Best movies like Letters from Marusia
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Originally Actas De Marusia, this Mexican film re-creates a dark chapter in the history of Chile. The scene is a small Chilean mining town in 1907. Suffering under the despotic rule of the British mine owners, the workers stage a revolt. The government's solution is to utterly destroy the town rather than allow the rebellion to spread. Letters from Marusia was adapted from a novel by Patricio Manns, which in turn was based on eyewitness accounts of the 1907 massacre.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 353
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Mexico
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Letters from Marusia (1975):
Similar in 87%
Cananea (1978)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story in the American owned Cananea mine. It depicts how the owner profits while the Mexican workers struggle to survive and are exploited for their labour.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 46
Genere: Drama, History, Western
Country: Mexico
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
1922 (1978)
Plot Summary:
Based on the book by Ilias Venezis "The Number 31328", the film by Nikos Koundouros unfolds through the personal tragedies of three characters, the Asia Minor Disaster and the agonizing travails of the Asia Minor Greeks who had been arrested and led to death by Kemal's troops and armed groups of Muslims. The wife of a merchant, a teacher and a seventeen-year old boy try to survive, following the column of prisoners into the depths of Asia Minor.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 355
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Greece
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Rebellion in Patagonia (1974)
Plot Summary:
In 1920, workmen of Patagonia (Argentina), grouped into anarchist and socialist societies, decide to strike demanding better working conditions. Among the workers there are numerous European immigrants acting as ideological ferment of their peers. The situation is unsustainable and Yrigoyen government sent from Buenos Aires, Lieutenant Colonel Zavala to impose order ... Based on the book "Los vengadores de la Patagonia trágica", written by Osvaldo Bayer.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, Western
Country: Argentina
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 78%
Metello (1970)
Plot Summary:
Metello struggles to escape from the poverty that led to the premature death of his parents, and that is the lot of the working class in northern Italy during the second half of the 19th century. Metello fights his way out from his condition through hard work, a determined will to resist oppression inherited from his father, but also by taking advantage of his good looks when dealing with women. Metello progressively assumes an important role in the organization of an emerging workers movement, and attempts to conciliate his risky political activities with his private life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Cantata de Chile (1976)
Plot Summary:
The story of the Santa María School massacre of miners in 1907.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 36
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Cuba
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: allegory
Similar in 79%
The Promised Land (1973)
Plot Summary:
During the socialist government of Marmaduke Grove in 1932, a group of villagers decide to take some land in the area of Palmilla. Almost like a mythical journey, problems arise when seated and in a position to bring the socialist ideal in the population. Everything becomes more complicated with rumors that the reactionary forces have overthrown the socialist government. A movie that because of the coup was not released in Chile and was only terminated by Littin in exile in Mexico.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 90
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Chile, Cuba
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: epic, allegory
Similar in 87%
Strikebound (1984)
Plot Summary:
Via the New York Times: "...reconstructs the true story of a coal miners' strike in the small town of Korumburra in the mid-30's... based on the real-life story of two remarkable characters, Wattie Doig, a miner who became a militant Communist activist, and his wife, Agnes, who progressed from staunch Presbyterianism to membership in the Salvation Army and, finally, to labor organization.".
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 68
Genere: Drama
Country: Australia
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 80%
Bloody Nitrate (1969)
Plot Summary:
Chilean soldiers try to survive in the desert after they are attacked by Peruvian troops. The 17 survivors are held together by the Captain (Hector Duvauchelle). The Lieutenant (Jaime Vadell) is a civilian attorney who clashes with the Captain as he pursues the valuable rights to nitrate deposits in the area. When the fighting was over, 25,000 soldiers from Chile, Peru and Bolivia had perished while trying to secure the coveted mineral rights for foreign companies.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 105
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Chile
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Allegro Barbaro (1979)
Plot Summary:
Zsadányi flees from the authorities with his goddaughter, Bankós Mari, and they escape into the forest. The film then skips ahead thirty-fold years: Zsadány and Mari are now lovers, with the sound of war in the background halting their romance. The old friends of Zsadányi have joined with the Nazis, and the landowner living with his peasants in a socialist community grows distant from them. Zsadányi is held responsible for political problems in the country, and will pay with his life.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 125
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Hungary
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
The Conquest of Chile (1971)
Plot Summary:
La Araucana is a Chilean film based on an epic poem in Spanish about the Spanish conquest of Chile, by Alonso de Ercilla; it is also known in English as The Araucaniad. It is considered the national epic of the Kingdom of Chile and one of the most important works of the Spanish Golden Age.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 55
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Chile, Italy, Spain, Peru
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: epic
Similar in 79%
The Migrants (1974)
Plot Summary:
A look at the lives of migratory farm workers, focusing on one family.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Inspection of the Crime Scene 1901 (1980)
Plot Summary:
More documentary in its approach than dramatized history, this is a compelling story about a 1901 children's strike in Wrzesnia near the Polish border with Prussia. Poland was partitioned at this time, and a rigidly patriotic Prussian teacher in Wrzesnia follows the dictates of the Germans in parliament and insists that the children be taught their religion classes in German. When the children refuse to take part in the classes, they are supported by the local priest, but that does not save them from being beaten. They are also kept after school and tormented in other ways as well. Newspapers, parents, and the nation as a whole get involved, transforming a simple children's strike into a national incident.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 56
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Sweet Country (1987)
Plot Summary:
An American couple in Chile is drawn into the turmoil that followed President Salvador Allende's 1973 overthrow.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Greece, USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Alexander the Great (1980)
Plot Summary:
Based on some historical events, the film gives a romanticized biography of Theodoros Kolokotronis, a Greek historical hero serving as a metaphor for Greece herself. Based on a circular view of history, the film presents conflicting ideologies - primitive communism, anarchism, chiefdom or kingdom, personality cult - and shows the institutions of property and power in a bad light.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Greece, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 210 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 88%
Death as a Slice of Bread (1994)
Plot Summary:
The violence and high drama of this film is taken directly from recent Polish history. On December 13, 1981 national security forces swoop down on unsuspecting workers of the Wujek mine and arrest a Solidarity leader. Pushed to the limits, the miners call a massive strike, which is specifically forbidden under the martial law. A battle between the heavily armed police and the outnumbered miners ensues, and nine miners are killed.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Maria Graham: Diary of a Residence in Chile (2014)
Plot Summary:
A true story of passion and political intrigue in early nineteenth century Chile, based on the memoirs of the intrepid travel writer, Maria Graham.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 34
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Chile, UK
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Joe Hill (1971)
Plot Summary:
In the early 1900's, the legendary Joe Hill emigrates with his brother to the United States. But after a short time, he loses touch with his brother. Joe gets a few jobs but is struck by all the injustice and tragedy going on. He becomes active in the forbidden union IWW, a union for workers without trades. It is forbidden to demonstrate and to speak in public but Joe gets around that by singing his manifests with the Salvation Army. He manages to get more and more people to get on strike with him but he also makes powerful enemies doing that. Finally he gets connected with a murder and during the trial he fires his lawyer and takes upon himself to become his own defender.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 918
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Sweden, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, sentimental, bleak, serious, realistic, factual, period drama
Similar in 81%
Lulu the Tool (1971)
Plot Summary:
A conscientious factory worker gets his finger cut off by a machine. The accident causes him to become more involved in political and revolutionary groups.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sincere, emotional, realistic, serious, political, philosophical, surreal, grindhouse, contemplative
Similar in 81%
The Molly Maguires (1970)
Plot Summary:
Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fights against the cruelty of the mining company with sabotage and murder. A detective, also an Irish emigrant, is hired to infiltrate the group and report on its members. But on which side do his sympathies lie?.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, tense, suspenseful, rough, captivating, detective, period drama
Similar in 84%
Shivers (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set in the early 1950's, during the Stalin's Personality Cult. The story opens in a provincial town. Tomek's father, a former member of the Home Army is arrested so the mother is left with the task of raising two kids alone. The neighbor upstairs commits suicide when her husband is also arrested and transported to the prison camp. It's winter so the kids keep their hands warm at school by hand-beating themselves. The teachers at school are mean, narrow minded idealists, When they ask the kids who goes to church on Sundays, the whole class stands up to defeat the purpose of the propaganda lesson. Tomek is sent to the training school in the summer. There he absorbs most of the ideology pumped into his head, and when his father is released from prison he finds another boy he has left.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 509
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 82%
Dear Comrades! (2020)
Plot Summary:
Novocherkassk, USSR, 1962. Liudmila is a Party executive and devout communist who fought at the front of WWII for Stalin’s ideology. Certain that her contribution will create a communist society, she detests any anti-Soviet sentiment. During a workers’ strike at the local electromotive factory, Liudmila witnesses the demonstration being gunned down on the government’s order, seeking to suppress mass strikes in the USSR. During the bloodbath and the ensuing panic, her daughter disappears, which changes Liudmila’s world view. Despite the blockade of the city, mass arrests, and the authorities’ attempts to cover up the massacre, Liudmila searches for her daughter. We don’t know how the search will end, but realize that her life will never be the same.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Russia
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: psychological, exciting, suspense, realistic, black and white, independent film, art film, banned, beautiful
Similar in 75%
Salvador (2006)
Plot Summary:
The story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be executed under Franco's Fascist State in 1974.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Spain, UK
Duration: 134 min
Plot tags: rough, suspenseful, disturbing, thought provoking, serious, realistic, political, political thriller, bleak
Similar in 76%
The Organizer (1963)
Plot Summary:
Professor Sinigaglia (Marcello Mastroianni) is the title character in this darkly comedic Italian drama about mistreated factory workers in the city of Turin. Toiling away in appalling conditions in a textile mill, these employees have no one to stand up for them until Sinigaglia puts his academic career on the line by helping them to start a strike. Although the teacher comes under scrutiny by unsympathetic authorities, he maintains his dedication to the workers' cause.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy, France, Yugoslavia
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative, odd
Similar in 82%
St. Michael Had a Rooster (1972)
Plot Summary:
Sentenced to life imprisonment for illegal activities, Italian International member Giulio Manieri holds on to his political ideals while struggling against madness in the loneliness of his prison cell.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 849
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 87%
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 78%
Comrades (1986)
Plot Summary:
The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 917
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 183 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, emotional, realistic, stylized, independent film
Similar in 85%
The Anarchist's Wife (2008)
Plot Summary:
"The Anarchist's Wife" is the story of Manuela who is left behind when her husband Justo fights for his ideals against Franco's Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. He is deported to a concentration camp, and upon his release, continues the fight against nationalism in the French resistance. Years, pass without a word from him, but his wife never gives up hope of seeing him again.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 586
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Germany, Spain, France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Freedomfighters (1996)
Plot Summary:
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the nun Maria is forced to flee her convent. She takes refuge in a brothel, until it is liberated by a woman's anarchist group. Maria joins the group and eventually goes to the front. The women's group faces the problems of fighting not only the nationalists, but also factions on the left seeking to impose a more traditional military structure. Written by Brian Rawnsley.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Spain, Italy, Belgium
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: political, social, sad, informative, epic, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
No (2012)
Plot Summary:
In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the ‘No’ vote persuade a brash young advertising executive, Rene Saavedra, to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and while under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 26000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Chile, France, Mexico, USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, sentimental, atmospheric, sincere, captivating, cerebral, realistic, surreal, philosophical
Similar in 85%
1900 (1976)
Plot Summary:
Set in Bertolucci's ancestral region of Emilia, the film chronicles the lives of two men during the political turmoils that took place in Italy in the first half on the 20th century.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 27000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy, France, West Germany
Duration: 317 min
Plot tags: epic, disturbing, controversial, compassionate, thought provoking, serious, realistic, captivating, political, stylized