Best movies like How the War Started on My Island
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
At the beginning of 1991, Yugoslav army did not acknowledge Croatian's independence, and still holding few military barracks in Croatia. Gajski travels to an island to get his son out of the army. Locals have besieged the barracks and organized a festival to try with singing and recitals to get major Aleksa and his soldiers to surrender, but Aleksa has explosives thru the barracks and wants to blow up the island.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Croatia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, spoof, parody
Best tv shows and movies like How the War Started on My Island (1996):
Similar in 80%
Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came? (1970)
Plot Summary:
A rivalry is brewing between the soldiers at an otherwise tranquil Army base and the civilians of a nearby Southern town. With good intentions, Col. Flanders tries to keep the piece and uses Brian Keith to work community relations. However, peace is hard to come by with Ernest Borgnine as a beat first ask questions later sheriff. The Colonel organizes a dance and encourages all in the area to attend. But instead of merriment, tensions are even higher. Tony Curtis plays a wise cracking Sergeant who can't stay out of trouble and soon lands in jail. Brian Keith borrows a tank to release his friend from jail. A rebellious town leader Billy Joe Davis proclaims war against the military with his own private army. Suzanne Pleshette co-stars as the oh so lovable bar maid.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 435
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, political, independent film
Similar in 85%
Marble Ass (1995)
Plot Summary:
A transvestite couple from 1990s Belgrade beholds their profession as a pacifistic mission, curbing the urges of rapists, gamblers and horny young men during turbulent periods in war-torn country.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 83%
When the Dead Start Singing (1998)
Plot Summary:
At the beginning of 1990s, two Croatian emigrants, economically minded Cinco and politically minded Marinko, arrive in Croatia from Germany, homesick for their families and hometowns. In order to get a German pension, Cinco pretends to be dead and travels in a coffin. Soon, Marinko joins him because he is running away from an old agent of the Yugoslav State Security Service. On their trip in a motor hearse, Cinco and Marinko face many adventures, which culminate when they are stopped at Serbian barricades close to their destination.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Croatia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: neo screwball comedy
Similar in 81%
The Virgin Soldiers (1969)
Plot Summary:
The core of the plot is the romantic triangle formed by the protagonist, a conscripted soldier named Private Brigg; a worldly professional soldier named Sergeant Driscoll, and Phillipa Raskin, the daughter of the Regimental Sergeant Major. The location is a British army base in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 467
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sex comedy, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 88%
Sniper's Ridge (1961)
Plot Summary:
Korean War drama.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 130
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 61 min
Plot tags: slang
Similar in 82%
Kilometer Zero (2005)
Plot Summary:
Set during the Iraq-Iran war in the 80s, the film tells of a tragicomic road trip set in Iraq's Kurdistan.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 492
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Iraq, Finland
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, captivating, sentimental, realistic, black comedy
Similar in 86%
Funny Dirty Little War (1983)
Plot Summary:
A small revolution breaks out in a small Argentine town, as one group of Peronists calls they newly elected peronist a communist. The newly elected official enlists the aid of allies ranging from the town drunk to young peronists to help hold his post. What follows is a slapstick war with a serious message.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 550
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Argentina
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: manga, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, witty, semi serious, crying, black comedy, slapstick comedy, freeze frame
Similar in 90%
The Border Post (2006)
Plot Summary:
At a small border-post on the Yugoslav-Albanian border, yet another generation of soldiers suffering the usual amount of boredom awaits the end of their service, counting days to the moment when they should take their uniforms off for good. It is the spring of 1987 and the thought never even crosses their mind that they would, in fact, put them back on quite soon and go to war.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Croatia, Serbia, UK, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Austria
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, sex comedy, islamic, bleak, sexual, sexy
Similar in 84%
Deserter (1992)
Plot Summary:
During the Yugoslav break-up, Federal Army officer is fed up with war and takes some leave in Belgrade. However, it turns out that he is less haunted by war horrors than with some sentimental skeletons in the closet. He meets his former comrade and best friend who is AWOL, but can't report him because he had an affair with his wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Balkan Spy (1984)
Plot Summary:
Balkanski špijun is a 1984 Yugoslav comedy/drama. Ilija Čvorović, a former Stalinist who spent several years in a prison on Goli otok, is contacted by the police to routinely answer questions about his tenant, Petar Markov Jakovljević, a businessman, who spent twenty years living in Paris, and now has returned to Belgrade to open a tailor shop. After only several minutes, Ilija is free to go, however, he is starting to suspect that his tenant might be a spy. As the movie goes on, his paranoia increases and more people gets involved: his wife, his daughter, his brother, Jakovljevic's friends.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: funny, black comedy, dark comedy, thought provoking, humorous, realistic, disturbing, semi serious
Similar in 87%
In Love and War (2011)
Plot Summary:
In June 1950, soon after the start of the Korean War, a troop of North Korean soldiers enter a small South Korean village. Captain Jeong-woong proclaims that they came to liberate the villagers but their true agenda is to ferret out the reactionaries. The villagers and Seol-hee, who is separated from her fiance on her wedding day, offer them heartfelt hospitality and cooperation to avoid falling out of the army's favor. Eventually friendships starts to build up between the soldiers and the villagers.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: South Korea
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 77%
The Carabineers (1963)
Plot Summary:
During a war in an imaginary country, unscrupulous soldiers recruit poor farmers with promises of an easy and happy life. Two of these farmers write to their wives of their exploits.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: cult classic, thought provoking, offbeat, bleak, serious, surreal, disturbing, cynical, semi serious, biting
Similar in 85%
Privates on Parade (1983)
Plot Summary:
It is 1947, the year of the communist rebellion in Malaya and the British army's SADUSEA (Song And Dance Unit South East Asia) are called to the Malayan Jungle to entertain the troops. The eccentric, bible-bashing Major Giles Flack (John Cleese) is in command of the unit. Flack is accompanied by an ageing, theatrical drama queen, Terri Dennis (Denis Quilley) who hopes to entertain the troops with his flamboyant impressions, but the bored troops find other ways to enjoy themselves.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 977
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, semi serious, entertaining, independent film
Similar in 80%
Black and White in Color (1976)
Plot Summary:
French colonists in Africa, several months behind in the news, find themselves at war with their German neighbors. Deciding that they must do their proper duty and fight the Germans, they promptly conscript the local native population. Issuing them boots and rifles, the French attempt to make "proper" soldiers out of the Africans. A young, idealistic French geographer seems to be the only rational person in the town, and he takes over control of the "war" after several bungles on the part of the others.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Côte d'Ivoire, France, West Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, intercultural, suspense, period drama, inter cultural
Similar in 83%
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963)
Plot Summary:
In 1944, Capt. Josiah J. Newman is the doctor in charge of Ward 7, the neuropsychiatric ward, at an Army Air Corps hospital in Arizona. The hospital is under-resourced and Newman scrounges what he needs with the help of his inventive staff, especially Cpl. Jake Leibowitz. The military in general is only just coming to accept psychiatric disorders as legitimate and Newman generally has 6 weeks to cure them or send them on to another facility. There are many patients in the ward and his latest include Colonel Norville Bliss who has dissociated from his past; Capt. Paul Winston who is nearly catatonic after spending 13 months hiding in a cellar behind enemy lines; and 20 year-old Cpl. Jim Tompkins who is severely traumatized after his aircraft was shot down. Others come and go, including Italian prisoners of war, but Newman and team all realize that their success means the men will return to their units.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: psychological, humorous, emotional, realistic, captivating, sentimental, touching, serious
Similar in 89%
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! (1966)
Plot Summary:
Without hostile intent, a Soviet sub runs aground off New England. Men are sent for a boat, but many villagers go into a tizzy, risking bloodshed.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, War
Country: USA
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: funny, political, satirical, black comedy, humorous, witty, retro, touching, technicolor, offbeat
Similar in 83%
12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)
Plot Summary:
It's the 22nd of December. Sixteen years have passed since the revolution, and in a small town Christmas is about to come. Piscoci, an old retired man is preparing for another Christmas alone. Manescu, the history teacher, tries to keep up with his debts. Jderescu, the owner of a local television post, seems not to be so interested in the upcoming holidays. For him, the time to face history has come. Along with Manescu and Piscoci, he is trying to answer for himself a question which for 16 years has not had an answer: "Was it or wasn't it a revolution in their town?".
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, witty, semi serious, dark comedy, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, realistic
Similar in 84%
Welcome to Dongmakgol (2005)
Plot Summary:
Based on the long running play by Jang Jin, the story is set in Korea during the Korean War in 1950. Soldiers from both the North and South, as well as an American pilot, find themselves in a secluded and naively idealistic village, its residents unaware of the outside world, including the war.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: South Korea
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, emotional, realistic, serious, funny, philosophical, sexy, feel good, political
Similar in 85%
Witnesses (2003)
Plot Summary:
Set amid the atrocities of war in the Balkans, Witnesses is retold, Rashomon-style, from various characters' viewpoints, adding new information about the complexity of war and humanity. Beginning inside a rustic house with a woman in black (Mirjana Karanovic) standing beside her husband's coffin, Witnesses interweaves the stories of a small town confronting ethnic hatred and deep moral ambiguities.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 828
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Croatia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, disturbing, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 86%
For Ever Mozart (1996)
Plot Summary:
For Ever Mozart is an episodic film that follows a theater troupe from France attempting to put on a play in Sarajevo. Along their journey they are captured and held in a POW camp, and they call for help from their friends and relations in France. Director Jean-Luc Godard presents stories about this troop to ask how one can make art while slaughters like the one in Bosnia are taking place, and he throws in a strong critique of the European Union. For Ever Mozart is one of Godard's most disjointed and difficult films. Its stories sometimes seem to form a whole and at other times the links among them are unclear. One gets the impression that in each episode Godard attempts to start a film only to come to the conclusion that it is impossible to continue. It features some of the most beautiful shots of tanks in the cinema.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Switzerland, France
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: experimental, serious, realistic, contemplative, avant garde
Similar in 90%
Devils on the Doorstep (2000)
Plot Summary:
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: semi serious, atmospheric, humorous, realistic, dark comedy, depressing, cerebral, philosophical, absurd, independent film
Similar in 80%
The Priest's Children (2013)
Plot Summary:
Don Fabijan is a young priest who comes to serve on an unnamed small island in the Adriatic. In order to help increase birth rate on the island, he decides to pierce condoms before they are sold. He therefore teams up with the newsagent Petar and the pharmacist Marin. After they abolish all forms of birth control on the entire island, the consequences become more and more complicated.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious, tragicomedy, suspense, biting, dark comedy
Similar in 89%
Two Men Went to War (2002)
Plot Summary:
Comedy drama based on the true story of two British Army dentists who in 1942, eager to see action, go AWOL and invade occupied France on their own.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 934
Genere: Comedy, War, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, entertaining, captivating, offbeat, realistic
Similar in 80%
No Man's Land (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two soldiers from opposite sites get stuck between the front lines in the same trench. The UN is asked to free them and both sides agree on a ceasefire, but will they stick to it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Belgium, UK, Slovenia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: bleak, harsh, political, talky, sentimental, thought provoking, sincere, rough, humorous, captivating
Similar in 89%
My Führer (2007)
Plot Summary:
Hitler no longer believes in himself, and can barely see himself as an equal to even his sheep dog. But to seize the helm of the war he would have to create one of his famous fiery speeches to mobilize the masses. Goebbels therefore brings a Jewish acting teacher Grünbaum and his family from the camps in order to train the leader in rhetoric. Grünbaum is torn, but starts Hitler in his therapy.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, suspense, offbeat, humorous, controversial, not serious, slapstick comedy, slapstick
Similar in 78%
Squadron 303 (2018)
Plot Summary:
After the fall of the September Campaign of 1939, two Polish pilots are forced to fight for their nation in foreign battlefronts.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, sincere
Similar in 84%
MASH (1970)
Plot Summary:
The staff of a Korean War field hospital use humor and high jinks to keep their sanity in the face of the horror of war.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 76000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: satirical, humorous, black comedy, witty, talky, funny, dark comedy, hilarious, captivating, cult classic
Similar in 83%
Catch-22 (1970)
Plot Summary:
A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way to cope with a crazy situation. Catch-22 is a parody of a "military mentality" and of a bureaucratic society in general.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, surreal, absurd, black comedy, dark, grim, cult classic, psychological, clever, humorous
Similar in 86%
Underground (1995)
Plot Summary:
Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko realizes that the situation is ripe for exploitation.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, War
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, UK, USA
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags: absurd, black comedy, art house, political, satirical, surreal, visually appealing, mindfuck, epic, philosophical
Similar in 90%
War Machine (2017)
Plot Summary:
A rock star general bent on winning the “impossible” war in Afghanistan takes us inside the complex machinery of modern war. Inspired by the true story of General Stanley McChrystal.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 49000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: political, satirical, intense, humorous, talky, stylized, funny, social, art house, black comedy