Best movies like Paradise Now
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies like Paradise Now? Provide your expertise to steer others to films and tv shows you've seen before that may also grip them. Support increasing the group of people raising videos among one another. We appreciate your participation!
Plot Summary:
Paradise Now is filmed from the perspective of two Palestinian men who are preparing to perform a suicide attack in Israel. This is the first film to deal with the subject of suicide bombers.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Netherlands, Israel, Germany, France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, thought provoking, controversial, depressing, political, rough, dramatic, intense, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Paradise Now (2005):
Similar in 90%
Osama (2003)
Plot Summary:
Teenage girl Osama cuts her hair and dresses like a boy to get a job and support her widowed mother and grandmother. When Osama is called by the Taliban to join school and military training she embarks on a terrifying and confusing journey as she tries to keep the Taliban from finding out her true identity.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama
Country: Afghanistan, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Iran
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, sincere, bleak, thought provoking, breathtaking, talky, stylized, captivating
Similar in 83%
Out in the Dark (2012)
Plot Summary:
Two young men — a Palestinian grad student and an Israeli lawyer — meet and fall in love amidst personal and political intrigue in this striking debut feature from Israeli director Michael Mayer.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
Country: Israel, USA, Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, serious, sincere, lgbt cinema, gloomy, sad, homoerotic, sexual, cute
Similar in 84%
The Attack (2012)
Plot Summary:
An Arab surgeon living in Tel Aviv discovers a dark secret about his wife in the aftermath of a suicide bombing.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, War
Country: Lebanon, France, Qatar, Belgium, Egypt
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, realistic, serious, suspenseful, touching, suspense, social, bleak
Similar in 84%
Cavite (2005)
Plot Summary:
Adam, a security guard, travels from California to the Philippines, his native land, for his father's funeral. He arrives in Manila. As he waits, a phone rings in his backpack; he answers it, and a male voice tells him that his mother and sister are captives and will be killed if Adam doesn't cooperate. Over the next hour, the voice sends Adam by bus, taxi, motorized tricycle, and on foot through an urban landscape of busy streets, cramped apartments, a fetid squatters' camp, a bank, a cockfighting arena, and a church. Adam's conversations with the voice cover murder, Islam, jihad, rebellion in Mindanao, and his family. What is it Adam will be commanded to do?.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 676
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Philippines, USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, rough, suspenseful, serious, realistic, crying
Similar in 77%
Omar (2013)
Plot Summary:
The drama, the story of three childhood friends and a young woman who are torn apart in their fight for freedom, is billed as the first fully-financed film to come out of the Palestinian cinema industry.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Palestine
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, suspenseful, disturbing, romantic, political, social, controversial, islamic, mind blowing, bleak
Similar in 87%
Redacted (2007)
Plot Summary:
Redacted is a film written and directed by Brian De Palma that is a fictional drama loosely based on the Mahmudiyah killings in Iraq.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Crime, Thriller, War
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, bleak, sexy, thought provoking, mockumentary, captivating, realistic
Similar in 88%
The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
Plot Summary:
Part drama, part documentary, The Road to Guantánamo focuses on the Tipton Three, a trio of British Muslims who were held in Guantanamo Bay for two years until they were released without charge.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, realistic, intense, serious, suspenseful, tense, sincere, political, road movie
Similar in 84%
Lemon Tree (2008)
Plot Summary:
Salma Zidane, a widow, lives simply from her grove of lemon trees in the West Bank's occupied territory. The Israeli defense minister and his wife move next door; the Secret Service orders the trees removed for security. The stoic Salma seeks assistance from the Palestinian Authority (useless), Israeli army (dismissive), and a young attorney, Ziad Daud, who takes the case; this older client attracts him. While the courts deliberate, the Israelis fence her trees and prohibit her from entering the grove. As the trees wither, the defense minister's wife and, separately, an Israeli journalist, look on Salma with sympathy. In this allegory, does David stand a chance against Goliath?.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel, Germany, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, sentimental, touching, contemplative, emotional, edutainment, informative, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 77%
Death of a President (2006)
Plot Summary:
A fictional investigative documentary looks back on the "assassination" of George W. Bush and attempts to answer the question of who committed the murder. Perhaps less morbid and disturbing to watch now than during Bush's presidency, the film doesn't address Bush's policies at all, instead focusing on the way a nation assigns blame in a time of crisis.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: controversial, mockumentary, satirical, stylized, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, political, rough, bleak
Similar in 89%
Bethlehem (2013)
Plot Summary:
Bethlehem tells the story of the unlikely bond between Razi, an Israeli secret service officer, and his Palestinian informant Sanfur, the younger brother of a senior Palestinian militant. Razi recruited Sanfur when he was just 15, and developed a very close, almost fatherly relationship to him. Now 17, Sanfur tries to navigate between Razi’s demands and his loyalty to his brother, living a double life and lying to both men. Co-written by director Yuval Adler and Ali Waked—an Arab journalist who spent years in the West Bank—Bethlehem gives an unparalleled, moving and authentic portrait of the complex reality behind the news.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Israel, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, sad, thought provoking, bleak, serious, disturbing
![blank](http://wpfc.ml/b.gif)
Similar in 78%
Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey (2009)
Plot Summary:
June, 1982 - The First Lebanon War. A lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town - a simple mission that turns into a nightmare. The four members of a tank crew find themselves in a violent situation that they cannot contain. Motivated by fear and the basic instinct of survival, they desperately try not to lose themselves in the chaos of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel, France, Germany, UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, suspenseful, disturbing, sincere, touching, depressing, educational, powerful, twisted
Similar in 87%
Private (2004)
Plot Summary:
A Palestinian family is trapped inside a house commandeered by Israeli soldiers.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 922
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, tense, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
The Hamburg Cell (2004)
Plot Summary:
Ziad Jarrah, a young Lebonese man from a good family goes to Germany to attend college and starts dating a Turkish girl named Aysel. Although not very religious and accustomed to Western ways, Ziad becomes "brothers" with some fundamentalist Muslims and is slowly drawn into becoming "a Good Muslim". Mohamed Atta and others instill Ziad with a hatred of Jews and "Infidels", which leads to a desire for Jihad and martyrdom. He moves to Hamburg to study aeronautical engineering, attends an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and deceives his girlfriend and family about his involvement. He eventually attends flight school in Florida with Atta and others, waiting for and preparing for "the big wedding" (the 9/11 attack). Meanwhile, US government and law enforcement officials fail to act despite believing that a major terrorist attack is imminent, and despite noticing a number of suspicious persons involved in flight training. Written by TimeNTide.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 829
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, serious, disturbing, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Plot Summary:
Tracing the struggle of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale to gain freedom from French colonial rule as seen through the eyes of Ali from his start as a petty thief to his rise to prominence in the organisation and capture by the French in 1957. The film traces the rebels' struggle and the increasingly extreme measures taken by the French government to quell the revolt.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 64000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, Algeria
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: political, black and white, art house, bleak, realistic, disturbing, philosophical, sad, sincere, touching
Similar in 84%
The Honourable Woman (2014)
Plot Summary:
Nessa Stein, the daughter of a Zionist arms procurer who as a child witnessed his assassination. Now an adult, Nessa inherits her father's company and changes course from supplying arms to laying data cabling networks between Israel and the West Bank. Her efforts to reconcile the Israelis and Palestinians lands her an appointment to the House of Lords and creates an international political maelstrom.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, tense, suspenseful, realistic, political, entertaining, dramatic, stylized, masterpiece
Similar in 83%
Turtles Can Fly (2004)
Plot Summary:
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France, Iraq
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, emotional, atmospheric, stylized, rough, heartbreaking, political, dramatic, realistic
Similar in 90%
Unthinkable (2010)
Plot Summary:
A convert to Islam sends the U.S. government a tape showing him in three nondescript storage rooms, each of which may contain a nuclear bomb set to detonate in less than a week. Helen Brody, an FBI agent in L.A., is tasked with finding the bombs while a CIA "consultant", known as H, interrogates the suspect who has allowed himself to be caught. The suspect, whose wife and children have left him and disappeared, seems to know exactly what the interrogation will entail. Even as H ratchets up the pressure, using torture over Brody's objection, the suspect doesn't crack. Should H do the unthinkable, and will Brody acquiesce? Is any Constitutional principle worth possible loss of life?.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 91000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, disturbing, rough, psychological thriller, unusual plot structure, intense, tense, thought provoking, clever
Similar in 78%
Hunger (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike in which Republican prisoners tried to win political status. It dramatises events in the Maze prison in the six weeks prior to Sands’ death.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 73000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, Ireland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, political, sincere, depressing, art house, lyrical, rough, serious, visual
Similar in 77%
Black Book (2006)
Plot Summary:
In the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II, a Jewish singer infiltrates the regional Gestapo headquarters for the Dutch resistance.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 80000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Netherlands, Germany, UK, Belgium
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: tense, erotic, psychological, realistic, dramatic, political, suspense, breathtaking, emotional, intense
Similar in 78%
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
Plot Summary:
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex depicts the political turmoil in the period from 1967 to the bloody "Deutschen Herbst" in 1977. The movie approaches the events based on Stefan Aust's standard work on Die Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF). The story centers on the leadership of the self named anti-fascist resistance to state violence: Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Germany, France, Czech Republic
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: political, bleak, realistic, harsh, intense, rough, suspenseful, disturbing, sincere, serious
Similar in 84%
'71 (2014)
Plot Summary:
A young British soldier must find his way back to safety after his unit accidentally abandons him during a riot in the streets of Belfast.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 59000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller, War
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: suspense, serious, suspenseful, political, atmospheric, intense, rough, bleak, tense, realistic
Similar in 82%
Valkyrie (2008)
Plot Summary:
Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 256000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, Japan, UK
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: factual, bad ending, tense, suspense, suspenseful, captivating, realistic, political, contemplative, dramatic
Similar in 78%
A Most Wanted Man (2014)
Plot Summary:
A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg and becomes a person of interest for a covert government team which tracks the movements of potential terrorists.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: UK, USA, Germany
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: clever, bleak, tense, political, suspense, melancholic, thought provoking, psychological, cerebral, independent film
Similar in 90%
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May, 2011.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 315000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA, India
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: tense, suspenseful, suspense, political, realistic, harsh, talky, controversial, brutal, motivational
Similar in 88%
Body of Lies (2008)
Plot Summary:
The CIA’s hunt is on for the mastermind of a wave of terrorist attacks. Roger Ferris is the agency’s man on the ground, moving from place to place, scrambling to stay ahead of ever-shifting events. An eye in the sky – a satellite link – watches Ferris. At the other end of that real-time link is the CIA’s Ed Hoffman, strategizing events from thousands of miles away. And as Ferris nears the target, he discovers trust can be just as dangerous as it is necessary for survival.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 237000
Genere: Action, Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: clever, political, exciting, tense, realistic, political thriller, serious, suspense, entertaining, enigmatic
Similar in 89%
Rendition (2007)
Plot Summary:
When an Egyptian terrorism suspect "disappears" on a flight from Africa to Washington DC, his American wife and a CIA analyst find themselves caught up in a struggle to secure his release from a secret detention facility somewhere outside the US.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 58000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, tense, suspenseful, disturbing, dramatic, realistic, psychological thriller, sincere, sexy
Similar in 79%
Syriana (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Middle Eastern oil industry is the backdrop of this tense drama, which weaves together numerous story lines. Bennett Holiday is an American lawyer in charge of facilitating a dubious merger of oil companies, while Bryan Woodman, a Switzerland-based energy analyst, experiences both personal tragedy and opportunity during a visit with Arabian royalty. Meanwhile, veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes uncovers an assassination plot with unsettling origins.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 133000
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA, United Arab Emirates
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: political thriller, suspense, cerebral, political, tense, realistic, intense, thought provoking, serious, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)
Plot Summary:
True story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to thrilling, dramatic life. Sophie Scholl stars Julia Jentsch in a luminous performance as the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. Armed with long-buried historical records of her incarceration, director Marc Rothemund expertly re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, tense, sincere, suspenseful, emotional, political, disturbing, christian film, realistic, talky
Similar in 88%
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Plot Summary:
Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 468000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, emotional, tense, serious, rough, psychological, political, sad, factual
Similar in 86%
Munich (2005)
Plot Summary:
During the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, eleven Israeli athletes are taken hostage and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist group known as Black September. In retaliation, the Israeli government recruits a group of Mossad agents to track down and execute those responsible for the attack.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 236000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA, Canada, France
Duration: 164 min
Plot tags: political, suspenseful, intense, tense, suspense, brutal, rough, political thriller, bleak, realistic