On BoardMovies like On Board
- Key Features:
- Isolation, Violence-moderate, Loss of innocence, Existentialism, Social commentary
- Tone:
- serious, gritty
- Target Audience:
- Fans of social dramas, Independent film enthusiasts, Viewers interested in character studies
- Emotional Arc:
- Serenity → Disruption
On Board

Sailors want to remain in their small world, which is warm and cozy and full of lies, but their routine life turns upside down when one of them gets mugged and badly beaten.
On Board
After the owner's bankruptcy, the crew is stranded on a freighter for months. Dealing with the stress of isolation, seafarers gradually surrender to madness and terror.

A group of drug-influenced lumpen teenagers from the suburbs of the city descends into the center where they do not belong, where they are excluded. They adopted a brutal method to seize rights that were not granted to them. Unaware of what will happen to them, cheerful and well-to-do university students are helpless in the face of this gun-wielding mob that suddenly raids the bar where they are having fun.

Working in a ferry as a waiter, Ayzek, having a defect with his front teeth, dreams to get his front teeth fixed and to marry his girlfriend, Songül. The news gets out that the ferry company is turning over the management to a new one and the whole crew is to be interviewed. When the interviewer arrives on board, Ayzek’s world is turned upside down.

A young man from rural Turkey arrives in Istanbul with dreams working on a ship and stays with a cousin while he searches for work. Over time, the former’s struggles to find employment and the latter’s troubles and disappointments strain their relationship and living situation.

A tragicomedy dramatizing how an innocent villager is driven into the crime world only to collect enough cash to make his biggest dream come true: Return to his village home and marry the girl next door.

Tensions are high after a Danish freighter is captured and held for ransom by Somali pirates, leading to weeks of high-stakes negotiations – and an escalating potential for explosive violence.

Introverted Girona student Nacho meets two delinquents from the city's Chinatown and gets caught up in a summer onslaught of burglaries and hold ups that will change his life.

With the mayoral election approaching, the newly-appointed state prosecutor of a small town suffering from a water supply crisis gradually descends into trouble after a young local woman is raped.

After the death of his wife and father, Kudret, who has always lived by the book, decides to go on a road trip to save a girl.

Evading a scandal, a couple from Istanbul starts over in a town on the Aegean coast — but quickly discover the locals are determined to get rid of them.

Selman is a former boxer who once was interested in anthropology, an extraordinary imam who now works in a mosque. One day, while praying in the mosque, gunshots are echoed. One of the people inside collapses and dies. The police come to the scene and collect the first evidence and start the investigation process. He takes action after this event and decides to resolve the case through some people and circumstances he suspects. Every clue leads to an unexpected point and the events become increasingly mysterious.

Baran the Bandit, released from prison after serving 35 years, searches for vengeance against his former best friend who betrayed him and stole his lover, teaming up with a young punk with his own demons along the way.

Sascha, the young and beautiful trophy girlfriend of a Danish drug lord, arrives at his holiday villa in the seaside town of Bodrum, on the Turkish Riviera, where she is welcomed into his inner circle. Under the summer sun, she lives a carefree dream of luxury and fun until she meets Tomas, a Dutch traveler trying to discover himself.

Yusuf is released from prison after serving a ten year sentence. Because of unexpected problems at his sister’s house, he finds himself in a cheap hotel where he meets a man, a woman, and a child who will change his life in unexpected ways…

A fishing-boat crew takes on a dangerous commission to smuggle a group of illegal immigrants from China to Korea.

During a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, a veteran mariner awakes to find his vessel taking on water after a collision with a stray shipping container. With his radio and navigation equipment disabled, he sails unknowingly into a violent storm and barely escapes with his life. With any luck, the ocean currents may carry him into a shipping lane -- but, with supplies dwindling and the sharks circling, the sailor is forced to face his own mortality.

During an emergency landing on a deserted island suddenly traumatized by antiauthoritarian education Lena Schneider together with the Turkish Super Macho Cem Öztürk must fight for survival. After initially Cem macho repulsive acts on Lena, a jellyfish in the water and sand in a bikini, she recognizes the time the romantic core behind his cool facade. Meanwhile, meet also their parents, who obdurate psychologist Doris and Metin Öztürk to work together to find their missing children. So both generations take an involuntary Turkish Basic Course for beginners.

Entrenched in a midlife crisis, Aziz seeks solace from his mundane job, lonesome friends and rowdy family while pretending to have his act together.

Two introverted people find out by pure chance that they share the same dream every night. They are puzzled, incredulous, a bit frightened. As they hesitantly accept this strange coincidence, they try to recreate in broad daylight what happens in their dream.

After a violent encounter, Roy finds Rocky and sees something in her eyes that prompts a fateful decision. He takes her with him as he flees to Galveston, an action as ill-advised as it is inescapable.

A love story between a poor man and a rich girl. The rich girl's father tries to prevent their marriage and he declares a war against the poor boy's family.

A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.

Rivalries, dark secrets, and sexual tension emerge when three best friends find themselves stranded on a yacht in the middle of the ocean under suspicious circumstances.

A cruise ship and 3,000 men – it is a universe without heteros and women that usually remains a mystery to the outside world. Once a year the Dream Boat sets sail for a cruise exclusively for gay men where most passengers are united by the wish to live life authentically as themselves in a protected place.

In the city of Yokosuka, Kinta and his lover Haruko, both involved with yakuza, brave the post-occupation period with a goal to be together.

In a port city, the lives of a few isolated people, used to violence, are strongly influenced by the love they feel for each other. Choices, envy, love and tenderness are the driving forces that help these characters to be themselves and give meaning to their lives. A tribute to poetry, theatre and art.

A handsome Belgian sailor on shore leave in the port of Brest, who is also a drug smuggler and murderer, embarks upon a voyage of highly charged and violent homosexual self-discovery that will change him forever from the man he once was.

With the intention to break free from the strict familial restrictions, a suicidal young woman sets up a marriage of convenience with a forty-year-old addict, an act that will lead to an outburst of envious love.

When aspiring musician and student Deniz falls for a rough-hewn motorbike racer, tragedy and family opposition obstruct their path to love.

Katja's life collapses after the deaths of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After a time of mourning and injustice, Katja seeks revenge.

A lone fisherman on his daily run finds himself lost in a thick fog which proves impossible to navigate. The worst is yet to come when his encounter with a seemingly abandoned sailboat becomes a fight for survival against an enemy unknown.

Gabriel, Bobby and Costa are old friends from Altona, a multicultural hood in Hamburg. Just out of prison, Gabriel wants to turn his back on crime, but the others continue to operate as petty criminals. Friendships are tested as the trio navigate a dark world of mafia bosses and deals gone wrong.

A symphony in three movements. Things such as a Mediterranean cruise, numerous conversations, in numerous languages, between the passengers, almost all of whom are on holiday... Our Europe. At night, a sister and her younger brother have summoned their parents to appear before the court of their childhood. The children demand serious explanations of the themes of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. Our humanities. Visits to six sites of true or false myths: Egypt, Palestine, Odessa, Hellas, Naples and Barcelona.

During a patrol, Julie and Simon, two police constables, injure a wealthy man who pointlessly killed their partner. This wealthy man in question turns out to be the son of a politician. This is why the two police constables are accused of brutality by the brass. Abandoned by their superiors, the two leading characters will lead an investigation on the drug that caused the politician's son to be out of his mind.

Sent to prison along with his mother after her drug conviction, a young boy develops a warm, tender relationship with a political prisoner.

In a small town in Anatolia, whose inhabitants possess various supernatural powers but still have to deal with ordinary problems, Cemal helps out in his father’s barbershop and, in his free time, acts as a football referee.

A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.

Sandra, a young woman forced to leave the south of France to flee a violent husband. Without attachment, she returned to Boulogne-sur-Mer, the city of her childhood which she left almost 15 years ago. She finds her mother there and a world she left behind. Without money, she is hired in a fish cannery where she befriends two workers. But one day, one of her colleagues tackles her insistently, she defends herself and kills him accidentally.

Alper is a renowned chef in his 30s at his own luxury restaurant. He lives an isolated life and spends his nights with one-night stands and paid intercourses. One day, his life changes utterly when his path crosses with Ada and gets enamored by her casual and modest outlook at life. As they start to get romantically involved, Alper must also overcome his chronic feeling of desolateness.

One night, Leo, a Spaniard working in Brussels as a subway driver, sees a young man on the edge of the platform, just before he falls onto the tracks.

Yusuf and his best friend Memo are pupils at a boarding school for Kurdish boys, secluded in the mountains of Eastern Anatolia. When Memo falls mysteriously ill, Yusuf is forced to struggle through the bureaucratic obstacles put up by the school's repressive authorities to try to help his friend. But by the time the adults in charge finally understand the seriousness of Memo's condition and try to get him to the hospital, the school has been buried under a sudden, heavy snowfall. With no way out and now desperate to reach help, teachers and pupils engage in a blame game where grudges, feelings of guilt and hidden secrets emerge, as time ticks mercilessly on and threatens to run out.

A young Norwegian boy in 1850s England goes to work as a cabin boy and discovers some of his shipmates are actually pirates.

Salih is a mechanic and the son of a respected barber named Ali. A woman named Tina arrives at Cholera Street, where she takes up residence and works as a prostitute.

In the streets of Istanbul, ailing waste warehouse worker Mehmet takes a small boy under his wing and must soon confront his own traumatic childhood.

After falling off a cliff and suffering substantial injures, for 48 long hours a young surfer must face a merciless nature and his own physical and mental agony to try to survive.

Zuhtu, a nosy hawker who sells meatballs, one night finds a young girl escaping from her cruel relatives. He intends to help the girl but this costs him too much.

Güven, a taxi driver is desperately in love with Meral, but he’s too shy to open up to her. One day he picks up a customer, gets accused of a crime he didn’t commit and his world is turned upside down.

A newly reunited father and son grapple with new beginnings after tragedy, but can they manage to fill the void left by a beloved wife and mother?

After serving time in prison for his brother's crime, a man warily reunites with family, finding hope and healing in a life-changing bond with his niece.

Bored with her life and inspired by a friend's wedding, Esra quits her job and dumps her boyfriend, leading to a series of romantic misadventures.

A deep space mining vessel has been adrift for two years. It is suspected the crew brutally killed each other, but the reason for the bloodbath is unknown. A rescue crew is sent to find if there are any survivors, what happened and why.

Stranded in the open sea after a fatal accident, a young woman and her two friends are rescued by a fishing vessel's captain, unaware that the ship harbors a chilling secret.

A ship carrying settlers to a new home on Mars after Earth is rendered uninhabitable is knocked off-course, causing the passengers to consider their place in the universe.

You know the feeling. It feels like time slows down as your eyes meet a stranger’s. Then you walk pass each other, neither of you looking back. That’s what happened with Pelin and Engin. Lo and behold, they open their eyes in the same bed. And you may want to brace yourself for this one, as a two-year married couple! It must be a dream. No, a nightmare. But now, to wake up they must fall in love.

After the closure of their shipyard in Northern Spain, a few former workers: Santa, José, Lino, Amador, Sergei and Reina keep in touch. They meet mainly at a bar owned by their former colleague Rico. Santa is the most superficially confident and unofficial leader of the group. A court case hangs over him relating to a shipyard lamp he smashed during a protest against the closure. José is bitter that his wife, Ana, is employed when he is not.

A disillusioned Seoul woman visits a remote island to reconnect with a childhood friend, only to find her trapped in an oppressive cycle of physical, mental, and sexual abuse. As tensions escalate, the situation spirals into a harrowing tale of survival and retribution.

A lonely beach on the southernmost coast of Brazil is the scene for two friends, on the brink of adulthood, to explore their understanding of themselves and one another. Martin has been sent by his father to retrieve what appears to be an inheritance-related document from the family of his recently deceased and estranged grandfather. Tomaz accompanies him, seemingly hoping to regain some of their former closeness. The two boys shelter themselves in a glass house, in front of a cold and stormy sea.

A story about Petar Maraš, a Belgrade criminal in his late twenties, whose one reckless move causes an avalanche of events that will greatly affect the lives of those around him.

While under heavily armed guard, the dangerous convicts aboard a cargo ship unite in a coordinated escape attempt that soon escalates into a bloody, all-out riot. But as the fugitives continue their brutal campaign of terror, they soon discover that not even the most vicious among them is safe from the horror they unknowingly unleashed from the darkness below deck.

After a love affair ends badly, a young Parisian named Paul sinks into the same kind of deep depression that led his sister to kill herself. He moves back home with his father and aimless brother Jonathan but refuses to get out of bed.

Day in, day out, Niklas ‘Nick’ Tschiller and his partner Yalcin Gümer investigate crimes that are happening in Hamburg. But at some point even the policeman needs a break to spend time with his daughter Lenny. Then it says: Tschiller a.D. - out of service - goodbye to Hamburg. However, simply relaxing is easier said than done, because crime never sleeps and a new, very personal case throws a spanner in the works for Nick's plans for a well-deserved break. Even on vacation, the criminal investigator is not sure about his job and so a wild journey soon takes him across Europe, including to Istanbul and Moscow.

The exact details of what took place while Talib Ben Hassi was in police custody remain unclear. Police officers Jens and Mike are on routine patrol in Svalegården's ghetto when news of Talib's death comes in over the radio, igniting uncontrollable, pent-up rage in the ghetto's youth, who lust for revenge. Suddenly, the two officers find themselves fair game and must fight tooth and claw to find a way out.

The Nereus is a fifty-year-old Ice Breaker, salvaged by an idealistic crew on a mission to catch illegal fisherman. On chase, the crew find themselves well off-course and bearing down on a body mysteriously floating in the middle of the Devil’s Sea. Superstitious or not, the team soon discovers they’ve rescued a deadly creature feeding on the lifeless body. Their new mission—kill or be killed and preferably before they hit land.

Two soldiers return home from their military service in southeastern Turkey with disabilities.

A young woman, her new boyfriend and her single mother embark on a sailing adventure to Bermuda. However, when criminals suddenly attack their boat, the pleasure trip turns into a desperate fight for survival and a quest for vengeance.

Ilya Goryunov has spent seven years in prison on false charges of drug trafficking. When Ilya is free he realizes that the old life that he yearned for is no more. Although he did not intend to take revenge on the man who sent him to prison, now there is no other way out.

An aspiring filmmaker visits his parents and begins to devise a movie. Amidst creating and casting for the film, he encounters with family & friends who struggle with their own problems, dreams and life.

The story of Angela, an ambitious, image-conscious businesswoman working for over-demanding boss Mary. When Angela becomes unexpectedly pregnant at the peak of her career, her life with her divorce attorney husband, Curtis, is turned upside-down.

After suffering a plane crash on a mysterious island, a young man embarks on an epic journey through forests, deserts and mountains trying to escape the shadow of a huge dark spirit.

The quiet life of Baker Dill, a fishing boat captain who lives on the isolated Plymouth Island, where he spends his days obsessed with capturing an elusive tuna while fighting his personal demons, is interrupted when someone from his past comes to him searching for help.

The story of CARGO takes place on rusty space-freighter KASSANDRA on its way to Station 42. The young medic LAURA is the only one awake on board while the rest of the crew lies frozen in hibernation sleep. In 4 months will Laura's shift be over.

A young man becomes convinced that the solution to all his problems is to live in jail, and he will do whatever it takes to get it.

One of the members of a gang of thieves commits a serious mistake that force them to work for a ruthless gang of drug dealers, endangering the future of the team, their lives and those of their families.

The story of a guard who revolts because of exploiting reeve and tradespeople. People start to think he has an uncle working in the ministry of the interior.

Ahead of a promotion, a police chief becomes entangled in a deadly incident and uncovers an intrigue fueled by grudge that threatens his colleagues.

In several unrelated stories, the consequences of putting one's foot down – or failing to do so – are explored.

A struggling, suicidal young comedian meets a car thief who is willing to teach him a few things about his profession.

Bomber is an unemployed boat captain. One day he meets Jerry, a manager of boxers who are struck by the force of his fists. That is when they see the chance to win big money.

On their way to an afternoon on the lake, husband and wife Andrzej and Krystyna nearly run over a young hitchhiker. Inviting the young man onto the boat with them, Andrzej begins to subtly torment him; the hitchhiker responds by making overtures toward Krystyna. When the hitchhiker is accidentally knocked overboard, the husband's panic results in unexpected consequences.

The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.

The lives of two Danish families cross each other, and an extraordinary but risky friendship comes into bud. But loneliness, frailty and sorrow lie in wait.

Arrested while a student in university, Yusuf is released from prison after ten years. He returns home and is welcomed by his sick and elderly mother. Soon he will meet Eka, a beautiful Georgian girl who is a sex worker, and love becomes a final desperate attempt to grasp life and elude loneliness.

Celal, lives an unhappy family life with his wife Sevilay and his child in a small town. Celal and his brother Cemal, running an electrician shop which doesn't go well. They are in debt. The only fun they have is going to the night clubs in Samsun. Celal's love for Sibel Ceylan who works in the night club, will cause him trouble. Celal's wife, Sevilay, saves her money, sent by her father who lives in Germany. She is unaware of the fact that Celal knows her secret.

Island of La Réunion, in the beginning of the 20th century. Five teenagers commit a savage crime. As punishment, a Dutch captain takes them to a supernatural island with luxuriant vegetation and bewitching powers.

Four friends become stranded in Eastern Europe and have to become hit men, prostitutes, corrupt cops, smugglers and more to make it home.

A suicidal young man is committed to a Dublin psychiatric hospital where he meets new friends who greatly influence his life.

In 2013, in Cairo, a tragic fate brings together several detainees from different political and social backgrounds inside a police truck, during the turmoil that followed the ousting of president Morsi.

From an intoxicating fantasy to a dangerous affair, a wealthy married woman finds her life irreversibly shattered after picking up an unpublished novel.

A robbery leaves a proprietor penniless before his wedding, but becoming a son-in-law to a second family might be the financial solution he needs.

In the middle of the Aegean Sea, six men on a fishing trip on a luxury yacht decide to play a game. During this game, things will be compared. Things will be measured. Songs will be butchered, and blood will be tested. Friends will become rivals and rivals will become hungry. But at the end of the journey, when the game is over, the man who wins will be the best man. And he will wear on his smallest finger the victory ring: the Chevalier.

The crew of a West of Ireland trawler—marooned at sea—struggle for their lives against a growing parasite in their water supply.

Something lurks off the coast of Block Island, silently influencing the behavior of fisherman, Tom Lynch. After suffering a series of violent outbursts, he unknowingly puts his family in grave danger.

An American backpacker gets involved with a ring of drug smugglers as their driver, and winds up on the run from his employers across Cologne’s autobahns.

A struggling young comedian takes a menial job on a cruise ship where he hopes for his big chance to make it in the world of cruise ship comedy.

When a group of friends fail to lower the ladder of their boat, they find themselves stranded in the surrounding waters and struggle to survive.

Lives of several low-level gangsters get intertwined after a game of craps in their underground casino ends in a bloody shootout.

During the 1970s, in Kunchon, there were women divers who were able to dive without equipment, including two best friends Choon-ja and Jin-sook, Jin-sook's brother and Hammer. They always collected seafood under water for living. But, as fewer factories started to be built near the beach, the women divers started to have trouble with what they were doing for living. Without any choice, the ship crews decided to join the smuggling business in the water to seek a way for their living. But the smuggling business in their village got too big for Jin-sook's family to handle and the peaceful village was gradually broken.

Diagnosed with a terminal illness, a single mother encounters a suave bachelor as she grapples with the future of her headstrong six-year-old.

