Best movies like Cold Summer
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The Wall - Berlin '61.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 172
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Cold Summer (2006):
Similar in 87%
Contergan (2007)
Plot Summary:
A dramatization of the thalidomide drug scandal of the early 1960s.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 250
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Stop Train 349 (1963)
Plot Summary:
Roaring across the danger zone of europe...A sealed international express, with a human cargo that can explode a continent!.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 114
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
Prager Botschaft (2007)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political drama
Similar in 83%
In the Shadow of the Sun (1974)
Plot Summary:
Two thieves wander in the chilean desert and finally get to a small town near Bolivia. There, they try to include themselves with the townspeople but their instincts betray them and tragedy ensues. Based on a true story, this film opened one year after the chilean Coup de etat. The day after the opening, script girl Carmen Bueno and director of photography Jorge Müller were taken by police and now they are part of the list of the Desaparecidos.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Drama
Country: Chile
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Vacation (2007)
Plot Summary:
All summer long, a group of people circumnavigate each other. A group of people who are so close and yet so alienated from one another. Their isolated holiday home is the site for a resurgence of smouldering conflicts and lifelong illusions that threaten to wreck the family’s fragile unity forever. (Berlinale).
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 345
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Halam Geldi (2013)
Plot Summary:
"Halam Geldi"(My Aunt has Arrived) does not just tell a story in the Greek village of Northern Cyprus, where the sounds of the Ezan is accompanied by the church bells, it also underlines a tradition in Anatolia; the drama of child brides. Three children in the village, three of them from Diyarbakir (Turkish Kurdistan), three of them at the age of thirteen, three of them imprisoned by their fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 948
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, touching, suspense, suspenseful, crying
Similar in 86%
Westler (1985)
Plot Summary:
Felix from West-Berlin falls in love with Thomas in East-Berlin. At first they keep their relationship going by regular visits from Felix, but the curfew forces him to return every evening. When the East-German authorities become suspicious, Thomas decides to try and flee to the West.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 429
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Das Wunder von Lengede (2003)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 182 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Sanctuary (2015)
Plot Summary:
Summer 1968. 14-year-old Wolfgang is deported from his family in the secluded Church Welfare Institution sanctuary. One thing is clear for Wolfgang: His yearning for freedom, he will not soon buried in the bog.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sad
Similar in 86%
Summer in Berlin (2005)
Plot Summary:
When you read the title ‘Summer on the Balcony’ you probably think it will be a light Berlin summer comedy but it’s not. This film is an intimate study of two women friends who come to each other because of troubles with everyday life and with men and thus try to enjoy a life based on their ideas.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious, erotic, psychological, offbeat, emotional, sexual, soap opera
Similar in 76%
Call Me Helen (2015)
Plot Summary:
Is. This. My. Son? No matter how often Tobias Wilke poses this question, there's always only one answer: Yes! Tobias, can't believe his eyes when he comes to the airport to pick up his 17-year-old son Finn – and learns that Finn is now calling herself Helen and wearing girls' clothes. Finn/Helen reveals that she's always felt like a girl, and that she used her year abroad in San Francisco to pass the "everyday life" test. This is required by law for everyone preparing for the sex-change operation they will undergo upon reaching majority. Reactions from Helen's friends, acquaintances and schoolmates cover the entire gamut from derision to solidarity. Especially Helen's father, a well-known chef, finds it difficult to accept a situation he cannot understand. But Helen nearly always finds the right words - and humor - to counterbalance the ignorance and jeers of those around her. It is the beginning of a long, winding road towards the sexual identity she is convinced is hers.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 206
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, tragicomedy, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative, crying, queer cinema
Similar in 81%
The Prize (2011)
Plot Summary:
Ceci, a seven year old girl, has to keep a huge secret, but she doesn't completely understand what is the secret about. The life of her family depends on her silence. But what exactly must she keep silent about? Ceci and her mom live hidden from military repression in Argentina. Ceci asks herself: what must she say? What should she really believe and do in order to deserve the love of her mother and others?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 429
Genere: Drama
Country: Mexico, France, Poland, Germany
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 85%
One Night in Berlin (2011)
Plot Summary:
Berlin. Night. An old, homeless drunk stumbles down the street. Ignored by everyone - almost everyone. A woman suddenly appears in front of him - mid-thirties, thin, a drug addict. She stands face-to-face for the first time in years with the man she despises. Father and daughter, Volker and Anna. Anna is desperate and on the run from the police. She needs money urgently and demands the key to grandpa's safety deposit box, a key which she knows her father still has. But Volker claims to have hidden it on the other side of the city. They set out on foot through the Berlin night, heading west. On the way, with Anna in pain, Volker discovers she is bleeding from her stomach - but not all the blood is hers. And then he finds the bloodied knife she is carrying... As time runs out and the police close in, father and daughter hurry through the night. Under cover of darkness the secrets of their East German past explode in a final confrontation - and the consequences of times past come to.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 21
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: road movie
Similar in 76%
West (2013)
Plot Summary:
East Germany. Summer, late 70's. Three years after her boyfriend Wassilij's apparent death, Nelly Senff decides to escape from behind the Berlin wall with her son Alexej, leaving her traumatic memories and past behind. Pretending to marry a West German, she crosses the border to start a new life in the West. But soon her past starts to haunt her as the Allied Secret Service begin to question Wassilij's mysterious disappearance. Is he still alive? Was he a spy? Plagued by her past and fraught with paranoia, Nelly is forced to choose between discovering the truth about her former lover and her hopes for a better tomorrow.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, touching, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 83%
The Wall - The Final Days (2008)
Plot Summary:
The Berlin wall separated families and friends for 28 years. Some accepted it, and some worked hard to make it fall.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
The Man on the Wall (1982)
Plot Summary:
An East German man finds a way to cross the border between East and West Berlin. But when he succeeds in bringing his wife out as well, things are not quite as expected.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Der Turm (2012)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from an award-winning best-selling book by Uwe Tellkamp, 'The Tower' depicts a higher class family’s struggles during crumbling communist rule in 1980’s East Germany. It illustrates the weaknesses and pending downfall of the German communist state through an intimate portrayal of one family's struggles, dreams and decisions. Run-ins with East Germany’s Secret Police reveal the cracks in both the police state and family loyalties.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 601
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 86%
Distant Lights (2003)
Plot Summary:
Lichter is an episodic tale from Hans-Christian Schmid about the life on the boarder between Germany and Poland. The film sheds light on the everyday stories of escape and desperateness.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: contemplative, serious, captivating, sincere, atmospheric, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Unforgivable (1996)
Plot Summary:
John Ritter plays a family man who puts his wife through domestic violence and his children through emotional torture. After leaving his family and almost killing his new girlfriend in one of his rages, he is ordered to seek professional help through an innovative therapy program or go to jail.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 473
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Open the Wall (2014)
Plot Summary:
A lighthearted look at the opening of the border crossing of Bornholmer Straße in Berlin from the point of view of the confused border guards.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 858
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: tense, humorous, captivating, light
Similar in 87%
Escape from East Berlin (1962)
Plot Summary:
Director Robert Siodmak's 1962 film, inspired by true events, is about an East Berlin resident who attempts to escape to West Berlin with his family and girlfriend through a secret underground tunnel.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 632
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 77%
Shores of Hope (2012)
Plot Summary:
In this vivid historical drama set in 1980s East Germany, two dockworkers and best friends who dream of escaping the repressive regime are forced to choose their loyalties when the state police promise them safe passage out of the country — if they inform on their co-workers and union leader.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 551
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, captivating, tense
Similar in 78%
Berlin Tunnel 21 (1981)
Plot Summary:
In Berlin in 1961, an American soldier and a German engineer join forces to build a tunnel under the Berlin Wall in order to smuggle out refugees, including the soldier's East German girlfriend.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Drama, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 87%
The Innocent (1993)
Plot Summary:
A young engineer is sent to post-WWII Berlin to help the Americans in spying on the Russians. In a time and place where discretion is still a man’s best friend, he falls in love with a mysterious woman who will take him on the dark side of evil.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, UK
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: sexual, political thriller, independent film, exciting, sexy, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
For the Love of a Child (2006)
Plot Summary:
1959, support from US troops based in Asia and later from the Sates enables two actresses to start a charity for mixed-race 'orphans' who are locally neglected as outcasts. Thus originates Childhelp, which later runs multi-disciplinary centers for abused and/or neglected children in the States. Among them is bright Jacob Fletcher, whose stepfather, a lawyer, terrorized him into utter trauma and reclaims him shortly after 10 months in jail. Jacob's peers have distressing stories of their own, but competent, devoted staff helps most of them decisively on the former farm, using animal therapy.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 431
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, disturbing, rough, thought provoking, tense, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 89%
White Water (2015)
Plot Summary:
White Water is the story of a 7 year-old black kid in segregated 1963 Opelika, Alabama who becomes obsessed with the desire to taste the water from the "white's only" drinking fountain and sets out on a quest to do the unthinkable: drink from it.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 209
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 84 min
Plot tags: touching, sentimental, serious, suspenseful, realistic
Similar in 76%
Barbara (2012)
Plot Summary:
It is the summer of 1980 in East Germany and, alone, Barbara is confined to living and working as a doctor in a small provincial town - her punishment for attempting to emigrate to the West. She has only one focus; to escape and for this, she has to wait patiently. Until Andre, her supervisor in the hospital, takes her off course. Are his motives of love or duty to the authorities? The day-to-day pretense, and content supervision slowly take their toll as the tension builds.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: tense, melancholic, compassionate, atmospheric, psychological, sincere, realistic, philosophical, political, existential
Similar in 77%
Buddenbrooks (2008)
Plot Summary:
Mid-19th-century, Baltic Sea port city of Lubeck, Germany. Follows the fourth generation of the Buddenbrook mercantile family as Tony and Thomas reach the age of marriage. Fatefully impeded every step of the way, the Buddenbrooks struggle as economic hardship and personal defeats weigh down family relations.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: saga, realistic, emotional, psychological, captivating, political, family saga, sad, costume drama, sentimental
Similar in 82%
The Tunnel (2001)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by true events, Olympic swimmer Harry Melchior defects from East Germany in the 1960s and hatches a daring plot to help his sister and others flee East Berlin through a 145-yard underground tunnel.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Germany
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: suspense, suspenseful, tense, political, compassionate, captivating, realistic, touching, costume drama, serious
Similar in 81%
Fuehrer Ex (2002)
Plot Summary:
Ingo Hasselbach, whose parents were Communist Party members in East Germany during his childhood, has lived at both ends of the political seesaw. The question of how people reach a change of heart is a profound one; Hasselbach describes the external forces that led to his founding Germany's first neo-Nazi political party and the internal ones that led him away from it five years later.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, disturbing, tense, rough, bleak, realistic