Best movies like Absent Without Leave
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
In 1942 Wellington, Daisy Edwards, 16 and pregnant, relies totally on her just-wed husband, Ed, who is little older than she. Ed is suddenly drafted into the army and is to be sent overseas to battle while Daisy is sent to her father in Auckland. When Ed's leave is cancelled at the last minute he takes the dangerous decision to go absent without leave to be with Daisy on her journey home. As a deserter, Ed is hunted, captured and imprisoned. Life inside is bad enought without the worry of what is going on outside. The film is based upon a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 70
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: New Zealand, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film
Best tv shows and movies like Absent Without Leave (1992):
Similar in 86%
Bread & Roses (1993)
Plot Summary:
Based upon the life of activist and trade unionist (and later MP) Sonja Davies. The film covers her life up to 1956, when, at age 33, she was elected to the Nelson Hospital Board. During this period she develops strong socialist beliefs, marries and divorces, at age 17 trains as a nurse, has a romance (and a child) with an American marine who is killed in WWII action. She battles tuberculosis and marries a former boyfriend when he returns from the war. She becomes part of a women's ill-fated campaign to save the Nelson railway line from closure and begins to be elected to political bodies.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 57
Genere: Adventure, Biography, Drama, War
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
When Heroes Die (1970)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of American commandos assigned to kidnap General Rommel. But the soldiers are caught by the Germans who decide to use their plan against them. Replacing the American soldiers with German soldiers, and with the help of a fake "kidnapped" Rommel, they plan to kill General Eisenhower.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 92
Genere: Romance, War
Country: Spain, Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: macaroni combat
Similar in 89%
The Inheritance (1980)
Plot Summary:
In this standard Hungarian drama, the effects of sterility and jealousy on a marriage are played out against a backdrop of World War II and the rising Nazi persecution of Jews. Director Marta Meszaros usually focuses on issues like pregnancy, middle-age, and other topics without questioning the broader picture. In this drama, Sylvia (Lili Monori) cannot have children, and she convinces married Jewish woman Irene (Isabelle Huppert) to have a child and then give the child to her for adoption. The plan works but it also backfires. The way in which the child was adopted causes friction between Sylvia and her husband, and to make matters worse, Sylvia's husband falls in love with Irene. A crisis looms when he asks his jealous wife to give Irene her identity papers because Jews are being deported and Irene will die without their help.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 390
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Hungary
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Secret of Blood Island (1965)
Plot Summary:
Based on the true story of a British secret agent, shot down over Malaya near to a Allied POW forced labour camp. There she is hidden, disguised as a youthful prisoner, until her escape can be effected. The costs of keeping her identity secret fall on all the POW's as the Japanese embark on a policy of ruthless terror to extract her and the focus shifts to the conflicts of the group' s collective concerns against the necessities of personal survival.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: grindhouse
Similar in 80%
Fall of the Eagles (1989)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Sirius (1975)
Plot Summary:
In SIRIUS, a young boy whose most cherished companion is his loyal German shepherd devises his own form of resistance when the Nazis arrest his father, then order the confiscation of local canines, including his pet, to be retrained as attack dogs against the rebellious populace.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 53
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Cavern (1964)
Plot Summary:
Adventure drama during WW2 in Italy where a mixed group of people get trapped inside a cave after a bomb raid. But can they co-operate? And will they survive?.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 313
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: Italy, West Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Sour Grape (1974)
Plot Summary:
Two years after receiving news of his father’s death in WWII a young boy continues to wait for trains from the front. The boy lives with his crippled uncle rather than with his mother, who has remarried and has another child. Then one day the father returns.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 89
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Black Birds (1967)
Plot Summary:
WW2 story about group of prisoners who are trying to escape the death camp, run by local pro-Nazi militia.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 77
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
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 79%
The Soldier and the Elephant (1978)
Plot Summary:
Soldier Armenak is given an extraordinary task: to transport an elephant from Germany to the Yerevan Zoo.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 102
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Glory Sky (1962)
Plot Summary:
Two stories set in northern Greece during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 256
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Greece
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
I'm Alive and I Love You (1998)
Plot Summary:
Drama - During World War II, a woman aboard a railroad car full of deportees slips French railway worker Julien (Jérôme Deschamps) a note with an address and a simple message: "I am alive, and I love you," and he decides to track down the intended recipients. When he finds the woman's Jewish family, he is inspired to do what he can to protect them from the Nazi atrocities. This compelling drama from director Roger Kahane co-stars Dorian Lambert. - Jérôme Deschamps, Dorian Lambert, Agnès Soral.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Little Alexander (1981)
Plot Summary:
May of 1945. Soviet soldiers conducting an operation to rescue the children in a small town in the territory of Germany.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 114
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Soviet Union, East Germany
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Faneflukt (1975)
Plot Summary:
1941, Norway. The young kitchen maid Liv and the German officer Franz meet in the military camp where Liv works. They develop a friendship and decides to flee to Sweden.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 43
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Norway
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
From Hell to Victory (1979)
Plot Summary:
From Hell To Victory follows the relationship of six friends throughout the Second World War. They meet in a cafe in Paris on 24th August 1939 and agree to meet there on the same day every year. The war however takes them on their own individual path's and keeping their friendship throughout proves complicated.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 479
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France, Spain
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: macaroni combat, spectacular
Similar in 86%
Trial on the Road (1986)
Plot Summary:
A Russian POW joins the partisan guerrillas and proves his loyalty fighting the Nazis.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political, black and white
Similar in 85%
Snow and Fire (1991)
Plot Summary:
While the Nazis occupied most of France, Jacques (Vincent Perez) has been active in the liberation underground. Now that the Allies have freed a significant portion of their country from German control, he and his buddy Michel (Matthieu Roze) can join the Free French army and fight with them to help bring about the downfall of the German empire. Both of them are quite young men, and their first love turns out to be the same woman, a lovely nurse named Christiane (Geraldine Pailhas). Michel woos her first, and she becomes pregnant by him. However, she is much more interested in Jacques, even though she is considering marrying an American solely for practical reasons.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
Bridge to the Sun (1961)
Plot Summary:
Tells the true story of Gwen Terasaki, who falls in love with, then marries a Japanese diplomat. When war breaks out they find animosity and trouble from both sides.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 866
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 76%
Forbidden (1984)
Plot Summary:
In Berlin in the early 1940s, romance is forbidden between the young countess who is studying veterinary medicine and a young man she meets at the home of a former professor. But they fall in love. She gets involved in helping Jews escape from the Nazis. All get out of Berlin except the young man. There is a room in her apartment where he can't be seen through the windows and a chest converted into a sofa where she and her brothers played hide-and-seek as children. This real life hide-and-seek game has high stakes. The movie is said to be based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: West Germany, UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 87%
The Boys from St. Petri (1991)
Plot Summary:
A group of school-mates form a resistance group in nazi-occupied Denmark.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Habermann (2010)
Plot Summary:
A story set in a small village in Sudetenland between 1937 and 1945. "Habermann" is based on true events.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, brutal, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, complex
Similar in 90%
Come See the Paradise (1990)
Plot Summary:
Come See The Paradise is a deeply touching love story set against the backdrop of a dramatic and controversial period in American history, It follows the romance and eventual marriage of Jack McGurn (Dennis Quad), a hot blooded Irish American, and a beautiful Japanese American Lily Dawanura (Tamlyn Tomita), at the outset of World War II. The clash of cultures, at once painful for the two lovers, becomes insurmountable after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Lily and the Kawamuras are relocated To a bleak, outdoor internment camp in California, Jack is drafted into the Army, powerless to help the woman he loves abandoning all hope of ever winning her family's approval.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying, sentimental, romantic, clever
Similar in 85%
The Burmese Harp (1985)
Plot Summary:
In the War's closing days, when a conscience-driven Japanese soldier fails to get his countrymen to surrender to overwhelming force, he adopts the lifestyle of a Buddhist monk.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 190
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: odd
Similar in 76%
Everlasting Glory (1976)
Plot Summary:
A Chinese national policy film.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 41
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Land Girls (1998)
Plot Summary:
During World War II, the organisation "The Women's Land Army" recruited women to work on British farms while the men were off to war. Three such "land girls" of different social backgrounds - quiet Stella, young hairdresser Prue, and Cambridge graduate Ag - become best friends in spite of their different backgrounds.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: period piece, sentimental, touching, realistic, retro, anamorphic, historical drama, sincere, serious, crying
Similar in 86%
Zelary (2003)
Plot Summary:
A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, contemplative, epic, mysterious, serious, sentimental, romantic
Similar in 87%
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 81%
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 79%
The Long Day's Dying (1968)
Plot Summary:
Three British soldiers and their German captive trek through the European countryside.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 527
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, cult film