Best movies like Gates to Paradise
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Directed by Polish auteur Andrzej Wajda, the obscure gem unfolds as a sort of 13th century Road Trip, with youthful hormones and selfish impatience trumping nearly all of the (supposedly) pious preoccupations of their handsome leader Jacques (blonde heartthrob John Fordyce, constantly and comically running his fingers through his Beatlesque moptop).
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 228
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Yugoslavia
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Gates to Paradise (1968):
Similar in 77%
Narcissus and Goldmund (2020)
Plot Summary:
In the dark middle ages young unruly Goldmund is sent to a monastery by his father to atone for the sins of his mother, who abandoned them. It is there that he meets Narcissus, a brilliant, scholarly novice, who is introverted and aloof. A unique and deep life-long friendship is born. Narcissus chooses to remain detached from the world in prayer and meditation. Goldmund, who is passionate, sensual and impulsive, runs away from the monastery to live a picaresque wanderer’s life, his amorous and artistic adventures leading him to discover the extremes of both ecstasy and pain. Several thrilling years pass, until one day these friends cross paths again.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Austria
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, captivating
Similar in 83%
Boy Toys (2010)
Plot Summary:
Laruang Lalake is a realist film that portrays the workers within the Filipino gay film industry and their personal stories - from the naughty to the gritty, from the horny to the hopeful. The film weaves the journey of ambitious probinsyano actor Samuel, Marc the idealistic film crew member who is secretly in love with Samuel and Wilredo a filmmaker on the brink of bankruptcy. And then there is also Peejay who is determined to steal a name for himeslf. As the camera grinds between naked bodies in homerotic play, its all in a day's work for eveyone living in a society that is yet to acept the Filipino gay man.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 88%
The Legacy of the Siren (2012)
Plot Summary:
Michel must go to dangerous lengths to save his wife and newborn child from the intrigues of the king’s mistress in this historical drama.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 290
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, Czech Republic
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: period drama
Similar in 75%
Mull (1989)
Plot Summary:
An Australian film about a teenage girl who takes responsibility for keeping her "family" together.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 74
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 84%
Ben & Sam (2010)
Plot Summary:
A college heartthrob meets a college newbie - a challenge, a tension, a discovery, and a love that will change everything between them.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 20
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Bareback ou La guerre des sens (2006)
Plot Summary:
A cinephile meets on a beach in Ramatuelle his favorite filmmaker. He proposes to film the painful adventure that is just live. The two men will knit the scenes, each in its own way. The filmmaker keeps pushing the project, arguing that the chuting is not good. But perhaps there's a good reason not to go after the adventure.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 63
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: black comedy, dark comedy, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Confused Feelings (1981)
Plot Summary:
It is the story of a middle age professor who falls deaply in love with a young student in his English literature class. The student is a boarder in the teacher's house. The teacher is married and his wife knows he is mostly attracted to young men. She loves him nevertheless. The whole story revolves around a book the professor will write, dictating to his young pupil... he will only declare his love at the end of the writing ...and, it is too late.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama
Country: France, West Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
The Man in Her Life (1997)
Plot Summary:
Selya is disappointed with Bobby who only wants sex but no real relationship nor marriage. So she leaves and decides to marry the gay Ramon who, she is convinced, is definitely different.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 383
Genere: Drama
Country: Philippines
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 79%
Lie with Me (2022)
Plot Summary:
An author returns to his hometown of Cognac for the first time in 35 years to help promote a distillery. Once there, he meets his first love’s son, Lucas. Memories come rushing back to him: irrepressible attraction, bodies becoming one in the heat of desire, a passion that can never be revealed… His first love’s name was Thomas. They were 17.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: gay cinema
Similar in 82%
B-Boy Blues (2021)
Plot Summary:
Follows the relationship of 27-year-old journalist Mitchell Crawford and 21-year-old bicycle messenger Raheim Rivers, who meet at a gay bar in Greenwich Village during the summer of 1993.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 638
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 75%
Hagbard and Signe (1967)
Plot Summary:
The mountain slopes of Iceland are shown to excellent advantage in the Scandinavian epic Hagbard and Signe. The story, based on an ancient legend, concerns Hagbard (Oleg Vidov), the son of a slain Norse king. Seeking revenge against the rival clan responsible for the killing, Hagbard calms down long enough to establish a truce. He also falls in love with Signe (Gitte Haenning), daughter of his onetime enemy. Signe's former beau, sizzling with jealousy, breaks the truce and makes it appear that Hagbard was responsible. The young prince escapes, but returns disguised as a woman to his beloved Signe. Thanks to a treacherous handmaiden, both lovers are imprisoned and sentenced to be hanged. Rather than undergo this final ignominy, Hagbard and Signe enter into a suicide pact. A Danish/ Swedish/ Icelandic coproduction, Hagbard and Signe was released throughout Scandinavia as Den Rode Kappe, Den Rodda Kappan and Rautha Skikkjan.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 161
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Denmark, Iceland, Sweden
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: saga
Similar in 75%
Closing Numbers (1993)
Plot Summary:
Keith, Anna and their son Peter are a close, loving family living in a smart suburban street of a provincial city. Anna is a typical middle-class housewife, filling her day with good works, until one day, when she finds a note that leads to a shattering discovery - her husband has been having an affair. Anna's intense shock at finding out Keith's secret is compounded when she arranges to meet his lover. When Steve arrives at the meeting place, Anna is forced to accept the fact that Keith has been leading a double life for the length of their marriage. Steve stresses the risk of AIDS and urges Anna to have an AIDS test. To show her what it can be like to live with the disease, he introduces her to Jim, who needs 24-hour care and has developed a realistic attitude towards his own death. When Keith leaves home suddenly, Anna is forced to tell her son about the threat of HIV, but Peter turns violently against her and runs away.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 143
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 82%
Open Bodies (1998)
Plot Summary:
Born to a North African father and a French mother, 18-year-old Parisian high school senior Rémi works part-time in an Arab grocery store while studying management and commerce. He responds to a school ad seeking subjects for a film, and Marc, who placed the ad, auditions Rémi by filming an interview with him. Rémi and Marc wind up in bed, and Rémi soon has other sexual experiences – with a guy in a men's room and with a young woman who grabs him while she's dancing in the street.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 189
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 47 min
Plot tags: queer cinema
Similar in 85%
Chinese Chocolate (1995)
Plot Summary:
Searching for love abroad, two very different Chinese women, a dancer and a doctor, follow their dreams and journey west to Canada. They quickly learn that the paths of heart are rocky as the men in their lives reveal dark, unsettling secrets which change the lives of everyone forever. Intimately and honestly exploring for the first time the sexuality of Chinese women living in a foreign culture, this award-winning study of love and relationship makes for a unforgettable treat.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 128
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 83%
Eye of the Eagle (1997)
Plot Summary:
In 1218 Danish king Valdemar sends his homonymous young son and heir in safety, as war is at the borders, to Erskil, the bishop of Ravensburg, who is instructed to see to the prince's education. Alas the bishop is the brain of a conspiracy to seize the crown for himself, as most of the nobles are dissatisfied with the endless wars that bring them no profit. The prince and kitchen-boy Aske accidentally fall out of the castle and overhear the conspirators, but are seen and pursued by the men of the One-eyed Man, a feared mercenary who is in the conspiracy to take mortal revenge on the king for leaving him behind on a battlefield where he lost an eye which was eaten by an eagle, which he tamed and now shares his sight with. Written by KGF Vissers.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 693
Genere: Action, Drama, Family, History, War
Country: Denmark
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: historical drama
Similar in 80%
Vlad the Impaler: The True Life of Dracula (1979)
Plot Summary:
Vlad Tepes, otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler and Dracula, fights the Ottoman Turks on the battlefield and the Hungarian Boyars in his court.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Romania
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: gothic, political
Similar in 81%
Macbeth (1983)
Plot Summary:
Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan in order to gain his crown, but the bloodbath doesn't stop there, and things supernatural combine to bring the Macbeths down.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 381
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: artsy
Similar in 79%
Kristin Lavransdotter (1995)
Plot Summary:
Kristin Lavransdatter is a 1995 Norwegian film directed by Liv Ullman, featuring Elisabeth Matheson, Bjørn Skagestad, Jørgen Langhelle, Lena Endre and Sverre Anker Ousdal, based on Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. It was the Norwegian entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Norway, Germany, Sweden
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 79%
Anchoress (1993)
Plot Summary:
Enter the medieval world of Christine Carpenter, a visionary girl who is to become an Anchoress (walled-in recluse) so that she can "live in the Virgin's house forever." Based on actual letters that were written about such an Anchoress in 1325, the film follows Christine as she awakens to her own sensuality and explores her own female, earth-based spirituality.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 435
Genere: Drama
Country: Belgium, UK
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: black and white, psychological, sexy, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 90%
Valley of the Bees (1968)
Plot Summary:
Ondrej, a young boy who loves bees and bats, is introduced to his new mother, a woman much younger than his father. Her brings her a bowl of flower petals which she starts to throw in the air and then gives out a shriek, as she discovers several bats in the bottom of the bowl. In a rage, Ondrej's father picks the boy up and hurls him against a wall. Then as the boy lays in a stupor the father promises the Holy Virgin to dedicate the boy to her if she will spare his life. The boy lives and Ondrej is raised in a strict monastic order, where he is mentored by a very pious warrior monk, Armin. One day after being chastised for no good reason, he escapes and returns home. Armin heads out to bring him back. With his father dead, Ondrej becomes lord of the castle and becomes engaged to his father's widow. Near the end, Armin shows up and attempts to get Ondrej to come back to the order.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: philosophical, spiritual, black and white, cerebral, epic, serious, captivating, realistic, thought provoking
Similar in 80%
Beatrice (1987)
Plot Summary:
Somewhere in France during the Middle Ages. Béatrice is impatient to see her father return from English captivity. She doesn't expect however that the father whom she loves from distance will be the most hateful person who will submit her and her family to abuse and humiliation.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 762
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Italy
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, period drama
Similar in 90%
Three Suns (2004)
Plot Summary:
The plague hits medieval Sweden.
IMDB Rating: 2.8
IMDB Votes: 875
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, realistic, captivating
Similar in 76%
Boys on Film 18: Heroes (2018)
Plot Summary:
Boys On Film comes of age with uplifting and powerful tales recounting the lives of everyday heroes striving for their own identities and fighting for the right for us all to be ourselves. Volume 18: Heroes includes ten complete films: Dean Loxton's "Dániel" starring Csémy Balázs, Hilda Péter, and Henry Garrett; Niels Bourgonje's "Buddy" starring Daniel Cornelissen and Tobias Nierop; Tamara Shogaolu's animated "Half A Life"; Victor Lindgren's "Undress Me" starring Jana Bringlöv Ekspong and Björn Elgerd; Sam Ashby's "The Colour Of His Hair" starring Sean Hart and Josh O'Connor; Hope Dickson Leach's "Silly Girl" starring Ciara Baxendale, Mollie Lambert, and Jason Barker; Søren Green's "An Evening" starring Jacob Ottensten and Ulrik Windfeldt-Schmidt; Alejandro Medina's documentary "AIDS: Doctors And Nurses Tell Their Stories"; Kai Stänicke's "It's Consuming Me" with Volkmar Leif Gilbert; and Mikael Bundsen's "Mother Knows Best" starring Alexander Gustavsson and Hanna Ullerstam.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining, gay cinema, queer cinema
Similar in 87%
The Knights of the Quest (2001)
Plot Summary:
In 1271, five young knights journey to Thebes in Greece to recover the Sacred Shroud and deliver it back to France and into the hands of the royal family.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 570
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Soldier of God (2005)
Plot Summary:
“Soldier of God” A film by W. D. Hogan From The New York Times Director W. D. Hogan‘s sweeping period epic “Soldier of God” unfurls in the Middle East of the late Twelfth Century. As the story opens, the Knights Templar, a religious order originally assigned to protect Christian pilgrims, has disintegrated from chivalric order and justice into dissolute chaos, as its individual factions bloodthirstily vie with one another for power and control.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 523
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, exciting, epic, realistic
Similar in 75%
Shadow of the Raven (1988)
Plot Summary:
Trausti returns to Iceland just in time to be entangled in a family feud over a stranded whale-cadaver. His mother (the family head) is mortally wounded and Grim kills Erikur; the other clan leader. Isold, daughter of Erikur now takes his place. Isold and Trausti are attracted to each other, but Isold was promised to Hjoerleifur - the son of the Bishop (of Iceland) and his powerful wife. However, Isold has a plan.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 871
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Sweden, Iceland, Norway
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: cult classic
Similar in 83%
Proud Heritage (1989)
Plot Summary:
Following the 1394 Battle of Rovine between the Wallachian and Ottoman armies Wallachian ruler Mircea the Elder consolidates his reign.In a small civil war he manages to oust his brother Dan from Wallachia.Dan's dream of usurping the Wallachian throne is destroyed and he is banished from the kingdom.After this confrontation Prince Mircea the Elder ruler of Wallachia receives envoys from the Polish king and from the Ottoman sultan.In their attempt to conquer Europe the Ottoman Turks are seeking European allies.Their envoys to Wallachia want to persuade Prince Mircea to join them but the Polish envoys also are hoping to sway Wallachia to their side.Prince Mircea of Wallachia hesitates.An alliance with fellow Christian Poles seems logical but their conditions are harsh.The conditions of a possible military alliance with the Ottoman Turks are more attractive.However,the Ottoman Turks are Muslim and they also are the traditional enemies of the small Christian kingdom of Wallachia.Caught.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 832
Genere: Action, Drama, History, War
Country: Romania
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Hamlet (1990)
Plot Summary:
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, finds out that his uncle Claudius killed his father to obtain the throne, and plans revenge.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, UK, France
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, compassionate, bleak, psychological, serious, disturbing, costume drama, fairy tale, stylized
Similar in 89%
The Bruce (1996)
Plot Summary:
Robert the Bruce unites the Scots in a rebellion against the hated English, led by Edward I. He is supported by various loyal followers, notably the bishop who agrees to recognize his claim and crown him as King of the Scots.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 619
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 83%
Crusaders (2001)
Plot Summary:
Towards the end of the eleventh century, Pope Urban II announces a crusade against the Saracens, who have occupied the holy city of Jerusalem. Three young friends Richard, Peter and Andrew set off to join the crusading army.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 585
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Italy, Germany
Duration: 194 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, epic