Bringemovies
← Browse Movies
Defenders of Life
TITLE DETAILS

Defenders of Life

2015-02-01 · 93 min · ★ 7.5

Drama

In the hills of Costa Rica, Doña Carmen struggles to pass on her tribe's traditional ways of life. She must soon marry off her only granddaughter, and 70-year-old shaman Don Claudio lays his claim to the girl, who is only 12 and already impregnated by him. When the girl befriends the young son of a visiting anthropologist, it forces a collision between the modern world and the ancient one.

Open detail page

Trailers are previews, not full movies.

No authorized playback source configured. Use the legal watch options below.

Production details

Directors
Dana Ziyasheva
Production companies
Unavailable
Countries
Costa Rica
Status
Released

Top Cast

Beatriz BrenesBeatriz BrenesPamela Salazar
Arman DarboArman DarboFeb Salazar
Eylin Esther Jimenez GonzalesEsmeralda
Carmen Romero PalaciosDoña Carmen
Francisco Rodriguez AtencioDon Claudio
Kattia Palacio PalaciosKattia
Alexis Rodriguez GallardoDon Alexis
Mario Mendoza JimenezDiego
Maria BejaranoDoña Maria

Title information and images are supplied by TMDb. Explore our discovery guide for advice on comparing metadata and legal viewing options.

Where to watch

Availability provided by JustWatch via TMDb. Offers can change. Provider links are listed on TMDb; full playback requires a separately authorized source.

Rental

Amazon Video

Purchase

Amazon Video

Free

Hoopla, Fawesome

With ads

Plex, Filmzie, Cineverse, Tubi TV

View authorized watch options on TMDb

Recommendations

Women Talking
★ 6.8
Women Talking2022Drama

A group of women in an isolated religious colony struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men.

Embrace of the Serpent
★ 7.7
Embrace of the Serpent2015Drama

The epic story of the first contact, encounter, approach, betrayal and, eventually, life-transcending friendship, between Karamakate, an Amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, travel through the Amazon in search of a sacred plant that can heal them. Inspired by the journals of the first explorers of the Colombian Amazon, Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes.

April's Daughters
★ 5.8
April's Daughters2017Drama

Valeria is 17 and pregnant. She lives in Puerto Vallarta with Clara, her half sister. Valeria has not wanted her long-absent mother, April, to find out about her pregnancy, but due to the economic strain and the overwhelming responsibility of having a baby in the house, Clara decides to call their mother. April arrives, willing to her daughters, but we soon understand why Valeria had wanted her to stay away.

Johnny Belinda
★ 6.9
Johnny Belinda1948Drama

A small-town doctor helps a deaf-mute farm girl learn to communicate.

Once Were Warriors
★ 7.4
Once Were Warriors1994Drama

In a violent relationship, it takes a mother’s strength to save herself and her children from the man she loved. Once Were Warriors is a violent love story set against a contemporary urban backdrop.

Clara Sola
★ 6.5
Clara Sola2021Drama

In a remote village in Costa Rica, Clara, a withdrawn 40-year-old woman, experiences a sexual and mystical awakening as she begins a journey to free herself from the repressive religious and social conventions which have dominated her life.

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl
★ 7.2
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl1998Drama

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Ken Park
★ 6.0
Ken Park2003Drama

Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.

Five
★ 6.6
Five1951Drama

The film's storyline involves five survivors, one woman and four men, of an atomic bomb disaster. The five come together at a remote, isolated hillside house, where they try to figure out how to survive.

Resurrection
★ 6.5
Resurrection1980Drama

The story of a woman who survives the car accident which kills her husband, but discovers that she has the power to heal other people. She becomes an unwitting celebrity, the hope of those in desperate need of healing, and a lightning rod for religious beliefs and skeptics.

Jolene
★ 6.3
Jolene2010Drama

A teenage orphan spends ten years traveling to experience life.

Robinson Crusoe
★ 6.0
Robinson Crusoe1997Drama

Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.

The Road Dance
★ 6.7
The Road Dance2022Drama

A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.

Double Mommy
★ 7.4
Double Mommy2016Drama

After taking a break for the summer before their senior year, Ryan and Jess rekindle their relationship, and find out that Jess is pregnant with twins. When Ryan's mother demands a paternity test, they find out that Ryan is only the father of one baby... The other father is Ryan's best friend Brent, who Ryan discovers date-raped Jess at a party over the summer. With college recruiters and an overbearing father looming over Brent's head, he will stop at nothing to make sure that he clears his name--even if it means getting rid of Jess and her babies!

Eve's Bayou
★ 6.5
Eve's Bayou1997Drama

Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.

The Young One
★ 7.0
The Young One1960Drama

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

Martha Marcy May Marlene
★ 6.6
Martha Marcy May Marlene2011Drama

After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.

Return to the Blue Lagoon
★ 6.2
Return to the Blue Lagoon1991Drama

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.

The 7th Day
★ 6.6
The 7th Day2004Drama

Isabel Jimenez is a teenager witnessing a horrible feud between her own family and the Fuentes family, a feud involving broken hearts, property disputes and a mysterious fire that destroyed the Fuentes house. Isabel's uncle is murdered by Jeronimo Fuentes, who later tries to stab her father. After Jeronimo dies in jail, Isabel must look outside of her family for the truth, learning from the village idiot that her father may have set fire to the Fuentes home.

Prayers for the Stolen
★ 7.6
Prayers for the Stolen2021Drama

Ana and her two best friends, Maria and Paula, navigate life in their oppressive countryside village. Whilst their families struggle in the poppy fields harvesting opium, the girls try to grow alongside the creeping terror of their cartel oppressors.

Similar titles

Gran Torino
★ 8.0
Gran Torino2008Drama

Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, Thao Lor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino.

Walden
★ 5.0
Walden2021Drama

After returning from a year-long Moon mission, Cassie, a NASA botanist, finds herself in a remote cabin in the woods, where her estranged twin sister, Stella, a former NASA architect, has found a new life with climate activist Bryan. Old wounds resurface as the sisters attempt to pick up the pieces of the rivalry that broke them apart.

At Close Range
★ 6.8
At Close Range1986Drama

Brad Whitewood Jr. lives in rural Pennsylvania and has few prospects. Against his mother's wishes, he seeks out his estranged father, the head of a gang of thieves in a nearby town. Though his new girlfriend supports his criminal ambitions, Brad Jr. soon learns that his father is a dangerous man.

Encore un peu de patience mon amour
★ 4.5
Encore un peu de patience mon amour2020Drama

Alice has wanted a child for a long time. Gabrielle just never thought about it. After seven years together they are finally getting started. Appointments are made, treatments are taken. After Alice suffers some disappointing results in Barcelona, the tables are turned and Gabrielle decides to go through with the artificial insemination process.

Lakeview Terrace
★ 6.0
Lakeview Terrace2008Drama

A young interracial couple has just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their next-door neighbor, who disapproves of their relationship. A tightly wound LAPD officer has appointed himself the watchdog of the neighborhood. His nightly foot patrols and overly watchful eyes bring comfort to some, but he becomes increasingly aggressive to the newlyweds. These persistent intrusions into their lives cause the couple to fight back.

Melissa P.
★ 4.7
Melissa P.2005Drama

An adolescent girl, living with her mother and her grandmother, will have her first sexual experiences in a heavy and excessive way.

Sweet Country
★ 6.6
Sweet Country2018Drama

In 1929, an Australian Aboriginal stockman kills a white station owner in self-defense and goes on the lam, pursued by a posse.

Death Wish II
★ 6.2
Death Wish II1982Drama

Paul Kersey is again a vigilante trying to find five punks who murdered his housekeeper and daughter in Los Angeles.

Feast of Love
★ 6.2
Feast of Love2007Drama

A meditation on love and its various incarnations, set within a community of friends in Oregon. It is described as an exploration of the magical, mysterious and sometimes painful incarnations of love.

Body Shots
★ 6.9
Body Shots1999Drama

The Los Angeles club scene is a place of booze-fueled decadence and debauchery. In a night full of possibilities, eight 20-somethings take to the clubs seeking good times, companionship and maybe a little sex. But in the harsh light of the morning after, their worlds are thrown into a spin of confusion when hungover Sara accuses hard-partying Mike of date rape. Loyalties are tested as each among them is forced to take sides.

Madeline's Madeline
★ 5.9
Madeline's Madeline2018Drama

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.

Dead or Alive 2: Birds
★ 6.8
Dead or Alive 2: Birds2000Drama

Two contract killers cross paths in the middle of the same job and realize they are childhood friends. Together they take a break from killing and visit the small island they once called home. After reflecting on their past lives they decided to team up and use their talents in killing for good... much to the upset of the crime syndicates.

Time Lost, Time Found
Not rated
Time Lost, Time Found2009Drama

A woman is forced to choose between her unborn child or medical treatment for re-occuring breast cancer. Shizuku, a talented surgeon, gets pregnant. In the past ten years of her marriage, she hasn't expected a baby because of breast cancer when she was young. She is pleased for the good news with her husband Ryosuke. However, soon after that, she has a relapse of breast cancer. This is the final chance for 38-year-old Shizuku to have a baby. However, she won't be able to raise her baby after the birth. Should she give up the baby and concentrate on medical treatment? Or should she give birth to the baby even if that may shorten her life? Shizuku is afflicted with the ultimate decision. Her life is filled with difficulties, but in the end, there is a big hope remaining.

The Baby Shower
★ 6.3
The Baby Shower2016Drama

May and Christian are having a baby shower, whether they want to or not.

101 Reykjavik
★ 6.2
101 Reykjavik2000Drama

A 30-year-old slacker who lives with his mother finds his life turned upside down when his mother's flamenco-dancing friend moves in.

Tess
★ 7.1
Tess1979Drama

A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumour that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge.

Deliverance
★ 7.3
Deliverance1972Drama

Intent on seeing the Cahulawassee River before it's turned into one huge lake, outdoor fanatic Lewis Medlock takes his friends on a river-rafting trip they'll never forget into the dangerous American back-country.

Happiness
★ 7.4
Happiness1998Drama

The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
★ 6.7
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer1986Drama

Arriving in Chicago, Henry moves in with ex-con acquaintance Otis and starts schooling him in the ways of the serial killer.

Queen
★ 6.2
Queen2018Drama

The story starts with the inauguration of the first-ever Mechanical batch in an engineering campus. The batch consists of boys only. Later in the second year of the department, a girl joins and becomes the only girl to be a part of their batch. As the story evolves, the girl grabs all their love and attention and becomes the QUEEN of the batch.

Your favorites

Recently viewed

Watch

Choose an authorized server.

Full video from an operator-configured authorized source. Official trailers use a separate player. If a server fails, retry or select another authorized server.

Legal watch options

Official trailer

Trailer preview only. Press Play to start.

Privacy choices

Favorites stay in your browser. Movie images load from TMDb. YouTube trailers contact YouTube only after you allow external media and choose a trailer. Advertising consent, if ads are enabled, is managed separately by the operator’s certified CMP.

Privacy policy

After allowing external media, choose the trailer button to load its player.