Best movies like Balkan Spy
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Balkanski špijun is a 1984 Yugoslav comedy/drama. Ilija Čvorović, a former Stalinist who spent several years in a prison on Goli otok, is contacted by the police to routinely answer questions about his tenant, Petar Markov Jakovljević, a businessman, who spent twenty years living in Paris, and now has returned to Belgrade to open a tailor shop. After only several minutes, Ilija is free to go, however, he is starting to suspect that his tenant might be a spy. As the movie goes on, his paranoia increases and more people gets involved: his wife, his daughter, his brother, Jakovljevic's friends.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: funny, black comedy, dark comedy, thought provoking, humorous, realistic, disturbing, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like Balkan Spy (1984):
Similar in 78%
Don't Drink the Water (1969)
Plot Summary:
The Hollander family's European vacation is interrupted when their plane is forced to land in Vulgaria. The Hollanders leave the plane to take pictures which results in accusations of spying. Chased by Vulgarian soldiers, they take refuge in the American Embassy under the protection of the absent ambassador's hapless son.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 962
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: retro, independent film, exciting, humorous, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, sitcom
Similar in 80%
The Tragic Burlesque (1995)
Plot Summary:
In a way of protesting for inhuman living conditions and the shortage of medications caused by the disintegration of Yugoslavia and its sanctions, a doctor in a hospital decides to close his clinic for mental illness. His wish is to return the patients to their homes or give them to someone who is willing to accept them temporarily.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 692
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: offbeat, black comedy
Similar in 79%
The Marathon Family (1982)
Plot Summary:
The Topalovic family has been in the burial business for generations. When the old (150 yrs old) Pantelija dies, five generations of his heirs start to fight for the inheritance.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, parody, atmospheric, surreal, cult classic, sincere, humorous, realistic, witty, not serious
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How I Was Systematically Destroyed by Idiots (1983)
Plot Summary:
The film follows a life of a homeless, but very well read, Marxist who is coping with Che's death and wishes to live a life of revolutions and workers' uprisings. He is a hypochondriac, bitter at the world, and blaming his old capitalist boss for his life's misery.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 81%
Pupendo (2003)
Plot Summary:
Artist Bedřich Mára (Bolek Polivka) is unable to find much secure work due to his public antagonism toward the ruling Communist Party. He has a wife and two children. Life begins to change when art historian Alois Fábera (Jiři Pecha) begins working on a piece about Bedřich, leading to a job offer from a Party official. Things are looking up, until the wrong people hear portions of the historian's writing.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, captivating, semi serious
Similar in 83%
Pardon (2005)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true event, Pardon tells the tragicomic story of three friends who end up in prison when they are mistaken as members of a terrorist organization. Ibrahim's fear of uniforms makes him runaway whenever he sees one. Because of this, police mistakes him with a terrorist and takes him and his friend Muzo into custody. Fooled by the police during the interrogation they name another friend, Aydin, in hope of saving themselves. As they all end up in prison, they remember the families and lovers they left behind.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, cynical, dark comedy, comedy drama, realistic, semi serious, biting, black comedy
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The Professional (2003)
Plot Summary:
Till recently a University professor, a bohemian writer, a member of Belgrade's intellectual circles and a passionate opponent of the Milosevic's regime meets the man, unknown to him, but who knows every tiny detail of his life. Man tells him a story and plot unfolds unimaginably.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Serbia and Montenegro
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, clever, cult classic, humorous, realistic, semi serious, intellectual, black comedy, dark comedy
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Guantanamera (1995)
Plot Summary:
It is a satire about life in Cuba. The members of a funeral procession and some truckdrivers who have to take the same route begin to talk about god and the world ending up in discovering that life for both groups has many similarities as well as a lot of differences depending on the point of view.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Cuba, Spain, Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: road movie, manga, offbeat, humorous, semi serious, black comedy, hispanic, dark comedy, erotic, sexy
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The Color of the Chameleon (2012)
Plot Summary:
In Emil Christov's über-stylish spy-movie pastiche, a charismatic schemer in an authoritarian police state, fired from his job as a secret-police informant, conjures up his own imaginary spy network and builds up an archive that he turns against his former masters. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 445
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Country: Bulgaria
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, cynical, semi serious, biting, dark comedy, suspense
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A Wonderful World (2006)
Plot Summary:
A fairy tale about the political and socioeconomic realities of Mexico.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, social, disturbing, dark comedy, fairy tale, realistic, semi serious, biting, neorealism
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Early Works (1969)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by Karl Marx's "Das Kapital", three men and a girl named Jugoslava decide to wake up the conscience within the working class and peasants. Faced with the primitivism and a lack of morale, their revolution fails and the girl is one to be sacrificed as a witness of their unsuccessful attempt.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 468
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: black and white, sincere, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting, sexual, sexy, suspense
Similar in 87%
The Elusive Summer of '68 (1984)
Plot Summary:
For the young man who lives in Serbian province town, the maturing coincides with the turbulent political events of the year 1968.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: parody, sentimental, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 87%
Long Live Freedom (2013)
Plot Summary:
The elections are approaching and the largest opposition party in the country do not look good. Its leader, Enrico Oliveri can not stand the pressure and disappears. Fearing a scandal, the eminence grise of the party had brought into play the twin brother of the politician. Even if looks like two drops of water with his brother Giovanni may have a different personality. His ideas are innovative and direct approach to get the party in the polls.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, clever, semi serious, funny, art house, biting, suspense
Similar in 81%
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 78%
Special Treatment (1980)
Plot Summary:
Dr. Ilic works in the hospital for compulsory treatment of alcoholics. By conducting his own "special treatment" through physical exercises, apple eating, the healing effects of listening to Wagner's music and psychodrama, a group of six patients have been taken to visit the brewery where there is a problem of alcoholism in the workplace.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 779
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
I Can Speak (2017)
Plot Summary:
A grumpy old woman befriends a young civil servant and learns English from him. She then reveals to him her shocking past.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, humorous, captivating, satirical, cult film
Similar in 85%
12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)
Plot Summary:
It's the 22nd of December. Sixteen years have passed since the revolution, and in a small town Christmas is about to come. Piscoci, an old retired man is preparing for another Christmas alone. Manescu, the history teacher, tries to keep up with his debts. Jderescu, the owner of a local television post, seems not to be so interested in the upcoming holidays. For him, the time to face history has come. Along with Manescu and Piscoci, he is trying to answer for himself a question which for 16 years has not had an answer: "Was it or wasn't it a revolution in their town?".
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Romania
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, witty, semi serious, dark comedy, contemplative, slow cinema, aesthetic, realistic
Similar in 88%
The Northerners (1992)
Plot Summary:
A black comedy set in the 1960s in a small Netherlands community, populated by a cast of eccentrics, all of whom hold a range of sexual obsessions and frustrated desires.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, slasher, art house, black comedy, cult classic, atmospheric, offbeat, humorous, realistic, surreal
Similar in 84%
Who's Singin' Over There? (1980)
Plot Summary:
On April 5, 1941, a day before Nazi attack on Yugoslavia, entourage on a country road board Krstic's bus heading for Belgrade: two Gypsies who occasionally sing about misery, an aging war veteran, a Nazi sympathizer, a dapper singer, a consumptive, and a man with a shotgun. Krstic is a world-weary cynic, out for a buck; the driver is his son, the simple, cheerful Misko. En route they pick up a more people and head towards their destiny.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: road movie, dark comedy, atmospheric, surreal, art house, bleak, serious, realistic, black comedy, odd
Similar in 86%
WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971)
Plot Summary:
A dense film that cuts up footage of a primary plot of two young Yugoslavian girls, one a politico and the other a sexpot, and an affair with a visiting Russian skater. Mixing metaphors of Russia's relationship with Yugoslavia, intercut with footage and interviews with Wilhelm Reich and Al Goldstein of Screw magazine. The film applies Reich's theories of Orgone energy and analogies of Stalinism as a form of Freudian sexual repression. Also known as W.R. The Mysteries of the Organism in English subtitled version. Was banned in Yugoslavia shortly after it was made.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Yugoslavia, West Germany
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: surreal, experimental, avant garde, controversial, disturbing, sexy, sex comedy, mind bending, psychedelic, educational
Similar in 90%
The Priest's Children (2013)
Plot Summary:
Don Fabijan is a young priest who comes to serve on an unnamed small island in the Adriatic. In order to help increase birth rate on the island, he decides to pierce condoms before they are sold. He therefore teams up with the newsagent Petar and the pharmacist Marin. After they abolish all forms of birth control on the entire island, the consequences become more and more complicated.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: realistic, humorous, semi serious, tragicomedy, suspense, biting, dark comedy
Similar in 84%
Reality (2012)
Plot Summary:
A dark comedy centering on the lives of a Neapolitan based family whose father, a fish merchant, is so infatuated with the reality TV show "Grande Fratello" (the Italian version of "Big Brother") he starts living his life as if he were on it.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, humorous, cynical, semi serious, social, surreal, cult classic, clever, bleak, realistic
Similar in 82%
The Witness (1969)
Plot Summary:
Known as the best satire about communism, banned for over a decade in Hungary. 'The Witness' has become a cult classic, well received by critics and general audiences when it was finally released outside of Hungary. 'The Witness' takes place during the height of the Rákosi Era, which was closely modeled after the ruthless and brutal Stalin regime. The film follows the life of an ordinary dike keeper, József Pelikán, who has been caught for illegally slaughtering his pig, Dezsõ. Instead of doing hard time for his "heinous" crime, Pelikán is elevated into an important position, generally reserved for the communist elite. His new benefactor, the mysterious Comrade Virág, is reluctant to reveal the real reason behind Pelikán's preferential treatment. Thus, begins Pelikán's hilarious adventure deep within the "sophisticated" communist society... Until one day, when he gets called for to return the "favour" by falsely testifying against his long-time friend in a mock-up show trial.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Hungary
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: satirical, parody, black comedy, cult classic, dark comedy, thought provoking, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 88%
Trial and Error (1962)
Plot Summary:
After nearly 40 years of waiting for his big chance, Wilfred Morgenhall (Sellers) is given the case of defending Herbert Fowle (Attenborough) who is accused of murdering his wife (Beryl Reid). Despite Fowle's insistence of guilt, Moregenhall will not let go of the opportunity to plead his client as innocent and be a star in the courtroom.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 597
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: black comedy, black and white, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, independent film
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The Perfect Dictatorship (2014)
Plot Summary:
TV MX, the most powerful Mexican Television Corporation, discloses a scandalous story involving Governor Carmelo Vargas in serious crimes and illicit business. Governor Vargas worried about his political future, decides to clean his image and negotiates a billionaire secret agreement with the owners of the TV Corporation. Carlos Rojo, an ambitious young news producer, and Ricardo Diaz, TV network star reporter, are responsible for making a dirty campaign to change the image the public has of the corrupt Governor and make him, at any cost, a political star and a great presidential candidate. Mexican Television believes that democracy is a farce and has already placed one President... Will they do it again?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: cynical, humorous, semi serious, realistic, dark comedy, political, political thriller, cult classic, biting, soap opera
Similar in 82%
When Father Was Away on Business (1985)
Plot Summary:
Tito's break-up with Stalin in 1948 marked the beginning of not only confusing, but also very dangerous years for many hard-core Yugoslav communists. A careless remark about the newspaper cartoon is enough for Mesha to join many arrested unfortunates. His family is now forced to cope with the situation and wait for his release from prison.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: erotic, manga, independent film, grindhouse, thought provoking, touching, offbeat, humorous, emotional, realistic
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I'm Back (2018)
Plot Summary:
Mussolini reappears in Rome 72 years after his death, finding a Country still full of problems like racism and hate for politicians. Misguised for an actor, he sides with a young filmmaker and starts traveling along Italy to reconquer it.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing
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Spinning Boris (2003)
Plot Summary:
Russian political elite hires American consultants to help with President Yeltsin's re-election campaign when his approval rating is down to single digits.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: clever, realistic, political, humorous, witty, talky, semi serious
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Underground (1995)
Plot Summary:
Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s as Marko realizes that the situation is ripe for exploitation.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 61000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, War
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, UK, USA
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags: absurd, black comedy, art house, political, satirical, surreal, visually appealing, mindfuck, epic, philosophical
Similar in 77%
Wag the Dog (1997)
Plot Summary:
During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 88000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: black comedy, political, talky, dark comedy, realistic, satirical, funny, melancholic, humorous, thought provoking