Best movies like In the Shadows of the City
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
To escape the civil war between Christians and Muslims, a Lebanese family moves from the countryside to Beirut, only to find themselves caught in an equally dangerous situation.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 51
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Lebanon
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, serious, suspenseful
Best tv shows and movies like In the Shadows of the City (2000):
Similar in 80%
Two Fingers from Sidon (1986)
Plot Summary:
The story of a platoon of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon of 1986, shortly before Israeli withdrawal, and the dilemmas they face in having to fight against Lebanese guerilla in a hostile but civilian area.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 115
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Under the Bombs (2007)
Plot Summary:
In the wake of Israel's 2006 bombardment of Lebanon, a determined woman finds her way into the country convincing a taxi driver to take a risky journey around the scarred region in search of her sister and her son.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Lebanon, UK
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, touching, offbeat, islamic, crying
Similar in 81%
Flanders (2006)
Plot Summary:
André Demester secretly and painfully loves Barbe, his childhood friend, accepting from her the little that she gives him. He leaves home to be a soldier in a war in a far off land. Barbarity, camaraderie and fear turn him into a warrior. As the seasons go by, Barbe, alone and wasting away, waits for the soldiers to return. Will Demester’s boundless love for Barbe save him?.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, slow cinema, exciting, captivating, suspenseful, bleak, disturbing, controversial, contemplative
Similar in 80%
The Perfect Circle (1997)
Plot Summary:
An alcoholic Bosnian poet sends his wife and daughter away from Sarajevo so they can avoid the troubles there. However, he is soon descended upon by a pair of orphaned brothers. The brothers have escaped a massacre in their own village and have come to the Bosnian capital in search of a long lost Aunt. The poet befriends the boys and together they try to survive the horror of the siege of Sarajevo.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: islamic, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Checkpoint (1999)
Plot Summary:
A group Russian soldiers is send to an outpost to guard the area. They pass the day patroulling the area, while being shot at from the forest. They never know if the civillions are hostile or friendly to them.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 855
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Russia
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
My Brother's War (2005)
Plot Summary:
Civil War drama directed by Whitney Hamilton. Grace Kieler disguises herself as a man and takes her brother's place in the Confederate army in an effort to protect him from the horrors of the war. When she meets young war widow Virginia Klaising (Dana Bennison), the two form a bond that may get complicated once Grace reveals her true identity. My Brother's War is based on Hamilton's novel.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 75
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, atmospheric, captivating, independent film, entertaining
Similar in 82%
The Zookeeper (2001)
Plot Summary:
Jonah Ludovic (Sam Neill) is a custodian at a small municipal zoo. After a night of heavy shelling Ludovic arrives at his job to find the staff abandoning the zoo. He joins a skeleton crew that includes an elderly guard and a veterinarian (Om Puri). Their purpose: to keep the animals alive until help arrives from an international zoological mission.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Denmark, UK, Czech Republic, Netherlands
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, rough, suspenseful, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, biting
Similar in 76%
David & Fatima (2008)
Plot Summary:
A retelling of Romeo and Juliet in Jerusalem involving a Palestinian woman and an Israeli man.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 231
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, captivating, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Postcard (2010)
Plot Summary:
Toward the end of World War II, middle-aged soldier Keita is entrusted with a postcard from a comrade who is sure he will die in battle. After the war ends, Keita visits his comrade's wife Yuko and bears witness to the tragic life she has led. This year's Oscar entry from Japan finds SHINDO in top form and his 49th and reportedly last film as fresh and poignant as ever. (from imdb).
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 264
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 79%
Shot Through the Heart (1998)
Plot Summary:
The horrors of war are examined from the view points of lifelong friends (Linus Roache, Vincent Perez), who end up on opposing sides in the civil war in Sarajevo. One is an expert marksman, who trains the snipers used to terrify the city and the other becomes a freedom fighter, who rejects his friend's offer to gain an escape from the city. As might be expected, the two eventually have to face-off against one another.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, biting, suspense
Similar in 84%
Guernica (2016)
Plot Summary:
The fates of Henry - an American correspondent - and Teresa, one of the Republic's censors during the Spanish Civil War.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, informative
Similar in 88%
The Road to Guantanamo (2006)
Plot Summary:
Part drama, part documentary, The Road to Guantánamo focuses on the Tipton Three, a trio of British Muslims who were held in Guantanamo Bay for two years until they were released without charge.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, realistic, intense, serious, suspenseful, tense, sincere, political, road movie
Similar in 86%
Lebanon: The Soldier's Journey (2009)
Plot Summary:
June, 1982 - The First Lebanon War. A lone tank and a paratroopers platoon are dispatched to search a hostile town - a simple mission that turns into a nightmare. The four members of a tank crew find themselves in a violent situation that they cannot contain. Motivated by fear and the basic instinct of survival, they desperately try not to lose themselves in the chaos of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel, France, Germany, UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, suspenseful, disturbing, sincere, touching, depressing, educational, powerful, twisted
Similar in 88%
West Beirut (1998)
Plot Summary:
In April, 1975, civil war breaks out; Beirut is partitioned along a Moslem-Christian line. Tarek is in high school, making Super 8 movies with his friend, Omar. At first the war is a lark: school has closed, the violence is fascinating, getting from West to East is a game. His mother wants to leave; his father refuses. Tarek spends time with May, a Christian, orphaned and living in his building. By accident, Tarek goes to an infamous brothel in the war-torn Olive Quarter, meeting its legendary madam, Oum Walid. He then takes Omar and May there using her underwear as a white flag for safe passage. Family tensions rise. As he comes of age, the war moves inexorably from adventure to tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Norway, Lebanon, Belgium
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, melancholic, compassionate, emotional, sad, islamic, sincere, serious, realistic, sexy
Similar in 81%
Killer Kid (1994)
Plot Summary:
Eleven-year-old Laïd lives in war-torn Lebanon. Chosen and trained by an extremist organisation, he has been forced to enter the adult world far too early. He has been transformed into a fanatical and programmed machine, whose life could be summed up in the words "kill without hesitation".Because of his intellect and his commitment to the holy war he is handpicked for a deadly assignment in Paris. But in order to get access to the target he has to learn how to merge in, to become an ordinary eleven-year-old. Karim becomes his role model. Karim is the same age as Laïd and grew up in one of the Paris suburbs. He is carefree and "hip" and becomes the perfect teacher in a world of skateboards, rap music and video games.Despite the cultural differences, despite the fact that one of them is an indoctrinated machine and the other one a perfectly ordinary carefree boy, a friendship begins to grow between the two.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, disturbing, crying
Similar in 78%
Pavilion of Women (2001)
Plot Summary:
With World War 2 looming, a prominent family in China must confront the contrasting ideas of traditionalism, communism and Western thinking, while dealing with the most important ideal of all: love and its meaning in society.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: China, USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, tense, crying, intercultural
Similar in 76%
Strayed (2003)
Plot Summary:
Fleeing the June 1940 arrival of Hitler's army in Paris, a young war widow and her two children are rescued from dive-bombing German fighters by a cocky, reckless teenager. He finds them refuge in an abandoned house, but despite the fact that the family quickly comes to be depending much on his cunning and survival abilities, their cohabitation proves uneasy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, UK
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, suspenseful, erotic, road movie, thought provoking, intelligent, romantic drama, tense
Similar in 82%
Carla's Song (1996)
Plot Summary:
A Glasgow man (Robert Carlyle) visits war-torn Nicaragua with a refugee (Oyanka Cabezas) tormented by her memories.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, Spain, Germany
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: political, independent film, tense, sincere, rough, thought provoking, serious, realistic, suspense, crying
Similar in 87%
The Kite (2003)
Plot Summary:
A young 15 year old girl, Lamia, lives in a southern Lebanese village on the border with Israel. She is given in marriage to her cousin on the other side of the border. As Lamia crosses the barbed wire she also passes from childhood into adulthood, as brutal as our countries and the events that are to follow.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 785
Genere: Drama
Country: Lebanon, France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 77%
Private (2004)
Plot Summary:
A Palestinian family is trapped inside a house commandeered by Israeli soldiers.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 922
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, suspenseful, disturbing, tense, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Circle of Deceit (1981)
Plot Summary:
Georg Laschen leaves his family in West Germany to go work as a war correspondent in Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 948
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 75%
An Unforgettable Summer (1994)
Plot Summary:
In 1925 Romania, young Marie-Therese Von Debretsy refuses the flirtatious advances of her husband's commanding officer. As a result, the cosmopolitan family is reassigned to a brutally bleak and dangerous outpost on the Bulgarian/Romanian frontier where both their relationship and humanity are severely tested.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Romania, France
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: meditative, light, atmospheric, melancholic, talky, serious, realistic, costume drama, bleak, romantic
Similar in 87%
Before the Rain (1994)
Plot Summary:
The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, France
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: political, atmospheric, realistic, anthology, erotic, mystical, sentimental, sincere, emotional, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Harrison's Flowers (2000)
Plot Summary:
Harrison Lloyd is a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist. His wife and family are making it hard for him to keep his mind on his work when he's in a war zone, and he wants to change jobs to something less stressful. But he's got one last assignment, in war-torn Yugoslavia, in 1991, at the height of the fighting. Word comes back that he apparently died in a building collapse, but his wife Sarah (also a journalist for Newsweek) refuses to believe that he's dead and goes looking for him. She's helped immensely by the photo-journalists Eric Kyle and Marc Stevenson that she runs into over there; together, they're determined to make it through the chaotic landscape to Vukovar, which is not only the nexus of the war but where she believes Harrison is located. Meanwhile, Harrison's son Cesar is looking after his father's prized greenhouse, keeping hope, and flowers, alive.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: disturbing, suspense, bleak, realistic, political, art house, brutal, serious, gloomy, crying
Similar in 82%
Gardens of Stone (1987)
Plot Summary:
A sergeant must deal with his desires to save the lives of young soldiers being sent to Vietnam. Continuously denied the chance to teach the soldiers about his experiences, he settles for trying to help the son of an old army buddy.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: realistic, intense, harsh, bleak, sincere, touching, serious, emotional, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
Plot Summary:
When a Greek fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during WWII, his fiancee falls in love with the local Italian commander. The film is based on a novel about an Italian soldier's experiences during the Italian occupation of the Greek island of Cephalonia (Kefalonia), but Hollywood made it into a pure love story by removing much of the "unpleasant" stuff.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance, War
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: sentimental, romantic, intense, melancholic, serious, realistic, epic, educational, cult classic, romantic drama
Similar in 83%
Dresden (2006)
Plot Summary:
At a Dresden hospital in 1945, nurse Anna Mauth (Felicitas Woll) cares for badly injured British pilot Robert Newman (John Light), whom Anna believes to be a German deserter. As Allied forces close in, Anna grows close to Robert despite her engagement to Dr. Alexander Wenninger (Benjamin Sadler). The gripping historical romance won a 2006 German Television Award.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 176 min
Plot tags: tense, touching, serious, captivating, political thriller, period piece, realistic, tragic
Similar in 76%
Only the Brave (2006)
Plot Summary:
A searing portrait of war and prejudice, 'Only the Brave' takes you on a haunting journey into the hearts and minds of the forgotten heroes of WWII - the Japanese-American 100th/442nd.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 909
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspenseful, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 75%
Talk of Angels (1998)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of a young Irish woman who comes to Spain to escape from the pressures she feels about her impending marriage to a political activist in Ireland. But in Spain in the 1930's, taking a job of governess in a wealthy family, she finds the same kinds of political unrest. In fact, it isn't long before she finds herself attracted to a married man who is similarly involved in the struggle against fascism and Franco. This awakens her to her nature that brings her to such men and resolves for her what she must do about the life she left in Ireland.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 893
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sentimental, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 75%
Earth (1998)
Plot Summary:
It's 1947 and the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl bears witnesses to tragedy as her ayah is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: India, Canada
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, offbeat, poignant, art house, romantic drama, tense, sincere, serious