Best movies like A Long Goodbye
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A single woman has put all her efforts into raising her only son, Sasha. When Sasha grows up to become a teenager, she thinks that she can have some time for herself, so she responds to the courtship of Nikolai Sergeyevich. One summer, Sasha goes to visit his real father in Novosibirsk, on the other side of the country. When he returns, his mother notices that Sasha has changed. She secretly reads a letter sent to Sasha from his father and finds out that Sasha doesn’t want to live with her any longer. She doesn’t have enough wisdom to understand this desire on someone else’s part. Sasha is shown to have a more delicate and understanding nature than his mother, for when he realizes that she is suffering because of his wish to leave, even though he is tired of her nagging, he decides to stay.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 948
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like A Long Goodbye (1971):
Similar in 76%
A Driver for Vera (2004)
Plot Summary:
The film is set during 1962 in Sevastopol, Crimea, then a secret Navy Base in the Soviet Union. General Serov hires Viktor, a cadet from the Kremlin Guard to work as his private chauffeur. In a jet-black "ZIM" limo, Viktor is chauffeuring the General's disabled daughter Vera. Viktor is oblivious to the hidden agenda of the KGB agent Saveliev, who manipulates everyone behind the scenes in the old rivalry between the Army and KGB.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia, Ukraine
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, brutal, dramatic
Similar in 84%
Without Witness (1983)
Plot Summary:
In visiting his ex-wife’s apartment a man learns that she plans to remarry a scientist named Valentin Shlyakhov. In his past, the man wrote a scathing letter about Shlyakhov which greatly impacted his career. Fearing that this information will come to light when his ex-wife marries Shlyakhov, the man insists that the wedding be called off. What follows is an intimate portrayal of the relationship between a man and a woman (who are never named), whose history as husband and wife plays out during a heated conversation.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 614
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: surprise ending, minimal cast
Similar in 75%
Melodies of a White Night (1977)
Plot Summary:
A Russian composer and Japanese pianist enter a relationship strained by their geographic and cultural boundaries.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan, Soviet Union
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Lenin in Paris (1981)
Plot Summary:
1910 lernen sich Lenin und Inès Armand in Paris kennen. Inès Armand war dorthin aus der Verbannung (Archangelsk) geflohen und gründete mit Lenin die Parteischule von Longjumeau. In Jutkevitchs Film bildet die fiktive Liebesgeschichte zwischen Inès Armand und dem jungen Revolutionär Trofimoff den Leitfaden.... Nach Marina Vlady ("Sujet für eine Kurzgeschichte") war Claude Jade der zweite französische Star Jutkvitchs. Nach Claude Jade spielte Dominique Sanda die Inès Armand in dem TV-Film "Der Zug" von Damiano Damiani.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 151
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Mallboy (2000)
Plot Summary:
A boy climbs an unsteady path to adulthood under difficult circumstances in this drama from Australia. Shaun (Kane McNay) is a teenager growing up in a run-down suburb of Melbourne. His father Sam (Brett Swain) is in prison, while his mother Jenny (Nell Feeney) is too lost in her problems with alcohol to provide much guidance for her children. Left to his own devices, Shaun commits petty theft, smokes pot, and deals drugs to his friends as they hang out at the nearby shopping mall. Shaun seems unable to reach out to anyone, not even his girlfriend (Lauren Hawker) or Darren (Brett Tucker), a social worker eager to help him. When his father is released from prison and brings his mistress to the "Welcome Home" party Jenny throws for him, Shaun comes to realize that if he is ever to resolve his problems, he will have to do it without the help of his family. Mallboy marked the feature film debut for writer/director Vincent Giarrusso.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 137
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: cult film
Similar in 83%
One Hundred Days After Childhood (1975)
Plot Summary:
A group of Russian teenagers spend their summer at a summer camp. Mitia falls in love and gets so occupied with his own problems that he forgets about everything else.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 991
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: existential
Similar in 77%
Byelorussia Station (1971)
Plot Summary:
The heroes of the movie last seen each other on the Belarusian railway station in the summer of 1945. A quarter-century, they meet at the funeral of comrade.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, touching, disturbing, smart
Similar in 79%
Private Life (1982)
Plot Summary:
Mikhail Ulyanov is the Bergmanesque protagonist of the Russian Private Life. A government-appointed factory executive, Ulyanov is reduced to quivering confusion when he is dismissed. Recovering from this blow, he decides to review and realign his life. In so doing, he discovers that there's plenty left in the world to make life worth living. Private Life was nominated for the "best foreign picture" Academy Award in 1983.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 253
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
The Red Snowball Tree (1974)
Plot Summary:
A former thief is released from a prison. He tries to start a new life with his penfriend - a good village woman, but his past doesn't let him go.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: ironic, sentimental, thought provoking, touching, disturbing, sad, cynical
Similar in 76%
Monologue (1973)
Plot Summary:
Professor Sretenski is a scientist and director of a research center in Russia. He is separated from his wife and lives alone. His daughter, who lives with the mother, comes to his home and stays with him for a period, leaving her daughter with him. He raises his granddaughter, feeling a great affection for her.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Night Over Chile (1977)
Plot Summary:
A Soviet docudrama chronicling the events surrounding the military coup which toppled the leftists Chilean government of Salvador Allende. This film confines its efforts to the main events themselves and is based on interviews with eyewitnesses, including many who resisted the takeover.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Farewell (1983)
Plot Summary:
Matyora is a small village on a beautiful island with the same name. The existence of the village is threatened with flooding by the construction of a dam. This is the story of the inhabitants of Matyora and their farewell to their homeland.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 743
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 81%
Wings (1966)
Plot Summary:
Maya Bulgakova gives a marvelous performance as a once heroic Russian fighter pilot now living a quiet, disappointingly ordinary life as a school principal.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: spiritual, art house, heartfelt, psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Vassa (1983)
Plot Summary:
A screen adaptation of the second version of A. M. Gorky’s play “Vassa Zheleznova”. In this family children were taught from the early years to put accent on the word “my”: my ship, my house, my factory… Here they counted the money earned by other people’s labour and could lose a fortune overnight playing cards; here they indulged in utter debauchery and were sneaking on each other; they prayed and engaged in shady dealings in the name of God… Vassa had it all: money, power, clout, brains and grip. And only one thing she did not have – the future, for the year 1917 was drawing nearer and the age of the Zheleznovs and the Khrapovs was coming to an end.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 301
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
100 Days Before the Command (1991)
Plot Summary:
Visually astonishing, erotically charged and emotionally jarring. '100 Days Before the Command' is Hussein Erkenov's courageous and stinging indictment of communism. Five young Red Army recruits struggle for survival against the merciless violence that surrounds them on a daily basis. Their only means of saving their dignity is by preserving the humanity and compassion they share for each other.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 465
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Jinn (2018)
Plot Summary:
Summer is a carefree teenage girl whose world is turned upside down when her mother abruptly converts to Islam and becomes a different person. At first resistant to the faith, she begins to reevaluate her identity after becoming attracted to a Muslim classmate, crossing the thin line between physical desire and piety.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 442
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, captivating, contemplative, indie film
Similar in 83%
The First Teacher (1965)
Plot Summary:
Dyuishen is assigned to the mountainous Kirghiz region of Central Asia by the Young Communist League after he is discharged from the Red Army. It is 1923 and the Civil war has ended. The former soldier becomes a teacher, bringing the Leninist doctrine to the remote Moslem area where elders did not allow children to go to school. He falls in love with one of his students, but the young woman is sold by her father to a wealthy chieftain. When the school is burned down, the majestic poplar trees that are a source of local pride are cut down to rebuild the new structure.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 601
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 76%
King Lear (1970)
Plot Summary:
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: spiritual, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 79%
Flights in Dreams and in Reality (1983)
Plot Summary:
On the eve of his fortieth anniversary Sergei Makarov looks back at his life and learns that he has achieved nothing. He was not able to be happy and to bring happiness to the closest people in his life, neither to his long-suffering wife nor young mistress nor friends nor work... It is about the men who never grew up and could not find themselves in the time of stagnation – gifted, charming, but infantile and lost, they never were able to realize themselves.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
You and Me (1971)
Plot Summary:
A neurosurgeon returns back to the USSR from Sweden and has to deal with rejection - both at work and at home.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
War and Peace: Part II (1965)
Plot Summary:
In the end of 1809, Natasha attends her first ball. Andrei falls in love with her and intends to marry her, but her father demands they wait. The prince travels abroad, and Natasha desperately longs for him. But she then meets Anatol Kuragin and forgets of Andrei. At the last minute, she regrets and abandons her plans to elope with Anatol. Bolkonsky hears of this and declares their betrothal is over. Pierre, trying to calm her down, suddenly announces he loves her.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: historical drama, period drama
Similar in 85%
My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985)
Plot Summary:
Russian provincial town in the middle of the 1930s Stalin's Great Purge. Ivan Lapshin, the head of the local police, does what he has to do. And he does it well.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, spiritual, aesthetic
Similar in 77%
The Lonely Voice of Man (1987)
Plot Summary:
The film is Sokurov's feature film debut and is based on the novel The River Potudan by Andrei Platonov. It's a story about the lives of people in the Russian countryside in the beginning of the 20th century. The film was completed in 1979 as a graduation film, but was banned by the Soviet state and didn't premiere until 1987.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 716
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: poetic, spiritual, contemplative, avant garde
Similar in 77%
The Second Circle (1990)
Plot Summary:
A man tries to come to terms with his father's death and to deal with the mundane details of his burial in a society cut off from spirituality.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 767
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: spiritual, avant garde
Similar in 75%
The Asthenic Syndrome (1989)
Plot Summary:
In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher of epicly indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 85%
The Wishing Tree (1976)
Plot Summary:
This poetic parable is part of Tenghiz Abuladze’s cinematic triptych: “The Supplication” – “The Wishing Tree” – “Repentance”. The place is Georgia at the beginning of the 20th century. That’s how director Tenghiz Abuladze described his film: “’The Wishing Tree’ is a film about the people lit up by a dream. Every character has its own ideal. One is worshipping the skies, another the earth, some idolize the body, others elevate the spirit. Some destroy the body, others the soul…” Marita, the film’s heroine, arrived here to live with her aunt. She meets a poor young lad, Gedia, and falls in love with him. But her relatives are determined to marry the girl off to a local rich man….
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
War and Peace: Part IV (1967)
Plot Summary:
As Moscow is set ablaze by the retreating Russians, the Rostovs flee their estate, taking wounded soldiers with them, and unbeknownst to them, also Andrei. Pierre, dressed as a peasant, tries to assassinate Napoleon but is taken prisoner. As the French are forced to retreat, he is marched for months with the Grande Armée, until being freed by a raiding party. The French are defeated by Kutuzov in the Battle of Krasnoi. Andrei is recognized and is brought to his estate. He forgives Natasha on his deathbed. She reunites with Pierre and they marry as Moscow is being rebuilt.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 89%
The Criminal Shall Not Escape (1965)
Plot Summary:
Mukhtar comes to live and work at the police kennels through rather unusual circumstances. Together with his handler, Glazychev, Mukhtar helps to solve large and small crimes.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 622
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Suzaku (1997)
Plot Summary:
Depicts the life of a family in a remote Japanese timber village. Family head Tahara Kozo lives with his mother Sachiko, wife Yasuyo, nephew Eisuke and young daughter Michiru. Economic recession and failed development plans cause tragedy in the family.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, independent film, aesthetic
Similar in 83%
The Steamroller and the Violin (1961)
Plot Summary:
Seven year old Sasha practices violin every day to satisfy the ambition of his parents. Already withdrawn as a result of his routines, Sasha quickly regains confidence when he accidentally meets and befriends worker Sergei, who works on a steamroller in their upscale Moscow neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: art house, serious, realistic, spiritual, uplifting, touching, feel good, stylized, slow cinema, weird