Best movies like Hard to Be a God
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Another planet in the period of medieval times. An employee of the institute of experimental history from Earth, who is send under the name of noble don Rumata of Estor as a spy with a mission to contact the local resident of the institute, arrives in the city of Arkanar. But the resident perishes under an unlucky attempt to make a palace coup, and Rumata have to take his place as the resident. Soon he meets all the horrors of the medieval society - a peasant war, palace coups, mass executions. To continue to be an indifferent watcher of all these horrors turns out to be simply impossible.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: West Germany, France, Soviet Union, Switzerland
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: philosophical, surreal, disturbing, grotesque, weird, eighties
Best tv shows and movies like Hard to Be a God (1989):
Similar in 79%
Sumuru (2003)
Plot Summary:
Based on Sax Rohmer's cult novels "Sumuru", the futuristic fantasy take you to an Earth colony in the far future in which woman rule and men are used to propagate the race and work in the mines.
IMDB Rating: 3.6
IMDB Votes: 783
Genere: Adventure, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Country: South Africa, Canada, UK, Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Wolf's Hole (1987)
Plot Summary:
In this Czech political allegory-cum-sci-fi adventure, ten teens from different schools find themselves chosen to take part in a special skiing workshop in the mountains. On the day of the seminar, eleven young people, each bearing an invitation, arrive. A massive avalanche occurs and the ski-lodge is cut off from outside contact. Unfortunately, food supplies are limited and the three instructors strongly advise that the youths work together to make do or choose someone to leave. Time passes and soon the kids learn that their "teachers" are not what they seem to be.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 686
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: psychotronic, gothic, gothic horror
Similar in 81%
Anti-Clock (1979)
Plot Summary:
A complex and fascinating experimental exploration of time and identity. ‘Anti-Clock is a film of authentic, startling originality. Brilliantly mixing cinema and video techniques, Arden and Bond have created a movie that captures the anxiety and sense of danger that has infiltrated the consciousness of so many people in western society.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 232
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: mysterious, disturbing, experimental, independent film, weird, masterpiece
Similar in 85%
Mirror for a Hero (1987)
Plot Summary:
Two not quite similar men, our contemporaries, Sergey Pshenichny and Andrew Nemchinov, are walking in the street in their native mining town and found themselves in 1949. It's a common knowledge that real miracles happen without technical devices: time comes miracle happens. They spend in 1949 only one day the next morning they found that it is the same day that was yesterday. All several months, they spent in the past, they spent in one and the same day: the 8th of May, Sunday, the day of heightened coal production. In the morning to the coal mine, in an hour an accident in a coalface, at 10 o'clock wire from the Ministry, after work reunion concerning the Stalins anniversary; robbing of pay desk, death of policeman Ryabenko, in the evening - volunteer Sunday work… and in the morning the same, and so for ever and ever Philosophic fiction, accompanied by music of group Nautilus Pompillius. After a novel of S.Rybasa of the same name.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 716
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: social, surreal, philosophical
Similar in 86%
Dream City (1973)
Plot Summary:
A married couple of artists move to a utopian town known for its absolute freedom, but behind the surface perversion and violence are spreading.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Country: West Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: dark, experimental, surreal, disturbing, weird
Similar in 79%
Petrov's Flu (2021)
Plot Summary:
A day in the life of a comic book artist and his family in post-Soviet Russia. While suffering from the flu, Petrov is carried by his friend Igor on a long walk, drifting in and out of fantasy and reality.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Russia, France, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: absurd, surreal, suspenseful, thought provoking, enigmatic, visual, comedy drama, twist ending, art house, weird
Similar in 80%
The Witches Cave (1990)
Plot Summary:
An interstellar expedition is sent to study a strange planet. Despite the fact that creatures from various Earth time periods inhabit the world, the natives possess metal swords, even though they should have no knowledge of such weaponry.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 264
Genere: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Country: Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: psychotronic
Similar in 78%
Surfacing (1981)
Plot Summary:
Based on Margaret Atwood's best seller, Surfacing plunges you into the mysterious depths of the hostile Northern wilderness. Following her father's puzzling disappearance, Kate (Kathleen Beller), and her city-bred companions brave the untamed backwoods in a desperate search for him. However, the harsh environment becomes a dangerous catalyst for their explosive mix of personalities, propelling them into a world of raw emotion and unbridled passion. Directed by Claude Jutra, screenplay by Bernard Gordon.
IMDB Rating: 4.4
IMDB Votes: 160
Genere: Adventure, Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: independent film, art house, weird
Similar in 85%
The Captain Martens Brothers (1974)
Plot Summary:
Historical movie based on the "fratii Jderi" book. The movie is in the top 20 most watched Romanian movies.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: Romania
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Lilac Ball (1988)
Plot Summary:
Alisa Seleznyova and her father professor Seleznyov are traveling in space. They meet their old friend archaeologist Gromozeka, who's just discovered a planet all inhabitants of which died. It became known that they discovered a virus of hostility, got infected and killed each other. Gromozeka also discovered that they had left the virus on Earth 26000 years ago, and the virus is about to become loose. The only chance to save the Earth is to travel 26000 years back in time - to the epoch when witches, dragons and magicians lived along with usual people.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 394
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: futuristic
Similar in 85%
Pilot Pirx's Inquest (1979)
Plot Summary:
This movie is about a rocket pilot named Pirx who is hired to go on a mission to evaluate some nonlinears (robots) for use as crewmembers on future space flights. Pirx and his crew, made up of nonlinears and humans, are sent out to launch two satellites into the rings of Saturn. Upon returning to Earth there is an inquest to determine if Pirx was responsible for the "accident." In the end, it is found that one of the robots caused the malfunction in an attempt to kill the human crewmembers and Pirx is cleared of all charges. In this tale Lem puts forth the idea that what is perceived a human weakness is in fact an advantage over a perfect machine. Pirx defeats the robot, because a human can hesitate, make wrong decisions, have doubts, but a robot cannot. A similar idea is present in Isaac Asimov's Robot Series, where putting a robot in a position where it cannot chose between the Three laws of robotics fries its positronic brain.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 990
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Poland, Soviet Union
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: bizarre
Similar in 85%
Storm Planet (1962)
Plot Summary:
Four Soviet cosmonauts land on the planet Venus and find it teeming with life, some of it dangerous.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, futuristic, suspenseful, stylized, semi serious, vintage, cult film
Similar in 84%
Cries of Ecstasy, Blows of Death (1973)
Plot Summary:
In 2062, the last remaining humans battle each other in between hump sessions as their supply of clean, breathable air (supplied by a pipeline that's running dry) dwindles to nothing.
IMDB Rating: 4.2
IMDB Votes: 107
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: independent film, weird
Similar in 80%
The White King (2016)
Plot Summary:
Djata is a care-free 12-year-old growing up in a brutal dictatorship shut off from the outside world. When the government imprisons his father, Peter, and Djata and his mother Hannah are labeled traitors, the boy will not rest until he sees his father again.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: UK, Germany, Sweden, Hungary
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 81%
The Old Fairy Tale: When the Sun Was God (2003)
Plot Summary:
In IX century Europe, on the brink of Poland's birth, a cruel prince, Popiel, murders his cousins to ensure his son's succession. His crimes lead to an uprising of his subjects lead by the former commander of Popiel's army, Piastun, and a young hunter and warrior, Ziemowit. Meanwhile Ziemowit falls in love with Dziwa, lovely girl who is to become a priestess in the local temple.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspense, brutal
Similar in 90%
Days of Eclipse (1988)
Plot Summary:
This bleak late soviet-era drama follows the career of Malyanov, a young medical school graduate who has been sent to work in Turkmenia. Here he runs into a hodge-podge of people of differing ethnicities, all of them victims of the government's earlier mania for relocating and eliminating whole ethnic groups and classes of people. These desperately unhappy people are unable to find any pleasure in this diverse companionship, but instead are antagonistic to it, and often resort to desperate measures in their doomed attempts to ease their pain.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: spiritual, poetic, avant garde
Similar in 88%
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 85%
Hard to Be a God (2013)
Plot Summary:
A group of scientists is sent to the planet Arkanar to help the local civilization, which is in the Medieval phase of its own history, to find the right path to progress. Their task is a difficult one: they cannot interfere violently and in no case can they kill. The scientist Rumata tries to save the local intellectuals from their punishment and cannot avoid taking a position. As if the question were: what would you do in God's place? Director's statement Aleksei wanted to make this film his entire life. The road was a long one. This is not a film about cruelty, but about love. A love that was there, tangible, alive, and that resisted through the hardest of conditions.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Russia
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags: surreal, thought provoking, serious, black and white, philosophical, art house, captivating, futuristic, dark, realistic
Similar in 80%
Visitor of a Museum (1989)
Plot Summary:
It is the future, the world is in ruins and a large portion of the population consists of deformed mutants living in reservations. In this world a man decides to spend his vacation visiting the ruins of a museum that is now buried under the sea.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union, West Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, surreal, weird, eighties, bizarre
Similar in 75%
Dead Man's Letters (1986)
Plot Summary:
In a world after the nuclear apocalypse a scholar helps a small group of children and adults survive, staying with them in the basement of the former museum of history. In his mind he writes letters to his son — though it is obvious that they will never be read.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: apocalyptic, psychedelic, depressing, spiritual, mind blowing, poetic, twisted, eighties
Similar in 84%
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
Similar in 76%
On the Silver Globe (1988)
Plot Summary:
A small group of cosmic explorers leave Earth to find freedom and start a new civilization.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: Poland
Duration: 166 min
Plot tags: avant garde, surreal, atmospheric, art house, mind bending, psychedelic, dark, mysterious, deep, metafiction
Similar in 86%
Aniara (2018)
Plot Summary:
A ship carrying settlers to a new home in Mars after Earth is rendered uninhabitable is knocked off-course, causing the passengers to consider their place in the universe.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Sweden, Denmark, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: tragic ending, psychological, tense, philosophical, captivating, psychological thriller, atmospheric, realistic, dread, existential
Similar in 78%
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
Plot Summary:
Scientist Doctor Who accidentally activates his new invention, the Tardis, a time machine disguised as a police telephone box. Doctor Who, his two grand-daughters, and Barbara's boyfriend Ian are transported through time and space to the planet Skaro, where a peaceful race of Thals are under threat of nuclear attack from the planet's other inhabitants: the robotic mutant Daleks. Overview Written by Alexander Lum.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: UK
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: exciting, humorous, futuristic, stylized, semi serious, psychotronic, independent film
Similar in 79%
Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
Plot Summary:
In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, futuristic, suspenseful, captivating, stylized, anime, mecha
Similar in 84%
Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods (2009)
Plot Summary:
An alien similar to Ra appears out of the Stargate, killing five soldiers and kidnapping another, a year after the original Stargate mission. A new team is assembled, including some old members, and they go in search of the missing soldier in order to find out how Ra could still be alive. Meanwhile, the alien Gou'ald kidnap Sha're and Skaara, implanting them with symbiotes and making them Gou'ald hosts.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, stylized, futuristic
Similar in 86%
Stalker (1979)
Plot Summary:
Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, a place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers, and where the normal laws of physics are victim to frequent anomalies. A Stalker guides two men into the Zone, specifically to an area in which deep seeded desires are granted.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 142000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 162 min
Plot tags: philosophical, atmospheric, bleak, art house, cerebral, thought provoking, meditative, psychological, gloomy, mind bending
Similar in 77%
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Plot Summary:
Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who comes to Earth to get water for his dying planet. He starts a high technology company to get the billions of dollars he needs to build a return spacecraft. A British science-fiction film from director Nicolas Roeg and starring David Bowie.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: UK
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, surreal, stylized, independent film, cult classic, erotic, meditative, disturbing, serious, art house
Similar in 82%
The City of Lost Children (1995)
Plot Summary:
A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 71000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Country: France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: surreal, atmospheric, art house, stylized, gothic, disturbing, mindfuck, visual, visually stunning, mind bending
Similar in 87%
Interstellar (2014)
Plot Summary:
Interstellar chronicles the adventures of a group of explorers who make use of a newly discovered wormhole to surpass the limitations on human space travel and conquer the vast distances involved in an interstellar voyage.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 20000000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: USA, UK, Canada
Duration: 169 min
Plot tags: futuristic, mind bending, cerebral, philosophical, thought provoking, clever, atmospheric, breathtaking, serious, epic