Best movies like 1939
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
When the war breaks out, Annika lives with her parents in Värmland, close to the border to Norway. Her cousin Harald is a dealer in the black market but has to escape from the police to Norway. Annika moves to Stockholm and gets a job as a waitress. She meets the happy-go-lucky Berit and together they have a wonderful time. She also meets a young man, Bengt, whom she marries. But almost immediately she discovers that her husband is different from the man who was courting her. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 929
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Sweden
Duration: 193 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like 1939 (1989):
Similar in 90%
The Night Watch (2011)
Plot Summary:
Set against the turbulent backdrop of London in the 1940s, this adaptation of Sarah Waters' bestselling novel, The Night Watch, follows four young Londoners inextricably linked by their wartime experiences. In a time when the barriers of sexual morality and social convention have been broken down, Kay, Helen, Viv and Duncan enjoy a freedom never experienced before. Moving back in time through the 1940s into the maelstrom of the Blitz, the lives, loves and losses of these four central characters are unravelled. For them, the post-war victory is bittersweet, for it returns them to the margins of society, from which they hoped they had been liberated. In order to build their future they must each make peace with their past.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, stylized, deep, realistic, sexual, sexy, queer cinema
Similar in 78%
Giovanna's Father (2008)
Plot Summary:
Bologna 1938 - Michele Casali (Silvio Orlando) is living a desperate situation: Giovanna (Alba Rohrwacher), his only child, a teenager, has killed out of jealousy his classmate and best friend. Within the middle-class environment in which the crime has ocurred, the story provokes strong emotion and disbelief. Avoiding jail, she is determined to be mentally disturbed and therefore locked up in a psychiatric hospital in Reggio Emilia where she remains until the age of 24 years (1945). During this period of almost total isolation, the only person who takes care of her is the father who moves from Bologna specifically, where he taught art in high school Galvani, to Reggio.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, emotional, realistic, sincere, captivating, independent film, serious, entertaining
Similar in 76%
Postcard (2010)
Plot Summary:
Toward the end of World War II, middle-aged soldier Keita is entrusted with a postcard from a comrade who is sure he will die in battle. After the war ends, Keita visits his comrade's wife Yuko and bears witness to the tragic life she has led. This year's Oscar entry from Japan finds SHINDO in top form and his 49th and reportedly last film as fresh and poignant as ever. (from imdb).
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 264
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 77%
Spring 1941 (2007)
Plot Summary:
After Germany invades Poland and the Nazis order the confinement of all local Jews in the ghetto, medical doctor Artur Planck (Joseph Fiennes) manages to flee with his family, seeking refuge at the farm of Emilia (Kelly Harrison), their former grocer. With the Planck family hiding in her attic, Emilia finds her feelings for the physician growing stronger than she wants, or can control -- despite the dangers of the situation.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 789
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Israel
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 75%
The Poet (2007)
Plot Summary:
At the dawn of World War 2, a Rabbi's daughter and a disenchanted German soldier fall in love and are separated by the war. They struggle on a perilous journey to find one another.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, disturbing, serious, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 89%
November Moon (1985)
Plot Summary:
"November Moon" is a timeless and compelling love story set against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied France. On the brink of war and in the face of escalating anti-Jewish activity, November has fled her native Germany for the relative safety of Paris. There, she meets and falls in love with Ferial, a fiercely patriotic young French woman. Amid a series of life-changing wartime events, they are challenged by their extraordinary circumstances to realize their truest selves and to live - or die - by those choices.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 215
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
Forever Nevermore (2014)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic novel that presents the submission in a relationship between an Italian settler and a Brazilian woman in 1932. Luiza is a generation of women who were sent to convents to be educated, many of the high cost of permanency option ran out and became nuns ... Luiza was about to be forced to make this decision when it was delivered to marry with Domingos, who she would learn to live and love. For two years she suffer mistreatment and abuse from her husband. Living in a place away virtually inaccessible, she could not call for help. Her solitude was her most frequent company until they receive a visit from an official warning about the Constitutional Revolution, saying the Paulists approached that region to combat invading Minas Gerais, causing a reversal of their.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Brazil
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 80%
Pastorale 1943 (1978)
Plot Summary:
In a Dutch village during the German occupation, a small group of badly organized resistance fighters attempt to assassinate a collaborator.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 477
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, factual, rough, disturbing, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 76%
The Skin (1981)
Plot Summary:
Naples, year 1943, in the middle of World War II. The city has just be liberated by American troops in an era in which nobody knows just when the war or where begins the peace; winners and losers face.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: controversial, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, masterpiece
Similar in 80%
A Secret (2007)
Plot Summary:
In 1953, a sensitive French boy finds out from a neighbor that his family's Jewish. François Grimbert becomes a physician, and gradually peels the layers of his buried family history which resulted in his difficult upbringing, raised as Catholic by his "Aryan" appearing parents. His athletic father labored to stamp out stereotypical Jewish characteristics he perceived in his son, to keep the family's many secrets, as most relatives fought in World War II, and later were hauled off to labor and death camps by the Gestapo.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, exciting, captivating, suspenseful, offbeat, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Freedom (2009)
Plot Summary:
A Gypsy family travels the French roads during the Second World War, followed by Little Claude, a young boy seeking a new family after his parents "left and never returned". Upon reaching a town where they traditionally stop for a few months and work in vineyards, they learn that a new law forbids them from being nomadic. Theodore, the town's mayor, and Miss Lundi, the schoolteacher, protect and help the Gypsies. Despite this, They are arrested and placed in an internment camp. Theodore manages to rescue them and gives them a piece of property where they must settle. But the Gypsies' deeply ingrained thirst for freedom makes this sedentary lifestyle difficult to bear. After Theodore and Miss Lundi are arrested for resistance, the Gypsies decide they must get back on the move in order to remain free.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, captivating, emotional, realistic, serious, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Adam Resurrected (2008)
Plot Summary:
Before the war, in Berlin, Adam was an entertainer- cabaret impresario, magician, musician-loved by all until he finds himself in a concentration camp, confronted by Commandant Klein. Adam survives the camp by becoming the Klein's "dog", entertaining him while his wife and daughter are sent off to die. "Adam Resurrected" is the story of a man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Israel, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, emotional, gloomy, entertaining, period drama
Similar in 83%
Dirty Heroes (1967)
Plot Summary:
Set near the end of World War II in the Netherlands, Dirty Heroes concerns a group of ex-convicts recruited into the U.S. Army to recover Dutch jewels originally stolen by the Nazis as well as confiscated Allied plans.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: exciting, grindhouse, macaroni combat, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 83%
Yanks (1979)
Plot Summary:
During WWII, the United States set up army bases in Great Britain as part of the war effort. Against their proper sensibilities, many of the Brits don't much like the brash Yanks, especially when it comes to the G.I.s making advances on the lonely British girls. One relationship that develops is between married John, an Army Captain, and the aristocratic Helen, whose naval husband is away at war. Helen loves her husband, but Helen and John are looking for some comfort during the difficult times.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA, West Germany
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: serious, touching, emotional, realistic, historical drama
Similar in 81%
Sword of Honour (2001)
Plot Summary:
Guy Crouchback joins the war effort during World War 2, an idealistic quest to join the forces of good in the fight against evil. But his efforts is not rewarded, he never has any chance to join any real fighting, circumstances always prevent it. Instead he finds himself in the middle of an army full of cowards, incompetents and a few outright evil men. They of course reap the fortunes of war, promotions and fame, but never Crouchback. His war is just an endless list of transfers and an hopeless but noble quest for righteousness.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 918
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 208 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, captivating, touching, semi autobiographical, gloomy
Similar in 80%
Unfair Competition (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two linen fabric dealers with their shops close to one another, battle against each other for more and more costumers. Umberto constantly loses clients because of the tough competition brought by Leone, who offers the best prices in the neighborhood. But they leave differences aside when the rise of Fascism places Anti-Semitic politics which rigidly control business like the one conducted by the Jewish Leone, and those new regulations are viewed by Umberto as completely unfair. The long rivalry soon becomes a great friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, bleak, captivating, realistic, disturbing, historical drama
Similar in 88%
A Day in October (1991)
Plot Summary:
During the month of October 1943, the Danish resistance movement and just plain ordinary citizens joined together in staging a mass exodus by fishing boats to neutral Sweden of their Jewish countrymen, practically on the eve of the Nazi's planned round-up and delivery to concentration camps of all Jews. Story is told from the point of view of one Jewish family.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 323
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Denmark
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: independent film, touching, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, factual
Similar in 82%
A Soldier's Tale (1989)
Plot Summary:
In the days following the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, a British platoon leader named Saul (Gabriel Byrne) and his corporal (Paul Wyett) reach an isolated farmhouse and encounter a beautiful French girl named Belle (Marianne Basler). Love blooms between Saul and Belle, but the grim realities of war catch up with them when a French Resistance trio claims that Belle is a Nazi collaborator. Judge Reinhold appears briefly as the token Yank.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 263
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, serious, emotional
Similar in 75%
For the Moment (1993)
Plot Summary:
This Canadian film presents and old-fashioned war time romance. It is set during 1942 in Manitoba and traces the doomed affair between a young farmer's wife (Christianne Hirt) whose husband is fighting abroad and a dashing Australian pilot (Russell Crowe). The pilot has come to train in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of Canada. When the pilot, Lachlan, is not training, he is surreptitiously wooing Lill, the farmer's wife. At the other end of town, Betsy (Wanda Cannon) who supports her two kids by bootlegging, charges for her services. She gets involved with Zeek (Scott Kraft), an American flight instructor.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 977
Genere: Romance, War, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, romantic, sentimental, serious, independent film, sexy, enigmatic, feel good, breathtaking, unusual plot structure
Similar in 90%
Home Fires (2015)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of inspirational women in a rural Cheshire community with the shadow of World War II casting a dark cloud over their lives. As the conflict takes hold and separates the women from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, the characters find themselves under increasing and extraordinary pressures in a rapidly fragmenting world. By banding together as the Great Paxford Women’s Institute, they help maintain the nation’s fabric in its darkest hour, and discover inner resources that will change their lives forever.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, serious, psychological, historical drama, touching, period piece, costume drama, period drama
Similar in 88%
The Rotterdam Bombing (2012)
Plot Summary:
A thrilling love story between the young boxer Vincent and the German Eva, who soon has to marry with the middle-aged Dirk to save her family. While the war starts in the Netherlands their impossible love inflames. May 14, 1940, the day that the centre of Rotterdam is bombed and the young lovers lose sight of each other.
IMDB Rating: 4.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, emotional, suspenseful, captivating
Similar in 90%
Stones for the Rampart (2014)
Plot Summary:
To be defeated and not be - a victory. This is the motto that life is guided by three young friends: Alek, Sophy and Rudy. Scouts, high school graduates high school in Warsaw drifting ambitious plans for the future broken through September 1939. Entering adulthood in a very dramatic times, which puts them a choice - to survive at any cost, or to join the fighting for a free homeland, risking everything. The boys brought up in patriotic homes, shaped by the ideals of scouting, they decide to fight. They become soldiers, and although every scrape with death, they can live a full life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil (1985)
Plot Summary:
The two-part TV movie Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil crystallizes that evil by concentrating on two Berlin brothers. In 1931, Helmut Hoffman (Bill Nighy) a brilliant student and self-styled opportunist, joins Hitler's SS. At the same time, his younger brother Karl (John Shea), a top athlete and idealist, becomes a chauffeur for the "S.A." (storm troopers).
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 857
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 89%
Attack on Leningrad (2009)
Plot Summary:
When in 1941 Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, their troops quickly besieged Leningrad. Foreign journalists are evacuated but one of them, Kate Davies, is presumed dead and misses the plane. Alone in the city she is helped by Nina Tsvetnova a young and idealist police officer and together they will fight for their own survival and the survival of the people in the besieged Leningrad. Written by Marcio Eduardo.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
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 84%
Fires on the Plain (2014)
Plot Summary:
In the final days of World War II, occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines face resistance from the local population and the American offensive. The dwindling Japanese soldiers attempt to survive through the horrors of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 831
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, realistic, captivating, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 75%
Rosenstrasse (2003)
Plot Summary:
When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 80%
In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1997)
Plot Summary:
In the Warsau Ghetto of 1943, one man's struggle to keep his family together leads him to the ultimate crisis of faith, and one final chance at redemption. Written by legendary 'Twilight Zone' creator, Rod Sterling.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 352
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 81%
My Best Enemy (2011)
Plot Summary:
Poland 1943: An unlikely pair - a concentration camp prisoner and a captain in Hitler's notorious SS - free themselves from the wreckage of a crashed SS airplane. The two appear to be strangely familiar with each other and the extent of their extraordinary relationship is thrillingly revealed.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Austria, Luxembourg
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, tense, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 87%
Above and Beyond (2006)
Plot Summary:
True Story about the Atlantic Ferry Operation during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 227
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 240 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, emotional, realistic