Best movies like Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An author - a passive young man - enters the Soviet-controlled bureaucracy of Georgia attempting to get his novel published only to be neglected and compartmentalized at every turn.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: absurd
Best tv shows and movies like Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story (1983):
Similar in 87%
Happy Romance (1972)
Plot Summary:
Countryman Dato falls in love with uptown girl Eka. But, their romance faces difficulties due to Dato's revolver-like lighter, which Eka's tough father mixes with a real gun.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 273
Genere: Comedy
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 71 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
We and Our Mountains (1969)
Plot Summary:
Calm of the mountain village is disturbed by the investigation on stray sheep.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 405
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
A Necklace for My Beloved (1971)
Plot Summary:
Three guys are living in a Dagestan aul, and all three are in love with the blue-eyed Serminaz. According to a mountaineers’ tradition, a young man seeking the hand and the heart of a beloved girl has to make her a present that she would remember for the rest of her life. The friends set out in search of the special gift….
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Republic SHKID (1966)
Plot Summary:
The film is based on the eponymous book, written by two former street gangsters - Grigori Belykh and Leonid Panteleyev. Film is set in the 1920s St. Petersburg, Russia. Streets of the city are full of the homeless boys. They are caught to be raised and educated at the correction school named after Dostoevsky. The boys are street smart and difficult. But the faculty stands up to the challenge. The teaches are being devoted and caring, and gradually win the respect of the most difficult kids. The school director Vicknixor is a refined intellectual, who becomes a role model for the boys.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Family
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Promised Heaven (1991)
Plot Summary:
In the new Russia, former middle class citizens find themselves out in the dumps. Literally. They build homes, elect their own government, work, beg, scavenge, date and fight all while living in a huge city dump. Some try to beat the odds and return to society, but it seems that there is only one place left for them to go.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 983
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Falling Leaves (1966)
Plot Summary:
A young idealist takes a job at a local state run winery only to discover and become disillusioned by the corruption of the Soviet State.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 955
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 85%
Once Upon a Time There Was a Singing Blackbird (1970)
Plot Summary:
Gia is a carefree young percussionist who works at a theater in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia. He lives in a small apartment with his mother. Gia spends his days flitting from friend to friend, lover to lover, avoiding any responsibility, and never staying still for five minutes. However, he always manages to arrive at the theater just in time to play the drums at the end of the ballet.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 80%
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%
Short Encounters (1967)
Plot Summary:
After leaving their native village, Nadia (Nina Ruslanova at her debut) and her friend travel to the big city. Along the way, Nadia gets a job in a tea shop and meets Maxim (Russian icon Vladimir Vysotsky), and she falls in love with him and decides to finally go to the city. There, she is hired as a maid by Valentina Ivanovna (played by the film's director), a civil servant, who also has a relationship with Maxim.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 967
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Don't Grieve (1968)
Plot Summary:
Benjamin, the local doctor is a soul of a local society, the educated, friendly, democratic person who often treats the poor for free. It makes him very popular with the locals but most certainly does not help with his bank account. He is in love with a beautiful Manette who is also crazy about him but is being watched closely by her father who called his daughter "his small capital" and is determined to protect her virginity until the moment the marriage contract has been signed.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
The Passport (1990)
Plot Summary:
A man, who becomes mistaken for his brother who was immigrating to Israel from USSR, finds himself caught up in the middle of a bureaucratic mess when he realizes that if he tells the truth about who he is, he will go to jail and his brother's family will never be allowed to leave the USSR. He therefore assumes his brother's identity to get to Israel hoping his distant uncle living there will help him out. The plan backfires, however, when he realizes that the uncle is a paranoid lunatic thinking the KGB is out to get him. He becomes stranded in Israel with no friends, no money, and no passport, trying to figure out a way to get back home.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Country: France, Soviet Union
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Ashik Kerib (1988)
Plot Summary:
Wandering minstrel Ashik Kerib falls in love with a rich merchant's daughter, but is spurned by her father and forced to roam the world for a thousand and one nights - but not before he's got the daughter to promise not to marry till his return. It's told in typical Paradjanov style, in a series of visually ravishing 'tableaux vivants' overlaid with Turkish and Azerbaijani folksongs.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: spiritual, art house, surreal, fairy tale, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, allegory
Similar in 85%
Taxi Blues (1990)
Plot Summary:
Ivan is old Russia: thick, dour, hard-working, often brutish; he misses Communism. He drives a taxi and one night meets Alexi, a new Russian, a musician, an alcoholic, irresponsible. Alexi stiffs Ivan for the fare, so Ivan tracks him down and a love-hate relationship ensues. When Alexi lets the bath water run over in Ivan's flat and Ivan must pay 500 rubles for repairs, he tries to force Alexi into day labor to repay him. It's hopeless. Then, suddenly, Alexi is discovered, goes on a jazz tour of America, becomes a celebrity, and returns in triumph. Ivan longs to renew the friendship, and it looks as if he may get what he wants.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Soviet Union, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, stylized
Similar in 84%
Repentance (1984)
Plot Summary:
The day after the funeral of Varlam Aravidze, the mayor of a small Georgian town, his corpse turns up in his son's garden. Although it is secretly reburied, the corpse keeps returning until the police capture the local woman who is responsible. This woman says that Varlam should never be laid to rest since his Stalin-like reign of terror led to the disappearance of her family and friends.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: christian film, parody, captivating, manga, independent film, art film, dark comedy, thought provoking, bleak, serious
Similar in 82%
Carnival (1982)
Plot Summary:
A young Russian girl is in love with show business and wants to leave her small town for Moscow and make it big in the big city. She encounters her long missing, remarried father and gets a boy friend who uses her and then leaves her.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Music
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: sincere, humorous, captivating, touching
Similar in 79%
Office Romance (1977)
Plot Summary:
Anatoli Yefremovich Novoseltsev works in a statistics institution, whose director is an unattractive and bossy woman. An old friend of his, Yuri Grigorievich Samokhvalov, who gets appointed assistant director of the institution, wants to make Novoseltsev the head of the department but encounters objections from Ludmila Prokopievna Kalugina, the director. Samokhvalov then advises Novoseltsev to lightly hit on the boss. Ironically, Novoseltsev and Kalugina fall in love with each other.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 159 min
Plot tags: light, feel good, funny, humorous
Similar in 89%
Afonya (1975)
Plot Summary:
The 1975 film by Georgi Daneliya "Afonya" was an unexpected commercial hit in USSR. The main character "Afonya" Borshev is a plumber, who spends his life partying with "buddies", many of whom he doesn't even remember after nights of heavy drinking. His wife leaves him, his boss places him on probation, his whole life is falling apart, but he doesn't realize it. Afonya met Katya at a dance club, yet didn't pay her much attention. But she is the one, who can save him... In this movie Daneliya achieves a perfect balance of satire and drama. Quotes from the movie gained a cult status in USSR.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: funny, sincere, satirical, ironic
Similar in 89%
Mimino (1977)
Plot Summary:
Georgian bush pilot Valentin (Valiko) Mizandari a.k.a. Mimino works at small local airlines, flying helicopters between small villages. But he dreams of piloting large international airlines aircrafts, so he goes to Moscow for refresher courses. There in a hotel he meets truck driver Robik who is given a place in that hotel by mistake, and they have a lot of adventures in Moscow. Always amicable and open to people, Mimino does not feel at home in the big city. Nevertheless, he becomes a pilot of a supersonic jet liner, the Tupolev Tu-144, flying all over the world. But feeling homesick, he finally comes back to his native town of Telavi in Georgia, to his family and friends.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: feel good, smart, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Heart of a Dog (1988)
Plot Summary:
Old Prof. Preobrazhensky and his young colleague Dr. Bormental inserted the human's hypophysis into a dog's brain. Couple of weeks later the dog became "human looking". The main question is "Is anybody who is looking like a man, A REAL MAN?".
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: philosophical, satirical, intellectual, thought provoking, humorous, unusual plot structure, clever, witty, offbeat, cynical
Similar in 84%
City Zero (1988)
Plot Summary:
An engineer in charge of the production line of a factory in Moscow is sent to a small town to try to specify the distributor the new dimensions of a mechanic part they need. But in this town everybody seems to be crazy (a secretary who works naked, a group of people take the engineer as a rock & roll player, etc) and, in addition, this man is witness of a suicide, so he is trapped inside the town.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: surreal, heartfelt, atmospheric, offbeat, humorous, realistic, semi serious, black comedy, dark comedy, cult film
Similar in 88%
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 90%
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 82%
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 83%
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 77%
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 86%
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 77%
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 88%
Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1967)
Plot Summary:
In this comic but dated story, nerdy Shurik travels to Caucas in search of native legends and folklore. But what he finds is a beautiful girl whom, due to intoxication and deceit of the local "gang", he ends up literally stealing for the local deceitful governor. All the time Shurik thinks that it is all just a one old Caucasian custom. When he, finally, realizes what he did he goes out in search for the girl of his dreams. Written by Ptah Hoteb.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Musical, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: feel good, humorous, romantic, spoof, parody
Similar in 77%
Love and Pigeons (1985)
Plot Summary:
Shown a life in the remote siberian village. Vasia, who never leave his family, village, comes to pass summer holiday on the Black Sea. New world, new people - so, hi's temted by a half-crazy woman (Raisa Zaharovna). And after short time Vasia returns to his wife and children.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: light, humorous, realistic, feel good, talky, sentimental, sincere, semi serious, touching
Similar in 80%
Kin-dza-dza! (1986)
Plot Summary:
The story takes place on the desert planet "Pluke" in the "Kin-dza-dza" galaxy, where two Soviet humans previously unknown to each other ("Uncle Vova", a gruff construction foreman from Moscow, and "The Fiddler", a student from Georgia) are stranded due to an accidental encounter with an alien teleportation device. The movie describes their long quest to find a way back home.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: surreal, philosophical, humorous, offbeat, enigmatic, cult classic, psychedelic, apocalyptic, parody, mind bending