Nobody Knows (2004)

same director, also movie about little kids.

In case you love this film which I think would be only 70% then I highly recommend nobody knows. It's the same as shoplifters as the title suggest nobody knows these kids are living alone. The climax in nobody knows is more powerful than shoplifters.

Both movies are about mistreated children. The titular character in Boy is put into constant danger (thrown in front of moving vehicles) and in that way is physically abused, basically. The children in Nobody Knows are abandoned by their mother. And both have really good child actor in leading role.

Child Lead with elements including child abuse. Both films are sad and realistic with the setting as well as the melancholic tone.

Both movies deal around siblings that are being abandoned by their parents and having to survive on their own. The Dry Spell has however a happy ending, whereas Nobody Knows is more sad.

Both films focus on an older boy taking care of a younger child.

Both feature kids abandoned by their parents and forced to survive alone.

In Nobody Knows, a mother of three kids leaves the house and never comes back. The children must live alone under the supervision of the older brother.

In Stand by Me, a homeless boy meets a homeless child and begins to take care of him.

Both films have a similar vibe.

Both are sad, emotional movies with superb acting.

Although Highway Family particularly focuses on a homeless family and Nobody Knows focuses on child abandonment they share a lot of common themes based on helpless children and who really is to blame?

Both are about a young boy struggling to survive without parents.

Sad and depressing movies from the 2000s about young people facing life's worst challenges. The characters seek to find a place of belonging but everything comes crashing down on them sooner or later.

Children are abandoned/neglected by their family. A precocious boy must adapt and learn to survive.

-Child abandonment
-Precocious boy
-Horrible parents
-Loving siblings