Best movies like Havel
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
It's the summer of '68 and the young Czech playwright Vaclav Havel is enjoying the heady atmosphere of new- found freedom as the iron grip of Soviet repression gradually loosens throughout Central Europe. In Havel's Prague, politics are as exciting as theatre, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Havel, though, is a comfortable and acclaimed playwright, and he's determined to avoid conflict that might upset his world. He resists confrontation with the political authorities - led by the celebrated politician Alexander Dubcek - and he tries to carry out his romantic escapades without undermining his marriage to his beloved Olga. Havel's fling with freedom comes to an abrupt and violent end when Soviet Russia invades Czechoslovakia. When Havel refuses to sign a regime-sponsored document approving of the Russian occupation, the government removes him from his theater and from his prestigious position at the pinnacle of Czech cultural life. The now-banned author retreats from the limelight to his.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 492
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: non-linear, serious, captivating, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Havel (2020):
Similar in 82%
Man of Iron (1981)
Plot Summary:
In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends Winkel, a weak, alcoholic TV hack, to Gdansk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers, particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an articulate worker whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: political, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying
Similar in 81%
Charlatan (2020)
Plot Summary:
The breathtaking story of a man gifted with exceptional abilities set against the background of the events of the totalitarian fifties.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland, Slovakia
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: non-linear, psychological, tense, unusual plot structure, suspense, suspenseful, contemplative, thought provoking, spiritual, social
Similar in 82%
Zahradnictv?: Rodinn? p??tel (2017)
Plot Summary:
Melodrama set in Czech Republic during the Germain occupation.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 168
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, captivating, melancholic, suspenseful, crying
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23rd March 1931: Shaheed (2002)
Plot Summary:
Bhagat Singh, a freedom fighter, is arrested for killing the British official responsible for the death of his mentor Lala Lajpatrai. He is ultimately hanged for his misdeed.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 792
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: India
Duration: 188 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, captivating
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A Prominent Patient (2016)
Plot Summary:
It is 1939. Flamboyant Czech diplomat Jan Masaryk has fled to America to escape his recent past. Germany has invaded Czechoslovakia and Masaryk is now a man with no nation. In America he tries to forget the personal and political betrayal he and his country have suffered but these events shadow his every step. As the Czechoslovak ambassador in London, Masaryk failed to win the support of the British and could not avert the ruination of his country. With the help of Dr. Stein, an emigre German psychiatrist, and the beautiful writer Marcia Davenport, Masaryk tries to overcome his demons and re-live the dramatic events leading to the outbreak of the second world war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 814
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, disturbing, stylized
Similar in 90%
Burning Bush (2013)
Plot Summary:
Burning Bush is a three-part mini-series created for HBO by world-renowned Polish director Agnieszka Holland. Based on real characters and events, this haunting drama focuses on the personal sacrifice of a Prague history student, Jan Palach, who set himself on fire in protest against the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1969. Dagmar Buresová, a young female lawyer, became part of his legacy by defending Jan's family in a trial against the communist government, a regime which tried to dishonour Palach's sacrifice, a heroic action for the freedom of Czechoslovakia.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic
Duration: 231 min
Plot tags: bleak, realistic, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, political, captivating, interesting
Similar in 89%
The Outlaw (2010)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of the life of Spanish playwright and poet Lope de Vega, who dominated Spain’s early Golden Age of Theatre in the 16th Century. Lope returns home from war and enters the theatre world when a producer’s beautiful daughter takes a shine to him. They embark on a passionate affair as his plays begin to win popular acclaim.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Spain, Brazil, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, clever, realistic, stylized, baroque, weird
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Another Way (1982)
Plot Summary:
Political and sexual repression in Hungary, just after the revolution of 1956. In 1958, the body of Eva Szalanczky, a political journalist, is discovered near the border. Her friend Livia is in hospital with a broken neck; Livia's husband, Donci, is under arrest. In a flashback to the year before, we see what leads up to the tragedy. Eva gets a job as a writer. She meets Livia and is attracted to her. Livia feels much the same, but as a married woman, has doubts and hesitations. In their work, they (and Eva in particular) bang up against the limits of telling political truths; in private, they confront the limits of living out sexual and emotional truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 899
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Hungary
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: political, historical drama, sincere, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, queer cinema
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Similar in 79%
Milada (2017)
Plot Summary:
The story of communist show-trial victim Milada Horáková. Horáková was one of the first victims of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. She opposed the communist coup in 1948 but did not leave the country. She was arrested and tried for treason on fabricated charges in a show trial that was broadcast on the radio and shown in film clips. The film focuses on the time from 1945 to 1950 when the communists took over, but also goes back a little further in Horáková's life into the late 1930s.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Czech Republic, USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: exciting, suspenseful, tense, touching, captivating
Similar in 76%
The Young Karl Marx (2017)
Plot Summary:
26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 in Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist’s son, who has been investigating the sordid birth of the British working class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx’s new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police’s repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, philosophical, social, independent film, historical drama, informative
Similar in 87%
Machuca (2004)
Plot Summary:
Santiago, capital of Chile during the Marxist government of elected, highly controversial president Salvador Allende. Father McEnroe supports his leftist views by introducing a program at the prestigious "collegio" (Catholic prep school) St. Patrick to allow free admission of some proletarian kids. One of them is Pedro Machuca, slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo Infante's liberal-bourgeois home. Yet the new classmates become buddies, paradoxically protesting together as Gonzalo gets adopted by Pedro's slum family and gang. But the adults spoil that too, not in the least when general Pinochet's coup ousts Allende, and supporters such as McEnroe.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Chile, Spain, UK, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, touching, emotional, thought provoking, serious, realistic, social, hispanic, sentimental
Similar in 76%
Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013)
Plot Summary:
Muhammad Ali’s historic Supreme Court battle from behind closed doors. When Ali was drafted into the Vietnam War at the height of his boxing career, his claim to conscientious objector status led to a controversial legal battle that rattled the U.S. judicial system right up to the highest court in the land.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, thought provoking, realistic, talky, independent film
Similar in 86%
Capote (2005)
Plot Summary:
A biopic of the writer, Truman Capote and his assignment for The New Yorker to write the non-fiction book, 'In Cold Blood'.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 139000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: intellectual, captivating, dark, dramatic, talky, psychological, historical drama, atmospheric, inspirational, retro
Similar in 86%
The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
Plot Summary:
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex depicts the political turmoil in the period from 1967 to the bloody "Deutschen Herbst" in 1977. The movie approaches the events based on Stefan Aust's standard work on Die Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF). The story centers on the leadership of the self named anti-fascist resistance to state violence: Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Action, Biography, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: Germany, France, Czech Republic
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: political, bleak, realistic, harsh, intense, rough, suspenseful, disturbing, sincere, serious
Similar in 80%
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013)
Plot Summary:
A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, France, South Africa
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, political, inspirational, educational, social, novela, cult classic, informative
Similar in 88%
Cry Freedom (1987)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic story, based on actual events, about the friendship between two men struggling against apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s. Donald Woods is a white liberal journalist in South Africa who begins to follow the activities of Stephen Biko, a courageous and outspoken black anti-apartheid activist.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, Zimbabwe, USA
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: inspirational, political, cult classic, political thriller, edutainment, tense, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating
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Danton (1983)
Plot Summary:
Danton and Robespierre were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, Poland
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: political, epic, talky, spiritual, anthology, art film, historical drama, historically accurate, serious, captivating
Similar in 80%
Luther (2003)
Plot Summary:
During the early 16th Century idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Germany, USA, Czech Republic, Italy
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: uplifting, political, biblical, christian film, sincere, touching, intellectual, inspirational, costume drama, intense
Similar in 79%
Devil's Mistress (2016)
Plot Summary:
A film about the black-and-white era actress Lída Baarová and her doomed love affair.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: captivating, touching, suspense, disturbing, meta, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 80%
Catch a Fire (2006)
Plot Summary:
The true story of anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and particularly the life of Patrick Chamusso, a timid foreman at Secunda CTL, the largest synthetic fuel plant in the world. Patrick is wrongly accused, imprisoned and tortured for an attempt to bomb the plant, with the injustice transforming the apolitical worker into a radicalised insurgent, who then carries out his own successful sabotage mission.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, UK, South Africa, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: tense, political, factual, emotional, harsh, thought provoking, serious, disturbing, realistic, intense
Similar in 89%
Goodbye Bafana (2007)
Plot Summary:
The true story of a white South African racist whose life was profoundly altered by the black prisoner he guarded for twenty years. The prisoner's name was Nelson Mandela.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Germany, France, Belgium, South Africa, Italy, UK, Luxembourg
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, realistic, political, inspirational, novela, sincere, clever, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Malcolm X (1992)
Plot Summary:
A tribute to the controversial black activist and leader of the struggle for black liberation. He hit bottom during his imprisonment in the '50s, he became a Black Muslim and then a leader in the Nation of Islam. His assassination in 1965 left a legacy of self-determination and racial pride.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 100000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, Japan
Duration: 202 min
Plot tags: inspirational, political, factual, intense, stylized, realistic, thought provoking, serious, captivating, emotional
Similar in 81%
Gandhi (1982)
Plot Summary:
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 238000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, India, USA, South Africa
Duration: 191 min
Plot tags: epic, spiritual, inspirational, political, uplifting, factual, motivational, touching, compassionate, emotional
Similar in 81%
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
Plot Summary:
The story of journalist, Edward R Murrow's stand against Senator McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 101000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, France, Japan, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: black and white, political, tense, melancholic, factual, period piece, disturbing, dramatic, sincere, clever
Similar in 78%
Milk (2008)
Plot Summary:
The story of California's first openly gay elected official, Harvey Milk, who became an outspoken agent for change, seeking equal rights and opportunities for all. His great love for the city and its people brought him backing from young and old, straight and gay, alike – at a time when prejudice and violence against gays was openly accepted as the norm.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 178000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, political, realistic, sincere, touching, sad, inspirational, serious, contemplative, emotional
Similar in 89%
LBJ (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson from his young days in West Texas to the White House.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: political, serious, emotional, suspense, realistic, historical drama, political drama
Similar in 89%
Reds (1981)
Plot Summary:
A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 195 min
Plot tags: epic, political, tense, sentimental, serious, captivating, atmospheric, breathtaking, philosophical, road movie
Similar in 87%
The Last Emperor (1987)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 110000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: China, Italy, UK, France
Duration: 163 min
Plot tags: visually stunning, epic, political, breathtaking, visually appealing, period piece, emotional, historical drama, historically accurate, erotic
Similar in 81%
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Plot Summary:
For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Frost's team harboured doubts about their boss's ability to hold his own. But as the cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 112000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: clever, political, tense, tricky, psychological, factual, period piece, realistic, talky, political thriller
Similar in 77%
Oppenheimer (2023)
Plot Summary:
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 548000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: epic, period piece, historical drama, surprise ending, suspense, non-linear, tension, inspirational, period drama, interesting