Movies Similar to Sentenced

Burroughs: The Movie(1984)

An exploration of Burroughs’ life story, as told by Burroughs himself along with many of his contemporaries, including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith, Terry Southern, and William Burroughs Jr.

7.1

Maestra(2012)

Cuba, 1961: 250,000 volunteers taught 700,000 people to read and write in one year. 100,000 of the teachers were under 18 years old. Over half were women. MAESTRA explores this story through the personal testimonies of the young women who went out to teach literacy in rural communities across the island - and found themselves deeply transformed in the process.

0.0

The Act of Reading(2021)

A retired high school English teacher is confronted by a former student who failed her class 15 years prior. He then involves her in a feature-length presentation on Moby-Dick and the science of reading.

6.0

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Spanish A.B.C.(1938)

A short film on Republican efforts to improve education standards during the Spanish Civil War.

3.5

News Without A Newsroom(2025)

As local newsrooms vanish, "News Without a Newsroom" explores journalism's uncertain future in the digital age. Through powerful stories and expert insights, the film examines the collapse of traditional media, the rise of misinformation, and the fight to preserve truth, trust and accountability in an era of disruption.

0.0

In My Own Words(2017)

The raw, heartfelt and often funny journey of adult Aboriginal students and their teachers as they discover the transformative power of reading and writing for the first time.

0.0

The Truth About Reading(2024)

The Truth About Reading looks at the illiteracy problem in America, highlighting people who learned to read as adults, and sharing proposed solutions for working towards a future where every child learns to read proficiently.

10.0

Girls of Hope(2011)

In Turkey far too many women are still unable to read and write, and all they see in their life span is being forced into early marriage and relegation to the home, where they look after extended families and more children than they can feed. The girls are portrayed in their homes, together with the strongest supporters of their emancipation through education: their mothers. Girls of Hope portrays five girls who struggle for their education and, despite all the difficulties, try to hold on to their hope for a better future.

0.0

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Reading Signs is Fun(1967)

Presents an inductive experience in reading readiness. Shows a young boy as he interprets the meanings of various road signs during a long automobile trip.

0.0

The Legacy of Othello(2022)

A fascinating exploration of the literary — The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, by English playwright William Shakespeare (1604) — and lyrical — Othello, by Italian opera composer Giuseppe Verdi (1887) — myth of Othello, the desperately tragic story of a Moorish general in the army of the Venetian Republic whose absurd jealousy poisons his love for his wife Desdemona.

8.0

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Jay Blades: Learning to Read at 51(2022)

Jay Blades, presenter of The Repair Shop, has decided it’s finally time to learn to read. He has been told he has the reading age of an 11-year-old. Throughout his life he has found ways of avoiding the written word, and this film digs deep into how this has shaped him.

7.0

Caravan of the Books: Kenya's Mobile Camel Library

A library on four legs, the world's only existing Camel Library is located in Northern Kenya. As they pass antelopes and giraffes, the heavily loadedcaravan of camels are routinely carrying books through the rough savannah.In the villages with their houses of mud and dung these tenacious desert ships are wishfully awaited by the people of the nomadic Muslim tribes. Under the shade of acacia trees, especially the children are excitedly turning pages of school books, novels and comics. However, 400 kilometers outside of the capital city of Nairobi the local librarians are still struggling with illiteracy, old traditions, insufficient funds, blistering sun and - stubborn camels... This is the story about the Camel Library, about inquisitive children, about the origins of a book and about a camel and an exceptional librarian in the heart of Africa within the UNESCO-world decade of alphabetization.

6.5

The Reader(2008)

The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.

7.5

El analfabeto(1961)

Inocencio Prieto y Calvo receives a letter telling him he is the heir to his uncle's fortune of two million pesos. Not being able to read he has no idea of who sent the letter or its content. So he goes to the drugstore because the pharmacist can read the letter to him. But while waiting to be helped he sees that a young girl can read. He figures he has to be able to discover the letter's content by himself and decides he will save the letter and go to school, and wait to read the letter on his own.

7.7

Mexican Bus Ride(1952)

Newlywed Oliverio receives disturbing news that his mother is on her deathbed. He travels to a remote part of Mexico to fetch a lawyer who can sort out her will. Leaving his wife behind, he embarks on a bus ride that’s interrupted by an increasingly absurd series of episodes, including an impromptu birthday celebration; a one-legged man writhing in the mud; come-ons from an insatiable small-town belle, Raquel; and Oliverio’s frequent, Freudian nightmares.

6.5

The Pride of Jesse Hallam(1981)

Jesse Hallum sells the family farm to see that his daughter receives the medical care she needs at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The big city challenges him, though, especially when his illiteracy is exposed.

5.0

The Silent War(2012)

An espionage thriller set in the 1950s and adapted from the novel "Year Suan/Plot Against" by May Jia. Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays a blind man who works for a piano tuner. He is recruited for a spy mission because of his exceptional hearing.

5.9

Nightjohn(1996)

John is a man of many talents, including one forbidden skill: he can read. When he teaches a young slave girl named Sarny to read and write, she learns an unforgettable lesson about the power of words and the true meaning of freedom.

5.6

Bluffing It(1987)

A functionally illiterate factory foreman (Dennis Weaver) loses his job after refusing a promotion that requires reading.

6.0

New Old Book(2024)

Desperate for clients, Isabelle, the owner of a small bookstore, accepts the offer to teach Caetano, an elderly illiterate man, how to read. The lessons turn into conversations about life and the history about their lives, even with contrasting experiences and opportunities. She begins to see in the lessons and in the closeness with her student a vocation never explored before.

10.0