Best movies like Barrier
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Poland
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Barrier (1966):
Similar in 76%
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 86%
The Weather Forecast (1983)
Plot Summary:
The setting is an old age home run by an aging director with an authoritarian hand. In the evening many of the residents huddle in a living room, penetrated by the October cold, to listen to the news. The announcement is giving the number of expected deaths due too the coming harsh winter. In the middle of the night a truckload of coffins arrives to be stored. Dicovering the coffins the elderly assume they are marked for liquidation and they flee en masse. The next day their exodus is dicovered and the director calls the authorities. It turned out that the coffins were the overproduction from a coffin factory and were brought only for temporary storage. The panic search for the pensioners begins, including helicopters. In the meantime the group gets transported to another part of the country by a truck. They take over by a near-empty restaurant, where after mistreatment by a waiter, they tie him up and move on. A lone fisherman invites them into his house where, after initial.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 123
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (1979)
Plot Summary:
Returning home to Prague, the magician Pasparte, an owner of a circus caravan, meets his dying colleague who entrusts his beautiful daughter Aloisie to his care. In Prague they all take up their lodgings at the house At Blue Fish in which they intend to arrange the programs. The firm is owned by widow Evzenie with whom Pasparte shares flat and bed. Evzenie is jealous of Aloisie therefore Pasparte sends Aloisie as a housewife to the single man Jakub Kolenatý who earns his living by photographing and wants to record the revived pictures of Prague. Pasparte wants to found in Prague the first permanent Czech movie theatre in which there would be projected also the original Czech films.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 295
Genere: Comedy, Drama, History
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: surreal, metafiction
Similar in 87%
The Beggar's Opera (1991)
Plot Summary:
Unlike any other opera, the so-called Beggar's Opera is not just one composition, but a lineage of adapted compositions, beginning with the original hugely successful 1728 political satire written by Englishman John Gay. Composers and writers have penned variations on it ever since. The most famous of these was A Threepenny Opera by Bertholt Brecht and Kurt Weill. Some things these compositions share in common is their setting among the poor and criminal classes, and the roguish character Macheath. This production is based on an adaptation of Gay's original by Vaclav Havel the freedom-fighter, writer and philosopher who became the first (and only) president of the united post-communist country of Czechoslovakia, and it retains many traces of its theatrical origins. Film reviewers were not too tolerant of what they called "slavish adherence" to the noted Czech writer's stage production, but theater, philosophy and history buffs may feel otherwise.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 181
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
A Hoof Here, a Hoof There (1989)
Plot Summary:
Two friends have sex just for fun. One day they make a blood test, just for fun, and they discover that one of them has AIDS, not knowing who.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Sitting on a Branch, Enjoying Myself (1989)
Plot Summary:
Pepe and Prengel, returning from war, meet Ester and both fall in love with the girl and live together in a deserted house. Fanatic communist, Zelmira, wants to turn their world upside-down.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 508
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia, West Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
30 Door Key (1991)
Plot Summary:
A young writer in 1939 Warsaw faces the conflict of acting his age or relapsing into childhood during the brink of World War II. Based on the famous novel Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 396
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland, UK, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: mindfuck
Similar in 75%
Short Working Day (1995)
Plot Summary:
Kieślowski’s study of a political strike, controversially told from the viewpoint of a Communist functionary trying to keep order.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 402
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: political drama
Similar in 88%
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 76%
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 81%
A Lonely Woman (1987)
Plot Summary:
The first motion picture film by Agnieszka Holland about loneliness, longing for affection, and misfortune. Irena, a postal delivery worker, is struggling with a inadequate housing, a drunk neighbor who wants to take her place, and a heartless boss, knowing that the whole day at work, she is leaving her young son. But the worst is the loneliness, exacerbated by her single mother status. She meets a crippled pensioner Jacek, who appears to be the key to her happiness, but tragedy continues to strike.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
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 87%
Walkover (1965)
Plot Summary:
Walkover, the autobiographical second feature by Polish enfant terrible Jerzy Skolimowski echoes the French nouvelle vague in its extraordinarily stylized tale of a prizefighter who ducks a fight to romance a beautiful blonde.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 491
Genere: Drama, Sport
Country: Poland
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
It's Better to Be Healthy and Wealthy than Poor and Sick (1992)
Plot Summary:
A satiric tragi-comedy about two women and their lover Robert who is an emigrant that keeps coming back. This film shows chaotic post-communist Europe after the fall of totalitarianism. Two opposite characters, women, meet during the Velvet Revolution in November 1989. Intellectual dissident Nona and a Communist secret police boss’ mistress Ester. They meet at an anti-regime demonstration and become friends. They don’t want anything to do with politics, both want to get married and have kids, but also get rich. Crazy plans and risky attempts to realize their shared dreams land them in many sticky situations in the post-revolution chaos. Too much money gets in the way of the power of friendship.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 134
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Diamond Tongues (2015)
Plot Summary:
Edith dreams of being a successful actress but just can't seem to make things happen. When she can't figure out what she's doing wrong, she begins to do everything wrong.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 214
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Provincial Actors (1979)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in a small town near Warsaw, to which a young and coming director comes to produce a classic play (Wyspianski "Wyzwolenie") with a modern vein. Everyone in the production gets his usual stereotypical role, but the aging idol of the ensemble senses opportunity to give the performance of his life. For young director everything is already set. The leading man, however, is not giving up and is trying to restore the role according to his view. His wife listens to his fears, complaints and frustrations, while resigning herself to a fading career in a puppet theatre.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 361
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: crying, freeze frame
Similar in 83%
In Your Dreams (2023)
Plot Summary:
You know the feeling. It feels like time slows down as your eyes meet a stranger’s. Then you walk pass each other, neither of you looking back. That’s what happened with Pelin and Engin. Lo and behold, they open their eyes in the same bed. And you may want to brace yourself for this one, as a two-year married couple! It must be a dream. No, a nightmare. But now, to wake up they must fall in love.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Turkey
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Everything for Sale (1969)
Plot Summary:
Wajda's homage to Zbigniew Cybulski, the "Polish James Dean" who starred in the director's ASHES AND DIAMONDS and died young. The movie follows the tribulations of a director attempting to make a movie with a Cybulski-like star who never shows up.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 846
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: semi autobiographical
Similar in 82%
Hands Up! (1981)
Plot Summary:
Beginning with a sci-fi prologue before finding itself with several doctors attending a medical school reunion in a sealed-up railway carriage. Between drinks, the disenchanted medicos ruminate over the effect that communism (particularly the Stalinist brand) has had on their profession. Originally banned in 1967 and finally released in 1981 after Skolimowski shot new sequences, the 76 minute 1981 version was the only one ever officially released.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 409
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: philosophical, experimental, avant garde, dark comedy, political
Similar in 86%
Wielki bieg (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1952, the story follows events around the "Peace Run", a propaganda 3-day marathon for peace. The winner is to be presented with a new motorcycle by the country's president. Chief organizer is a ruthless manipulator who will stop at nothing to make sure that the right man wins. There are two runners, Budny and Stolar, who are participating in the race for different reasons.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Sunday Pranks (1983)
Plot Summary:
Made in 1983, shelved for four years. A chilling tale about kids playing in a bombed-out Warsaw courtyard on the day of Stalin's death, while their parents are away at the church or a memorial procession.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 92
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
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 84%
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 87%
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 76%
The Most Beautiful Age (1969)
Plot Summary:
An artist's studio is descended upon by a group of retired men and a young mother who agree to model in the nude for money. Comedy ensues as the students and the local bureaucracy react to the models, all in need of extra money. Several running gags border on slapstick as the officials and the students don't know what to do with the nude models.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 145
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
The Magnate (1987)
Plot Summary:
This Polish historical drama film traces the fascinating saga of a wealthy, princely Polish dynasty in years 1900-1935.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 155
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: family saga
Similar in 81%
A Report on the Party and the Guests (1966)
Plot Summary:
In Jan Němec’s surreal fable, a picnic is rudely transformed into a lesson in political hierarchy when a handful of mysterious authority figures show up. This allegory about oppression and conformity was banned in its home country but became an international success after it premiered at the New York Film Festival.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, cult classic, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual, surreal, crying, allegory, weird
Similar in 84%
Johnnie Waterman (1993)
Plot Summary:
On the road wandering minstrel finds a mare, which, upholstered and sickly, is dying. He buries mare and casts a curse in the village where the animal was tortured. In the village lives Jańcio, a philosopher, a man loving life and his young wife, Weronka. Jańcio lives in harmony with God and is not expecting that he will be put to the test by him. He is convinced he has the power to make miracles. He leaves his pregnant wife, and goes to see the world, promising to return before the due date.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 634
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: surreal, mind bending, psychedelic, offbeat, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Moonlighting (1982)
Plot Summary:
A Polish contractor, Nowak, leads a group of workmen to London so they can provide cheap labor for a government official based there. Nowak (Irons) has to manage the project and the men as they encounter the tempations of the West and loneliness and separation from their families. Nowak is the only one of the group who speaks English, and he uses this as a tool over his team. When the unrest in Poland leads to a military takeover, Nowak is faced with a much more difficult situation than he expected.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: political, tense, bleak, realistic, dark comedy, allegory, independent film, sincere, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 79%
Snow White and Russian Red (2009)
Plot Summary:
An aggressive thug has problems with his girlfriend. Over the course of several chaotic days he walks around the hood, takes drugs and confronts himself with other women.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: surreal, semi serious, realistic, disturbing, offbeat, sexual, fast, sexy