movielex
movie
L
ex

Movies like The Railway Children Return

Key Features:
World War II, Evacuation, Found family, Small-town life, Children, Kindness, Friendship, British cinema, Historical drama, Hope, Resilience
Tone:
earnest, dramatic
Target Audience:
Families, Fans of historical dramas, Viewers seeking heartwarming stories, British cinema enthusiasts
Emotional Arc:
Concern → Connection → Hope

The Railway Children Return

2022-07-15
The Railway Children Return Poster - Find Similar Movies

Follow a group of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who, like them, is far away from home.

Genres
Drama, Family, Adventure
Cast
Jenny Agutter, Sheridan Smith, Tom Courtenay, Beau Gadsdon, KJ Aikens, Austin Haynes, Eden Hamilton, Zac Cudby, John Bradley, Hugh Quarshie
Crew
Morgan Matthews, Daniel Brocklehurst
Rating
6.5(262 votes)
The Railway Children ReturnThe Railway Children Return
Select exactly what you are looking for


The Railway Children

At the dawn of the 20th century, following their father's arrest on suspicion of betraying state secrets, the three Waterbury children—Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter—move with their mother to Yorkshire, where they find themselves involved in unexpected dramas along the railway by their new home.



Blitz
Blitz(2024)
6

In World War II London, nine-year-old George is evacuated to the countryside by his mother, Rita, to escape the bombings. Defiant and determined to return to his family, George embarks on an epic, perilous journey back home as Rita searches for him.



The Windermere Children

The story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere.



The Children's Train
7.424

In late 1940s Italy, a mother makes the difficult decision to send her son to the north, where he catches glimpses of a new life away from poverty.



Hope and Glory
6.895

A middle-aged man recalls his childhood growing up in and around London during World War II.



Goodnight, Mister Tom

A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.



The Railway Man
6.8

A victim from World War II's "Death Railway" sets out to find those responsible for his torture. A true story.



Summerland
7.5

A woman during the Second World War opens her heart to an evacuee after initially resolving to be rid of him.



Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster. The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.



Giovanni's Island
7.5

In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of Shikotan became part of the Sakhalin Oblast... and on the unhealed border in this remote corner of the world, friendship among children from two different countries timidly blossomed, striving to overcome language barriers and the waves of history. Inspired by true events.



Train of Life
7.3

In 1941, the inhabitants of a small Jewish village in Central Europe organize a fake deportation train so that they can escape the Nazis and flee to Palestine.



The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

Free-spirited writer Juliet Ashton forms a life-changing bond with the delightful and eccentric Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, when she decides to write about the book club they formed during the occupation of Guernsey in WWII.



The Book Thief
7.495

While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.



War Horse
War Horse(2011)
7.299

On the brink of the First World War, Albert's beloved horse Joey is sold to the Cavalry by his father. Against the backdrop of the Great War, Joey begins an odyssey full of danger, joy, and sorrow, and he transforms everyone he meets along the way. Meanwhile, Albert, unable to forget his equine friend, searches the battlefields of France to find Joey and bring him home.



Little Boy
7.2

An eight-year-old boy is willing to do whatever it takes to end World War II so he can bring his father home. The story reveals the indescribable love a father has for his little boy and the love a son has for his father.



Rails & Ties
6.4

A deadly collision between a train and car lead to an unlikely bond between the train engineer and a young boy who escapes the carnage.



Waiting for Anya
6.242

During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.



Return
Return(2011)
6.438

Back from a tour of duty, Kelli struggles to find her place in her family and the rust-belt town she no longer recognizes.



The Children of Huang Shi

About young British journalist, George Hogg, who with the assistance of a courageous Australian nurse, saves a group of orphaned children during the Japanese occupation of China in 1937.



Return to Never Land

In 1940, the world is besieged by World War II. Wendy, all grown up, has two children; including Jane, who does not believe Wendy's stories about Peter Pan.



Benji
Benji(2018)
6.927

Two school kids strike up a friendship with an orphaned puppy named Benji. When danger befalls them and they end up kidnapped by robbers who are in over their heads, Benji and his scruffy sidekick come to the rescue.



Dear Zoe
Dear Zoe(2022)
6.2

Tess enlists her biological father – a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks – and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.



One Life
One Life(2023)
7.769

British stockbroker Nicholas Winton visits Czechoslovakia in the 1930s and forms plans to assist in the rescue of Jewish children before the onset of World War II, in an operation that came to be known as the Kindertransport.



Secrets of War
6.628

Tuur and Lambert are best friends. But the war is closing in and is about to change their lives forever. Tuurs dad joined the resistance and even his big brother seems so be part of it. Lamberts family on the other hand choose to obey the Germans. Then a new girls from the city shows up, befriending the boys but telling her secret to only one of them. A choice that separates the boys and ultimately gets her in trouble.



The Truce
The Truce(1997)
6.1

After the liberation of Auschwitz, an Italian prisoner of War begins a torturous voyage home to Turin, through a Europe caught between war and peace.



Forbidden Games
7.8

Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.



Emil and the Piglet

Nursing a piglet back to life because it's the runt of the litter earns Emil a friend for life.



Whistle Down the Wind
7.152

When an injured wife-murderer takes refuge on a remote Lancashire farm, the farmer’s three children mistakenly believe him to be the Second Coming of Christ.



Lassie Come Home
6.4

12-year-old Florian and his beloved dog Lassie live in an idyllic village in the German countryside. When Florian's father loses his job, the family have to move into a small apartment where there are no dogs allowed. Lassie is given away to another family, but Florian and Lassie yearn to be reunited again so Florian sets out on an adventure to find his best friend.



Swallows and Amazons

Four children dream of escaping the tedium of a summer holiday with their mother. When finally given permission to camp on their own on an island in the middle of a vast lake, they are overjoyed. But when they get there they discover they may not be alone… The battle for ownership of a lonely island teaches them the skills of survival, the value of friendship and the importance of holding your nerve.



I Wish
I Wish(2011)
7.3

Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.



Scarlet
Scarlet(2023)
6.8

A French widower and WWI veteran returns home after the war to raise his newborn daughter.



Benji
Benji(1974)
6.3

Benji is a stray who has nonetheless worked his way into the hearts of a number of the townspeople, who give him food and attention whenever he stops by. His particular favorites are a pair of children who feed and play with him against the wishes of their parents. When the children are kidnapped, however, the parents and the police are at a loss to find them. Only Benji can track them down, but will he be in time? If he can save the day, he may just find the permanent home he's been longing for.



Central Station
8.1

An emotional journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.



Diamonds of the Night

Two Jewish boys escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Ultimately, they are hunted down by a group of old, armed home-guardists.



From Time to Time
6.248

A haunting ghost story spanning two worlds, two centuries apart. When 13 year old Tolly finds he can mysteriously travel between the two, he begins an adventure that unlocks family secrets laid buried for generations.



Zoo
Zoo(2018)
6.7

Young Tom and his misfit friends fight to save 'Buster' the baby elephant during the German air raid bombings of Belfast in 1941.



A Girl Returned
7.2

A 13 years old girl is forced to go living with another family for reasons unknown.



Strayed
Strayed(2003)
5.808

Fleeing the June 1940 arrival of Hitler's army in Paris, a young war widow and her two children are rescued from dive-bombing German fighters by a cocky, reckless teenager. He finds them refuge in an abandoned house, but despite the fact that the family quickly comes to be depending much on his cunning and survival abilities, their cohabitation proves uneasy.



Belle and Sebastian: The Adventure Continues

September, 1945. Sebastian impatiently waits for the return of his friend Angelina, whom he has not seen for two years. When the plane carrying the young woman to her small village in the Alps is reported to have crashed in the mountains, Sebastian is convinced that Angelina is still alive. Along with his faithful dog Belle, Sebastian embarks on the most dangerous adventure of his life.



Return to Nim's Island

Fourteen year old Nim, more determined than ever to protect her island and all the wildlife that call it home, faces off against resort developers and animal poachers. Soon she realizes she can’t depend on her animal cohorts alone and must make her first human friend – Edmund, who’s run away to the island from the mainland – to save her home.



Hostile Territory
6.961

Former P.O.W. Jack Calgrove moves Heaven and Earth to be reunited with his children following the Civil War. After returning home, Jack discovers that his wife has tragically died and his children, presumed to be orphans, are heading deep into the West on a train crossing enemy lines, with the intent of being placed into new homes. Calgrove and another soldier team up with a troop of Native American sharpshooters and a freed slave as they try to stop the train.



Brothers
Brothers(2024)
7.083

Two young brothers are abandoned by their mother during summer of 1948, they run into the forest and survive there for seven years.



News of the World
6.9

A Texan traveling across the wild West bringing the news of the world to local townspeople, agrees to help rescue a young girl who was kidnapped.



The Boys Are Back
6.3

When the wife of sports-writer Joe Warr dies of cancer, he takes on the responsibility of raising their 6-year-old son, and his teenage son from a previous marriage. As Joe rejects the counsel of his mother-in-law and other parents, he develops his own philosophies on parenting.



Barefoot Gen 2
6.5

Three years after the Hiroshima bombing, a teenager helps a group of orphans to survive and find their new life.



The Navigators
6.9

In South Yorkshire, a small group of railway maintenance men discover that because of privatization, their lives will never be the same. When the trusty British Rail sign is replaced by one reading East Midland Infrastructure, it is clear that there will be the inevitable winners and losers as downsizing and efficiency become the new buzzwords.



Radio Flyer
7

A father reminisces about his childhood when he and his younger brother moved to a new town with their mother, her new husband and their dog, Shane. When the younger brother is subjected to physical abuse at the hands of their brutal stepfather, Mike decides to convert their toy trolley, the "Radio Flyer", into a plane to fly him to safety.



Enola Holmes
7.241

While searching for her missing mother, intrepid teen Enola Holmes uses her sleuthing skills to outsmart big brother Sherlock and help a runaway lord.



Anne of Green Gables

A retelling of L.M. Montgomery's story of Anne Shirley, an orphan who is accidentally sent to a couple looking to adopt a boy instead.



Journey Back to Christmas

WWII has ended and Hanna is still grieving over her husband's disappearance. When the Christmas Comet appears for the first time in 70 years, Hanna is caught in a terrible storm and knocked unconscious. When she wakes up, she's in 2016.



Return to the Blue Lagoon

In this sequel to the 1980 classic, two children are stranded on a beautiful island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together and eventually become tanned teenagers in love.



T2 Trainspotting
6.944

After 20 years abroad, Mark Renton returns to Scotland and reunites with his old friends Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie.



The Aftermath
6.439

In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them.



The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death

40 years after the first haunting at Eel Marsh House, a group of children evacuated from WWII London arrive, awakening the house's darkest inhabitant.



Lassie
Lassie(1994)
6.1

On their way to start a new life at a sheep farm in rural Virginia, the Turner family are halted by a wreck on the highway that has claimed the life of a truck driver. Spotting the trucker's now-abandoned collie on the side of the road, they take pity on the dog and adopt her. As the city family copes with the change to rural life, including a feud with a neighboring farm family who resent the city interlopers, the ever-loyal Lassie helps them adjust to their new surroundings.



The Colditz Story
6.8

Allied prisoners of various nationalities pool their resources to plan numerous escapes from an "escape-proof" German P.O.W. camp housed in a Medieval castle.



Nicholas Nickleby
6.9

Nicholas Nickleby, a young boy in search of a better life, struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his coldheartedly grasping uncle.



A Little Princess
7.618

When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self-worth.



Mary Poppins Returns

Mary Poppins returns to the Banks family and helps them evade grave dangers by taking them on magical, musical adventures.



Paddington
7.113

A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family, who offer him a temporary haven.



A Royal Night Out
6.469

The re-imagining of VE Day in 1945, when Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret were allowed out from Buckingham Palace for the night to join in the celebrations, and encounter romance and danger.



Dunkirk
Dunkirk(1958)
6.8

A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.



The Last Train
6.548

Two people, a Frenchman and a Jewish German woman, meet on a train while escaping the German army entering France.



The Titfield Thunderbolt

When British Railways announce the closure of the Titfield to Mallingford branch line a group of local residents make a bid to run it themselves, backed by a monied member of the community who is attracted by the complete lack of licensing hours on trains. Unfortunately the local bus company starts to use methods that can hardly be seen as fair competition.



Little Women
7.3

With their father away as a chaplain in the Civil War, Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy grow up with their mother in somewhat reduced circumstances. They are a close family who inevitably have their squabbles and tragedies. But the bond holds even when, later, male friends start to become a part of the household.



The Rescue
7.951

The enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in Northern Thailand.



Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arrived, Nanny discovers that the children are fighting a war of their own against two spoiled city cousins who have just moved in. Relying on everything from a flying motorcycle and a statue that comes to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant, Nanny uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.



London River
6.7

After traveling to London to check on their missing children in the wake of the 2005 terror attacks on the city, two strangers come to discover their respective children had been living together at the time of the attacks



Anne of Green Gables

At the turn of the century on Prince Edward Island, Matthew Cuthbert and his sister Marilla decide to take on an orphan boy as help for their farm. But they get an unexpected jolt when they're mistakenly sent a girl instead: Anne Shirley.



Seven Days War
6.494

In the town of Saima, when summer is about to begin, a group of six high school students intend to live a secret adventure by spending seven carefree days in a ruined mining facility.



The Secret Garden
7.4

A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and forgotten. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.



Paddington 2
7.472

Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.



Pollyanna
Pollyanna(1960)
6.936

A young girl comes to an embittered town and confronts its attitude with her determination to see the best in life.



The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

The unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse traveling together in the boy's search for home.



Tamara Drewe
5.866

A young newspaper writer returns to her hometown in the English countryside, where her childhood home is being prepped for sale.



Along the Ridge
7.02

A young father and his two children struggle to find harmony after his wife leaves them for another man.



To Sir, with Love II

After thirty years teaching in London, Mark Thackeray retires and returns to Chicago. There, however, the challenge of teaching kids in an inner city school proves to be too much to resist.



The Children
6.04

A relaxing Christmas vacation turns into a terrifying fight for survival as the children begin to turn on their parents.



Somers Town
6.827

Two teenagers, both newcomers to London, forge an unlikely friendship over the course of a hot summer. Tomo is a runaway from Nottingham; Marek lives in the district of Somers Town, between King's Cross and Euston stations, where his dad is working on a new rail link.



Stockholm, Pennsylvania

A young woman is returned home to her biological parents after living with her abductor for 17 years.



North West Frontier

In the rebellious northern frontier province of colonial India, British Army Captain Scott, a young prince and the boy's governess escape by an obsolete train as they are relentlessly pursued by Muslim rebels intent on assassinating the prince.



Drifting Home
7.373

One fateful summer, a group of elementary school kids set adrift on an abandoned apartment building must look within themselves to find a way back home.



The Return
5.9

Two young children and an adult in a small town have an encounter with an alien spaceship. 25 years later the children are reunited as adults in the same town which is now beset by strange cattle mutilations. Matters become worse when the cattle mutilations are joined by human murders and mutilations.



The Kite Runner
7.3

After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.



Return of the Hero
6.294

France, 1809. Captain Neuville is called to the front, leaving his future bride heartbroken. Her sister decides to write letters on his behalf to cheer her up.



Children Who Chase Lost Voices

The film centers on Asuna, a young girl who spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music emanating from the crystal radio she received from her late father as a memento. One day while walking home she is attacked by a fearsome monster and saved by a mysterious boy named Shun. However, Shun disappears and Asuna embarks on a journey of adventure to the land of Agartha with her teacher Mr. Morisaki to meet a Shun again. Through her journey she comes to know the cruelty and beauty of the world, as well as loss.



Nanny McPhee
6.7

Widower Cedric Brown hires Nanny McPhee to care for his seven rambunctious children, who have chased away all previous nannies. Taunted by Simon and his siblings, Nanny McPhee uses mystical powers to instill discipline. And when the children's great-aunt and benefactor, Lady Adelaide Stitch, threatens to separate the kids, the family pulls together under the guidance of Nanny McPhee.



Oranges and Sunshine

The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.



Foster
Foster(2011)
6.7

Looking to adopt a child and unable to conceive a child of their own, the Morrisons' lives are turned upside down when a seven-year-old boy unexpectedly shows up on their doorstep.



The Levelling
6.2

Clover is finishing a veterinary course when her brother dies and she is called home to her family's struggling Somerset farm.



Sunset Song
6.2

The daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.



The Miracle of Bern

The movie deals with the championship-winning German soccer team of 1954. Its story is linked with two others: The family of a young boy is split due to the events in World War II, and the father returns from Russia after eleven years. The second story is about a reporter and his wife reporting from the tournament.



Dunkirk
Dunkirk(2017)
7.45

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.



Au Revoir les Enfants
7.514

Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.



Hungerford
4.1

The lives of a group of teenagers are turned upside down when their town is taken over by sinister forces.



Heidi, Girl of the Alps

Heidi is five years old when her aunt Dete, who has raised Heidi since her parents' deaths four years earlier, takes the orphaned Heidi to live with her formidable grandfather in the Swiss Alps.



Heidi
Heidi(2015)
7.215

Heidi, is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather. She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara, a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather.



The Children of the Marshland

The film is set in Marais, a quiet region along the banks of Loire river in 1918. Riton is afflicted with a bad-tempered wife and three unruly children. Garris lives alone with his recollections of World War I trenches. Their daily life consists of seasonal work and visits from their two pals: Tane, the local train conductor and Amédée, a dreamer and voracious reader of classics.

AboutPrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceContact Us