.keele.ac.uk>

Plot Keywords: husband, wife, fisherman, child, government official, teen girl, creative ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#13. The Mangler 2 (2002)

Storyline: The film follows the story of Duncan, a fourteen-year-old misfit farm boy trying to fill the void and alleviate the numbness left by his mother's passing. Unable to let her go quite yet, Duncan mimics his dead mother. He talks in her voice at the dinner table and wears her fur coat to bed. Edgar, Duncan's distant sixty-year-old father, doesn't understand the strange manifestations of his son's mourning. Why can't Duncan grieve like a normal person? Macho mate Perry Foley, who has it physically even harder on his dad's farm, usually comforts Duncan and defends his 'wimpiness' to their cocky ruffian mates Travis, Scotty and Brent. But although clearly attracted to gentle Duncan himself, the socially unacceptable suggestion of 'sissy' homosexuality makes Perry over-react and turn on his friend.—KGF Vissers

Plot Keywords: girl, headmaster, student, victim, teacher, creepy, tense ...

Movie Details Click Here!

#15. The Little Kidnappers (1954)

Storyline: A Scotsman, Jim MacKenzie, living on a primitive homestead in Nova Scotia, is raising his two grandsons, Harry and Davy, following the death of their father in the Boer War. His son's death has developed antagonism by MacKenzie toward all Dutchmen, which leads to Harry brawling at school with the son of a Dutchman. Harry falls down a cliff and is helped home by the community doctor, Willem Bloem, a Dutchman in love with MacKenzie's daughter, Kirsty. Due to the old man's feelings, they must carry on a clandestine romance. Forbidden by their grandfather to have a dog, Harry and Davy "kidnap" an unattended baby and care for the child in a lean-to shack. When found, the baby proves to be the child of MacKenzie's most-bitter Dutch enemy.—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>

Plot Keywords: orphan, grandfather, doctor, grandmother, aunt, baby, endearing ...

Movie Details Click Here!