#1. Little Fish (2005)

Storyline: Four years clean, video store manager Tracy (Cate Blanchett) lives quietly, avoiding anything that might trigger a heroin relapse. Her ex-boyfriend Jonny (Dustin Nguyen) returns, claiming he is now a drug-free banker, and the two begin seeing each other again. Tracy looks after Lionel (Hugo Weaving), the man who introduced her to the drug. But, Lionel is thrown into a panic when his dealer, Brad (Sam Neill), suddenly retires. Lionel begs Tracy to help him score, testing her shaky sobriety.

Plot Keywords: drug addict, ex-boyfriend, brother, drug dealer, single mother, bleak, brutal ...

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#2. Peppermint Soda (1979)

Storyline: Anne (Eleonore Klarwein), age 13, lives with her divorced mother (Anouk Ferjac) and big sister Frederique (Odile Michel) in Paris, and cannot seem to grow up fast enough. She yearns to wear stockings, which her mother strictly forbids, and to enjoy the mature beverage of peppermint soda at a nearby cafe. As she becomes increasingly aware of boys, Anne takes to steaming open Frederique's letters so as to vicariously experience her sister's burgeoning and troubled romance.

Plot Keywords: teen girl, sister, single mother, teacher, winsome, spirited, paris ...

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#4. Mommy (2014)

Storyline: Forty-six year old Diane Després - "Die" - has been widowed for three years. Considered white trash by many, Die does whatever she needs, including strutting her body in front of male employers who will look, to make an honest living. That bread-winning ability is affected when she makes the decision to remove her only offspring, fifteen year old Steve Després, from her previously imposed institutionalization, one step below juvenile detention. She institutionalized him shortly following her husband's death due to Steve's attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and his violent outbursts. He was just kicked out of the latest in a long line of facilities for setting fire to the cafeteria, in turn injuring another boy. She made this decision to deinstitutionalize him as she didn't like the alternative, sending him into more restrictive juvenile detention from which he would probably never be rehabilitated. However, with this deinstitutionalization, she has to take care of him ...

Plot Keywords: single mother, bad boy, neighbor, emotional, powerful, montreal, dysfunctional family ...

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#5. My Name Is Khan (2010)

Storyline: Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from the Borivali section of Mumbai, suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that complicates socialization. The adult Rizwan marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco. After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who mistake his disability for suspicious behavior. Following his arrest, he meets Radha, a therapist who helps him deal with his situation and his affliction. Rizwan then begins a journey to meet US President Bush to clear his name.

Plot Keywords: autistic person, single mother, autistic, indian, heartwarming, engaging, san francisco ...

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#6. Alice in the Cities (1974)

Storyline: German journalist Philip Winter has a case of writer's block when trying to write an article about the United States. He decides to return to Germany, and while trying to book a flight, encounters a German woman and her nine year old daughter Alice doing the same. The three become friends (almost out of necessity) and while the mother asks Winter to mind Alice temporarily, it quickly becomes apparent that Alice will be his responsibility for longer than he expected. After returning to Europe, the innocent friendship between Winter and Alice grows as they travel together through various European cities on a quest for Alice's grandmother.—Karl Engel <cassiel@ix.netcom.com>

Plot Keywords: journalist, single mother, little girl, gripping, germany, travel, photography ...

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#7. Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Storyline: 1964 in small town Washington state. Selma Jezková, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, and her preteen son Gene live in a rented trailer owned by and on the property of married Bill and Linda Houston, he the town sheriff. Beyond Bill and Linda, Selma has a small group of friends who look out for her, including her primary confidante, Kathy, with who she works, and Jeff who wants to be her boyfriend. Jeff regularly waits outside Selma's workplace long before the end of her shift to drive her home, despite she always refusing in not wanting to lead him on. Her primary job is working on the Anderson Tool factory assembly line, but she does whatever she can to earn money. What only Kathy knows among Selma's friends is that she is slowly going blind, her medical condition being genetic. Selma is barely able to see, just enough to do her job. Her primary reason for moving to the US and for working all the time is to earn enough money for an operation for Gene when he turns thirteen, he who ...

Plot Keywords: single mother, son, neighbor, coworker, emotional, dreamy, disturbing ...

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#8. Unveiled (2005)

Storyline: Iranian interpreter Fariba (Jasmin Tabatabai) escapes to Germany to avoid capital punishment for homosexual activity, but her application for political asylum is denied. Awaiting deportation, Fariba gains a new identity when fellow Iranian refugee Siamak (Navid Akhavan) kills himself. Disguising herself as a male, Fariba is released from detention as Siamak. Fariba begins working in a small-town factory while saving money for a fake passport that will let her live as a woman again.

Plot Keywords: interpreter, activist, single mother, coworker, refugee, sad, gritty ...

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#9. The Silence (1963)

Storyline: "The Silence" is about the emotional distance between two sisters. The younger one is still attractive enough to pick up a lover in a strange city. The older one -- even though she is very ill -- would like to make a human connection also but cannot leave the hotel room. Traveling with the sisters is a small boy who escapes into the hotel, meets a troupe of dwarfs. Which sister is this little boy's mother?—Dale O'Connor <daleoc@interaccess.com>

Plot Keywords: boy, single mother, sister, sick person, bleak, eerie, sultry ...

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#10. I, Daniel Blake (2016)

Storyline: A 59 year old carpenter recovering from a heart attack befriends a single mother and her two kids as they navigate their way through the impersonal, Kafkaesque benefits system. With equal amounts of humor, warmth and despair, the journey is heartfelt and emotional until the end.

Plot Keywords: widower, carpenter, doctor, government official, single mother, child, cool ...

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#11. The Chorus (2004)

Storyline: Fond de l'Etang is a boarding school for troubled boys located in the French countryside. In the mid-twentieth century, it is run by the principal M. Rachin, an egotistical disciplinarian whose official unofficial mantra for the school is "action - reaction", meaning that there will be severe consequences for any boy out of line. This approach does not seem to be working as the boys as a collective are an unruly bunch. In turn, the teachers don't teach, but are always watching out for the next subversive act from the boys. January 15, 1949 marks the arrival to the school of the new supervisor, M. Clément Mathieu, a middle-aged man who is grasping at finding his place in life after a series of failed endeavors. Although he does find the boys an unruly lot, Mathieu does not believe in the "action - reaction" policy, and as such, butts heads with Rachin while secretly undermining the policy. Slowly, Mathieu's approach of trying to match the discipline to the crime does have a positive ...

Plot Keywords: boy, single mother, music teacher, musical prodigy, headmaster, student, uplifting ...

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#12. No Easy Way (1996)

Storyline: Matthew, a concert pianist played by Alan Boyce, has kept his HIV positive status secret and refuses help from family and doctors. On the night he loses his job playing mood music in a fancy hotel, Matthew meets a streetwise panhandler Diana and the pair become wary friends.—Matthew T. Corey <mcorey@mail.utexas.edu>

Plot Keywords: pianist, single mother, teenager, son, doctor, moving, emotional ...

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#13. 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 ...

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#14. Little Women (2019)

Storyline: In the years after the Civil War, Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) lives in New York City and makes her living as a writer, while her sister Amy March (Florence Pugh) studies painting in Paris. Amy has a chance encounter with Theodore "Laurie" Laurence (Timothée Chalamet), a childhood crush who proposed to Jo, but was ultimately rejected. Their oldest sibling, Meg March (Emma Watson), is married to a schoolteacher, while shy sister Beth (Eliza Scanlen) develops a devastating illness that brings the family back together.—Jwelch5742

Plot Keywords: young woman, single woman, single mother, sister, young man, teacher, uplifting ...

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#15. All About My Mother (1999)

Storyline: Manuela is a hard-working single mom who has raised her son Esteban by herself since the time he was born. On his 17th birthday they go to the theater and after the show, he tries to get the main actress' autograph but is run down on the street and dies. She quits her job and journeys to Barcelona, where she hopes to find her son's father, Lola, a transvestite she kept secret from her son, just as she never told Lola they had a son. In Barcelona, Manuela reunites with her old friend Agrado, a warm and witty transvestite prostitute. She also meets and becomes deeply involved with several characters: Rosa, a young nun who works in a shelter for battered prostitutes, but is pregnant by Lola and is HIV positive; Huma Rojo, the actress her son had admired; and the drug-addicted Nina Cruz, Huma's co-star and lover. Her life becomes entwined with theirs as she cares for Rosa during her pregnancy and works for Huma as her personal assistant and even acts in the play as an understudy for Nina ...

Plot Keywords: single mother, transvestite, actress, nun, lesbian, witty, emotional ...

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