Best movies like At Full Gallop
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Zanussi has described the film as his most autobiographical work. A young boy in post-World War II, Communist-dominated Poland, whose father's decision to remain in Britain after the war has made his family politically-suspect with the local Party authorities, is sent by his mother to stay with an "aunt" (in reality an old family friend) in Warsaw.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like At Full Gallop (1996):
Similar in 83%
Hostage (2014)
Plot Summary:
Tragicomic family film about the world of children heroes - particularly the son of a local communist officer and his friend, a little hostage of the regime, whose parents emigrated to the West, few years before "Prague Spring" and the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Camaraderie, the first big discoveries of love, enemy gang fights and naive ideas are confronted with the reality of adult's world. The film is about the first contacts with bizarre and absurd reality of relationships and attitudes of adults, politics, emigration, but also betrayal and death and about how all those things form and transform the lives of small boys, who are forced to grow up too quickly.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 170
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
The House of Fools (1985)
Plot Summary:
The feature film debut of director Marek Koterski. Thirty-year-old Adaś Miauczyński visits his parents, which ends with his nervous breakdown.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 478
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
The Photograph (1986)
Plot Summary:
A young Greek man goes to Paris seeking help from a solitary and almost misanthropic distant relative who works as a furrier. With him, he takes nothing from his homeland but a photograph of a woman that he finds on the pavement. A misunderstanding regarding the photograph sets off a series of dramatic misunderstandings which trap him in a vicious circle of lies and fantasies.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 411
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Greece
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Behind The Wall (1971)
Plot Summary:
Jan is a young assistant professor in chemistry and a workaholic, Anna is an unsuccessful science writer who turns to Jan for advice and human compassion, but Jan, absorbed with his career, remains immune to Anna's clumsy efforts to pierce his defenses.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 150
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 56 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Constant Factor (1980)
Plot Summary:
The main character in this effective, convincing drama is Witold (Tadeusz Bradecki) who is high in what later would be termed the "emotional quotient" or the ability to bounce back from adverse, tragic circumstances. Witold has been nursing both his sick mother and a deeply rooted desire to climb the Himalayas. His father had died climbing in those mountains, and they have an allure for Witold as well. But his dreams begin to crumble when his mother succumbs to her illness and trouble brews at work. The situation becomes bad enough to scramble Witold's life with no indication of future improvement.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: intellectual
Similar in 81%
Spiral (1978)
Plot Summary:
In what appears to be an inexplicable incident, a man drives up to a resort hotel in midwinter, throws away his car keys, enters, and proceeds to agitate everyone he meets with his urgency -- a message he is somehow unable to communicate. Then he leaves, disappearing in the snow. Later, the people he appeared to have upset have gathered to search for him and find him frostbitten, but alive. Visiting him at the sanatorium to which he has been taken, they gradually discover what was really happening.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: intellectual
Similar in 75%
Sauna (1992)
Plot Summary:
A film based on a simple situation: several men talk in the sauna.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Weekend Stories: A Woman's Business (1996)
Plot Summary:
A woman whose passport was denied under the previous Communist regime by a vindictive party secretary is given a chance to confront the woman and take revenge.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 53
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 56 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Fever (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1905, in a time of feverish revolutionary underground activity in Poland partitioned between three neighbours. All the characters are committed anarchists. The bomb maker puts an invention together to place it at the disposal of young inexperienced terrorists fighting against Tsarist oppression. The story follows the passing of this bomb from anarchist to anarchist as several attempts are made on the life of Tsarist governor general, until, at the end, it is effectively and harmlessly defused by a bomb expert. The presence of the bomb has a destroying effect on all of the Polish revolutionaries, they either die or breakdown.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 279
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The Mother of Kings (1987)
Plot Summary:
Made in 1982, shelved for five years. Story opens with Lucja Krol's husband under the tram. She gives birth to her fourth son on the floor of their new apartment. Neighbor Wiktor, a communist intellectual, befriends the poverty-stricken family but is soon arrested and sent to jail. During the war Lucja narrowly escapes a Nazi roundup at the black market. Her sons hold ardent Communist meetings in their apartment, with her blessing. Lucja works hard, but without complaint. After the war, Klemens is inexplicably arrested, accused by the new regime of being a collaborator. Wiktor, now a high-ranking party member, trying to defend him, himself falls into disgrace. Klemens is tortured to "confess" and dies in jail, a Communist to the end. Lucja is never told about his fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 303
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: intellectual, pre war
Similar in 75%
Escape from the 'Liberty' Cinema (1990)
Plot Summary:
The film is set just before Poland's communist regime came to an end, and the central character is a provincial censor (Janusz Gajos), a tired, sloppy, lonely man, whose wife has long since left him. For him, censorship is both an art and a game, but he does not enjoy it. During a screening of a sentimental Polish melodrama called "Daybreak" at the Liberty cinema across the road from the censor's office, the actors start to rebel and refuse to speak their lines. There is anarchy and when the censor is unable to control the situation, senior party officials are called in. Eventually a film critic notes that the situation reminds of "The Purple Rose of Cairo" by Woody Allen and brings a reel of the film to demonstrate. The officials watch the film with amusement until another mix-up occurs: the second projector is turned on accidentally and superimposes "Daybreak" over "Purple Rose".
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, intellectual
Similar in 88%
Kontrakt (1980)
Plot Summary:
Bearing traces of the old Anton Chekhov play The Wedding, The Contract is set during an "arranged" ceremony. The bride and groom barely know each other, but this matters not at all to their tradition-bound families. At the last minute, the bride balks. Only slightly nonplused, the groom's father, a status-seeking doctor, decides to go ahead with the expensive reception anyway. Polish director Krzysz Zanussi uses this scenario to stick it to capitalist corruption, and to society's destruction of the individual spirit. Leslie Caron, the one recognizable member of the cast, is outstanding as a wealthy, over-the-hill ballerina who happens to be a kleptomaniac.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
The Waterfall (2001)
Plot Summary:
The story takes place in Harbiye town of Antakya just before the 1960 military coup d'etat. The economic and political crisis of those days are reflected by the both funny and sad story of a family. The story is told from the eyes of Cemal. Now a famous painter, Cemal goes back to his hometown years later and remembers his childhood. In those days Cemal's father and uncle, member of rival political parties, are in a continious struggle with each other. The film depicts this absurd struggle and the strange stories of people in Harbiye together with the lyric story of the famous waterfall of the town.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Elementary School (1991)
Plot Summary:
The time is 1945-46. 10 year old Eda and his friend Tonda live in a small village outside Prague. In school, their class is so wild and indisciplined that their teacher quits and is replaced by the militant Igor Hnidzo. He is very strict - but also very just. His weakness is his interest in young women. Plot by Mattias Thuresson.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Family, History
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: surreal, sincere, atmospheric, touching, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 88%
Camouflage (1977)
Plot Summary:
A group of students are spending the summer vacation at a university camp studying the science of linguistics. One of the camp directors, Jaroslaw, is a young professor who prefers the straightforward, intimate approach to students. He is opposed in his liberal views by Jakub, who likes to manipulate people. There is a confrontation from the beginning when Jaroslaw allows to attend the seminar a student who presents the views not according to the official line. In the end, a jury prize is given to mediocre paper, while the suspected school of thought still draws a recommendation. Finally the deputy rector arrives for the closing ceremonies, and since he disfavors the line of thought awarded by the recommendation the tensions rise. They climax when student in question bites the rector in the ear while receiving recommendation. The confrontation results in a scandal and the police is called in.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: intellectual, thought provoking, clever, humorous, realistic, talky, cynical, semi serious, biting, crying
Similar in 79%
Squint Your Eyes (2002)
Plot Summary:
The story of a spirited ten-year-old girl who has run away from her proudly affluent parents in town and finds grudging refuge with the slightly slovenly caretaker of an abandoned farm, an ex-teacher.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 962
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Poland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, offbeat, sexual, sexy
Similar in 81%
All inclusive (2014)
Plot Summary:
After finding out that her husband cheated on her, Lise and her two daughters Ditte and Sigrid decides to go on vacation to Malta. The two sisters are very different and tries to cheer the mother up in very different ways. All inclusive is a movie about love and figuring out how to be a family.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: emotional, psychological, humorous, captivating
Similar in 85%
Death as a Slice of Bread (1994)
Plot Summary:
The violence and high drama of this film is taken directly from recent Polish history. On December 13, 1981 national security forces swoop down on unsuspecting workers of the Wujek mine and arrest a Solidarity leader. Pushed to the limits, the miners call a massive strike, which is specifically forbidden under the martial law. A battle between the heavily armed police and the outnumbered miners ensues, and nine miners are killed.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Mother (1990)
Plot Summary:
The social ferment in late 19th century Russia which led to the 1917 Russian Revolution is movingly portrayed in this lengthy historical drama, which is very faithful to the 1907 novel The Mother by the celebrated Marxist writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). In the story, "the mother" (Inna Tchourikova) has no other recourse than to watch her decent, kindly husband turn into an animalistic, drunken brute as a result of working in the inhuman conditions of a steel mill in the town of Sormovo. When he begins to express his suppressed rage by beating her, she is defended by her teenaged son Pavel (depicted Viktor Rakov as an adult, Sacha Chichonok as a boy). After his father's death, Pavel is forced to go to work in the same factory. However, Pavel and his friends begin investigating Marxism and socialist thought, and work to organize their fellow workers.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 186
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Soviet Union, Italy
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Die Beautiful (2016)
Plot Summary:
Trisha, a Filipino transgender woman, suddenly dies while being crowned in a beauty pageant. Her last wish was to be presented as a different celebrity on each night of her wake.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 934
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: lgbt cinema, psychological, light, sincere, unusual plot structure, humorous, queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998)
Plot Summary:
Military doctor General Klenski is arrested in Stalin's Russia in 1953 during an anti-Semitic political campaign accused of being a participant in so-called "doctors' plot".
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, political, black and white, slow cinema, aesthetic, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty
Similar in 80%
80 Millions (2011)
Plot Summary:
A movie about the power of thousands, the courage of hundreds and friendship of a few, thanks to whom a change of fate of millions became possible. Poland, lower Silesia, the beginning of a very cold winter 1981. After a series of entrapments by the security service a confrontation between the opposition and the communists seems to be inevitable. Just before the proclamation of martial law a group of young solidarity activists decide to play va banque and organize a rash action to take out 80 million of the union money from one of the Wroclaw’s banks before the account is blocked. Security service officers follow their steps. It’s the beginning of a gripping tournament in which also priests and curb dealers will play their parts. Each side has aces up their sleeve.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 978
Genere: Action, Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, tension, political, suspense
Similar in 87%
Man of Marble (1977)
Plot Summary:
Man of Marble is a Polish film about a student making a film about a bricklayer who was once idolized. She interviews people who knew him and finds old footage that lead to an unfolding mystery that causes her producer to cancel the project.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: emotional, meditative, compassionate, disturbing, talky, realistic, serious, political, sincere, thought provoking
Similar in 79%
The Death of Stalin (2017)
Plot Summary:
When tyrannical dictator Joseph Stalin dies in 1953, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. Among the contenders are the dweebish Georgy Malenkov, the wily Nikita Khrushchev and Lavrenti Beria – the sadistic secret police chief. As they bumble, brawl and back-stab their way to the top, the question remains – just who is running the government?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 111000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: France, UK, Belgium, Canada, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: black comedy, dark comedy, satirical, political, period piece, parody, surreal, art house, psychological, sexy
Similar in 85%
The Feasts of Valtasar, or The Night with Stalin (1989)
Plot Summary:
A dance troupe from the autonomous region of Abkhazia in western Georgia perform for Stalin, Lavrentiy Beria, Abkhaz leader Nestor Lakoba, and other high-ranking party officials in the Black Sea coastal town of Gagra.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 212
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)
Plot Summary:
Shortly after WWII an American soldier (Norman) and a Polish refugee (Emilia) fall in deep love. Eventually he will return to USA and both expect that she will soon follow him. Emilia's mother is sick but would recover by available medicine. Somehow the mother but not Emilia knows that there will only be one ticket. Realising that Emilia would never abandon her, the mother secretly throws away the daily doses given her by Emilia - and dies.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: contemplative, intellectual, depressing, atmospheric, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Shivers (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set in the early 1950's, during the Stalin's Personality Cult. The story opens in a provincial town. Tomek's father, a former member of the Home Army is arrested so the mother is left with the task of raising two kids alone. The neighbor upstairs commits suicide when her husband is also arrested and transported to the prison camp. It's winter so the kids keep their hands warm at school by hand-beating themselves. The teachers at school are mean, narrow minded idealists, When they ask the kids who goes to church on Sundays, the whole class stands up to defeat the purpose of the propaganda lesson. Tomek is sent to the training school in the summer. There he absorbs most of the ideology pumped into his head, and when his father is released from prison he finds another boy he has left.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 509
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 78%
Beeswax (2009)
Plot Summary:
A marvelous new film from Andrew Bujalski, one of the brightest stars in indie film, Beeswax revolves around the personal and professional entanglements of twin sisters Jeannie and Lauren – played by extraordinary newcomers Tilly and Maggie Hatcher – living in Austin, Texas. Jeannie co-owns a vintage clothing store with Amanda, a semi-estranged friend who she fears is trying to end their partnership. Lauren leads a looser, less tethered existence and is considering getting out of the country altogether. When Jeannie receives an email from Amanda threatening a lawsuit, she calls her law student ex-boyfriend Merrill for help. Eager for distraction from his own problems, he begins helping the sisters with theirs. Imbued with an innate charm, Beeswax is a story about families, friends, lovers and those awkward moments that bring all of them together.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 875
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: mumblecore, humorous, semi serious, captivating, psychological, sentimental, sincere, touching, realistic, witty
Similar in 82%
Man of Iron (1981)
Plot Summary:
In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends Winkel, a weak, alcoholic TV hack, to Gdansk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers, particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an articulate worker whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: political, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying
Similar in 83%
Walesa: Man of Hope (2013)
Plot Summary:
How was it possible that a single man influenced contemporary world so significantly? This film is an attempt to capture the phenomenon of a common man’s metamorphosis into a charismatic leader — an attempt to see how a Gdansk shipyard electrician fighting for workers’ rights awakened a hidden desire for freedom in millions of people.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, psychological, humorous, tense, uplifting, touching, bleak, serious, gloomy