Best movies like Akseli and Elina
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A former Red Rebellion leader returns home after being imprisoned for his participation in the Finnish Civil War, but soon finds out that wartime mindsets still linger in the heads of people.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 508
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: epic, family saga, pre war
Best tv shows and movies like Akseli and Elina (1970):
Similar in 88%
Land of Hope (2018)
Plot Summary:
Anni, a daughter of a wealthy family and used to secure life, falls in love with Veikko, a war invalid of the Continuation War. Anni leaves her past behind her and starts leading the life of a pioneer, in the wild forests of northern Karelia, in a settlement farm. After a rosy start, the fate crushes Anni’s dreams and her love for Veikko is put to a test.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 925
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Where Once We Walked (2011)
Plot Summary:
Otso "The Main Man" Hultkrantz is playing the leading role of the young Allu Kajander in Where We Once Walked, based on a novel about a civil war raging between the Red and the White in Finland.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 321
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: captivating, psychological, tense, factual, family saga
Similar in 80%
Here, Beneath the North Star (1968)
Plot Summary:
Täällä Pohjantähden alla is based on the book with the same title. It is a story of the little village. The movie starts in the 1890's and it ends to the Finnish civil war in 1918. Story concentrates around a tenant farmer family, although it gives us a good look at the society at whole. While the class struggle depends, people of the village are driven to bloody civil war.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags: epic
Similar in 80%
Under the North Star (2009)
Plot Summary:
Perustuu Väinö Linnan samannimiseen romaanitrilogiaan, joka on yksi suomalaisen kirjallisuuden tärkeimmistä teoksista.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 783
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 193 min
Plot tags: family saga, epic, serious, captivating
Similar in 80%
The Birthday (1980)
Plot Summary:
The four sequences in the film cover four days in a life of young Warsaw lad in September 1938, 1939, 1943 and 1944. In the first sequence Jurek decides not to study in the Sorbonne but enlists in a Polish military school instead. In the second sequence the war starts and Warsaw is occupied. In the third sequence he works in the underground resistance. The final sequence takes place during the Warsaw uprising.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
The Mother of Kings (1987)
Plot Summary:
Made in 1982, shelved for five years. Story opens with Lucja Krol's husband under the tram. She gives birth to her fourth son on the floor of their new apartment. Neighbor Wiktor, a communist intellectual, befriends the poverty-stricken family but is soon arrested and sent to jail. During the war Lucja narrowly escapes a Nazi roundup at the black market. Her sons hold ardent Communist meetings in their apartment, with her blessing. Lucja works hard, but without complaint. After the war, Klemens is inexplicably arrested, accused by the new regime of being a collaborator. Wiktor, now a high-ranking party member, trying to defend him, himself falls into disgrace. Klemens is tortured to "confess" and dies in jail, a Communist to the end. Lucja is never told about his fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 303
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: intellectual, pre war
Similar in 90%
Hideouts (1986)
Plot Summary:
In this well-photographed and sometimes confusing wartime drama, an Austrian village experiences the tragedy of war on several different levels. Within one family, the younger son is jealous of the praise his father gives to a Polish POW who is working for them under very difficult conditions. Within the village as a whole, the French, Polish, and Russian POWs are kept under guard by Nazi soldiers, creating a tense situation all around. But more importantly, the village has conspired to hide an Austrian deserter in a cave up in the mountains. This act of rebellion on the part of the deserter and the village hangs in a precarious balance that could be upset by a single traitorous comment to the Gestapo.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 38
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Austria, West Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Herbstmilch (1989)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 470
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Eternal Road (2017)
Plot Summary:
Based on true events an epic story of one man's struggle for survival. Jussi Ketola, returns to Finland from the great depression struck America only to face growing political unrest. One summer night of 1930, nationalist thugs violently abduct Ketola from his home. Beaten and forced to walk the Eternal Road towards a foreign Soviet Russia, where cruelty seems to know no end, his only dream is to return to his family cost it what it may. Hope dies last.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Finland, Estonia, Sweden
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, tense, rough, thought provoking, suspenseful, touching
Similar in 77%
The Interrogation (2009)
Plot Summary:
Nuori nainen on saanut kutsun saapua poliisin kuultavaksi. Hän pelkää joutuvansa ansaan. Hän on täydellistä suomenkieltä puhuva Neuvosto-desantti, joka on varomattomuuttaan jättänyt vakoiluradionsa pesulaan säilytettäväksi.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Attack and Retreat (1964)
Plot Summary:
Beautifully photographed and lyrically written, this largely factual account of Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Russia during World War II tells the story of an Italian regiment through the eyes of a farmer from Emilia, a plumber from Rome, a miner from Puglia and a colonel.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 396
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, Soviet Union
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: macaroni combat
Similar in 88%
Germany Pale Mother (1980)
Plot Summary:
Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna moves in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: art house, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, semi autobiographical, fairy tale, masterpiece
Similar in 79%
Zhila-byla Odna Baba (2011)
Plot Summary:
История частной жизни одной женщины и четверых ее мужчин. Главная героиня - неграмотная крестьянка, и действие фильма начинается с ее свадьбы в 1909 году, когда девушку из нищей семьи взяли в богатую, а кончается в 1921 году Антоновским восстанием.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 839
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Russia
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, stylized, bleak, epic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Sign of the Beast (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set during the Second World War in the Finnish war zone.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Partisans (1963)
Plot Summary:
Lieutenant Takala meets his fellow partisans of 20th division many year after the war. With flashbacks we see the events of summer 1944.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: black and white
Similar in 81%
Under the North Star II (2010)
Plot Summary:
Akseli Koskela returns from prison and tries to learn living again. He's not allowed to take part in politics anymore, but he sees a lot of injustice around him. He raises a family with his wife Elina while another war is around the corner.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, touching, family saga, epic, exciting
Similar in 82%
The Assisi Underground (1985)
Plot Summary:
This film sheds light on the role of the Catholic Church and the people of Assisi in rescuing Italian Jews from the Nazis in 1943.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 433
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film
Similar in 77%
Siberiade (1979)
Plot Summary:
The evolution of a nation during six decades of turbulent history is dramatized via two families from opposing classes.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 275 min
Plot tags: family saga, serious, realistic, captivating, epic
Similar in 81%
Red Sorghum (1988)
Plot Summary:
An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: China
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: tense, depressing, manga, independent film, costume drama, mind blowing, psychological, sincere, epic, serious
Similar in 78%
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Plot Summary:
His ideals challenged by life as a conscript in war-time Japan's military, a pacifist faces ever greater tests in his fight for survival.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 190 min
Plot tags: existential, art house, poetic, atmospheric, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, cynical, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Plot Summary:
Following the detonation of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese military and the government clash over the demand from the Allies for unconditional surrender. Minister of the Army Anami leads the military officers who propose to fight on, even to the death of every Japanese citizen. Emperor Hirohito, however, joins with his ministers in asking the unthinkable, the peaceful surrender of Japan. When the military plots a coup to overthrow the Emperor's civilian government, Anami must face the choice between his desires and loyalty to his Emperor.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 989
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 76%
Abandoned Houses, Empty Homes (2000)
Plot Summary:
A war movie that takes place in Finnish Karelia in 1944.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 309
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Silence (2011)
Plot Summary:
A drama between people under unconventional circumstances. In the Second World War Finland was the only nation who brought casualties killed-in-action back to be buried at home. These actions were carried out by men and women working in assembly centres near enemy lines. Silence is a story of a group of people in a limbo between life and death, in a mental no-man's- land, where heaven and hell, horror and joy, love and fear touch each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 462
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, sad, rough, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 83%
1944 The Final Defence (2007)
Plot Summary:
The Soviet army breaks through the Finnish defences on the Karelian Isthmus in June 1944, advancing with overwhelming force. Somehow, the Finnish troops must find the strength to fight back, with all odds against them. The Battle of Tali-Ihantala was the largest battle ever fought in the history of the Nordic countries. This film depicts the true events through five separate stories.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, rough, bleak
Similar in 78%
The Winter War (1989)
Plot Summary:
Russia attacked Finland in late November 1939. This film tells the story of a Finnish platoon of reservists from the municipality of Kauhava in the province of Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia who leave their homes and go to war. The film focuses on the farmer brothers Martti and Paavo Hakala.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 199 min
Plot tags: realistic, epic, tense, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, suspenseful, light, brutal
Similar in 89%
Beyond the Front Line (2004)
Plot Summary:
A movie based on real wartime diaries tells the story of the Swedish speaking Finns' infantry regiment 61. The story follows the regiment during the Continuation War from 1942 to 1944 and from Syväri to the Karelian Isthmus where they faced some of the most grueling battles against the Soviet Union.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, tense
Similar in 77%
Hiroshima: Out of the Ashes (1990)
Plot Summary:
The movie follows the perspective of several characters (such as Japanese victims, soldiers, American prisoners of war and others) and how they lived or tried to survive the effects felt during the aftermath of the Atomic Bomb dropping by the Enola Gay at Hiroshima, during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 415
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 79%
1900 (1976)
Plot Summary:
Set in Bertolucci's ancestral region of Emilia, the film chronicles the lives of two men during the political turmoils that took place in Italy in the first half on the 20th century.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 317 min
Plot tags: epic, disturbing, controversial, compassionate, thought provoking, serious, realistic, captivating, political, stylized
Similar in 77%
Ambush (1999)
Plot Summary:
It is the summer of 1941 and the Finnish army has been mobilized along the border with Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola is waiting for orders to go on the offensive. The platoon receives orders for a recon mission through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for possible Russian defensive positions.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: War, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, intense, sincere, disturbing, rough, bleak, serious, brutal, sex comedy
Similar in 76%
Unknown Soldier (2017)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Finnish army machine gun company in Continuation War against Soviet Union, 1941–1944. Based on Väinö Linna's best selling novel Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) and the novel's uncensored version, Sotaromaani (A War Novel).
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland, Belgium, Iceland
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, thought provoking, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, novela, historical drama