Best movies like Passenger
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The last film of Andrzej Munk, who died in a crash during the filming. A German woman on a ship coming back to Europe notices a face of another woman which brings recollections from the past. She tells her husband that she has been an overseer in Auschwitz during the war, but she has actually saved a woman's life. Her vision is shown and then the actual events.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 62 min
Plot tags: experimental, odd
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Best tv shows and movies like Passenger (1963):
Similar in 79%
Holy Week (1995)
Plot Summary:
During the Nazi era, a Jewish woman on the run takes a trolley which passes near the Warsaw ghetto, where the uprising battle is taking place, and some passengers are struck by stray bullets. They take temporary refuge in an empty building, and there she has a chance meeting with her ex-fiancé. He offers to put her up--that is, hide her--for a few days. He's now married, a professional who lives in an idyllic suburb reached by a trolley that runs through the woods. His wife seems more committed to putting up the fugitive than he is. The story involves the neighbors, the building owner who avoids involvement and seeks solace in classic poetry, and the super and his suspicious wife.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Germany, France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 86%
Lesson of a Dead Language (1979)
Plot Summary:
An officer stationed in a remote Galician outpost at the end of the First World War is dying of consumption. Suffering from feverish dreams and hallucinations, he begins to collect religious art and attends seances.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 80%
Wherever You Are... (1988)
Plot Summary:
An Uruguayan diplomat brings his new wife with him on a business trip to Poland in the summer immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 120
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland, UK, West Germany, France, Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: pre war
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Similar in 78%
Birth Certificate (1961)
Plot Summary:
Three separate stories depicting the tense everyday life during occupation, as seen through the eyes of children. In “On the Road,” the two main protagonists are lost in the September’s strife: a young boy, and a soldier transporting the valueless documents of his broken unit. In “Letter from the Concentration Camp” the story’s protagonists are young boys who help their mother during the hardships of the occupation. Their treasure is an officer uniform belonging their father who is being held in a prisoner of war camp. In “Blood Drop,” the Germans find a set of typical Aryan characteristics in this story’s protagonist – a Jewish girl, hiding in an orphanage.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 414
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: anthology
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Similar in 85%
Just Beyond This Forest (1991)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1942, The Jewish wife she worked for before the war hires her to take her young daughter to the countryside until the war is over.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 101
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 77%
Black Birds (1967)
Plot Summary:
WW2 story about group of prisoners who are trying to escape the death camp, run by local pro-Nazi militia.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 77
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
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Similar in 82%
Cuckoo in a Dark Forest (1985)
Plot Summary:
Set in World War 2 as the Germans occupy Czechoslovakia, teenage Emilka's father is murdered by the Nazis, but she is selected for special treatment by virtue of being blonde. She is billeted with the commandant of a concentration camp near the Baltic coast, where his kindness towards her provokes his wife's jealousy, but is compromised when Emilka witnesses his brutality towards the prisoners.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Czechoslovakia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: crying, freeze frame
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Similar in 80%
Paradise (2016)
Plot Summary:
The historical drama set during the Second World War centres on three people whose paths cross: a Russian aristocratic emigrant and member of the French resistance, a French collaborator and a high-ranking German SS officer.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, Germany
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: psychological, rough, touching, black and white, philosophical
Similar in 76%
And the Violins Stopped Playing (1988)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 192
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Poland, USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: independent film
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Similar in 82%
My Honor Was Loyalty (2016)
Plot Summary:
Captain Ludwig Herckel a devoted and patriotic soldier of the SS Leibstandarte fights in every major conflict from the Eastern front to the battle of the bulge. Fiercely loyal to his country and his brothers in arms, loved by his men, Herckel will face his greatest battle yet when he discovers the truth about the Nazi regime.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, heartbreaking, suspense, disturbing, political thriller
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Similar in 89%
Remembrance (2011)
Plot Summary:
Hannah, a young Jewish girl, is rescued from a concentration camp by her Polish boyfriend, and believes he died after their perilous escape. More than 30 years later, the married Hannah faces an emotional crisis when she learns he's alive.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, Thriller, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, tense, exciting, captivating, sad
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Similar in 90%
Spring 1941 (2007)
Plot Summary:
After Germany invades Poland and the Nazis order the confinement of all local Jews in the ghetto, medical doctor Artur Planck (Joseph Fiennes) manages to flee with his family, seeking refuge at the farm of Emilia (Kelly Harrison), their former grocer. With the Planck family hiding in her attic, Emilia finds her feelings for the physician growing stronger than she wants, or can control -- despite the dangers of the situation.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 789
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Israel
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 87%
Joanna (2010)
Plot Summary:
In an era in which it is difficult for the true emotion and excitement, Feliks Falk found the key to the human heart. How many of us love? How much we are able to self-sacrifice? Is there a price that can not pay, when it comes to life of a loved one? Are we really as good as we think about yourself? In Joanna's life is given forever. Today's friend suddenly becomes an enemy. Reflex heart turns into a curse. When one of the lonely woman takes care of little girls-czynkę do not know that from now on, her life will be sweet - bitter taste. Fate in this film is everything. Allows people to find that in a moment blow and lead to separation. After-forgives love, for which you have to pay a huge price. Fulfills the promise of happiness loneliness, brittle as glass.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 487
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: suspense, sincere, captivating, suspenseful
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Similar in 84%
The Guard of Auschwitz (2018)
Plot Summary:
Nazi occupied Poland, during the World War II. Hans, a former brilliant student, has become an SS officer stationed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. When he is commissioned by his superior officer to build an efficient gas chamber, Hans, facing the harsh reality, begins to realize the magnitude of the atrocious acts of which he is being accomplice.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Persian Lessons (2020)
Plot Summary:
Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, Germany, Belarus
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, independent film
Similar in 78%
Naked Among Wolves (1963)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 827
Genere: Drama, War
Country: East Germany
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: deep, crying, inspirational, complex
Similar in 90%
The Zone of Interest (2023)
Plot Summary:
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK, Poland
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: experimental
Similar in 87%
Adam Resurrected (2008)
Plot Summary:
Before the war, in Berlin, Adam was an entertainer- cabaret impresario, magician, musician-loved by all until he finds himself in a concentration camp, confronted by Commandant Klein. Adam survives the camp by becoming the Klein's "dog", entertaining him while his wife and daughter are sent off to die. "Adam Resurrected" is the story of a man who once was a dog who meets a dog who once was a boy.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Israel, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, emotional, gloomy, entertaining, period drama
Similar in 82%
God on Trial (2008)
Plot Summary:
In the Jewish tradition of arguing with God, Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz decide to put God on Trial.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, disturbing, tense, bleak, realistic, christian film, philosophical, sad, powerful
Similar in 76%
The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009)
Plot Summary:
Irena Sendler is a Catholic social worker who has sympathized with the Jews since her childhood, when her physician father died of typhus contracted while treating poor Jewish patients. When she initially proposes saving Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, her idea is met with skepticism by fellow workers, her parish priest, and even her own mother Janina.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: USA, Latvia, Poland, Canada
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, suspense, tense, retro, biblical, intense, period piece, gloomy
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Similar in 82%
The Last Train (2006)
Plot Summary:
A group of people are imprisoned in a rail car bound from Berlin to a concentration camp in 1945.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Czech Republic
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, serious, realistic, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 90%
Son of Saul (2015)
Plot Summary:
In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival trying to save from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 51000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Hungary
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: melancholic, compassionate, disturbing, cerebral, grim, sad, philosophical, historical drama, harsh, motivational
Similar in 89%
The Truce (1997)
Plot Summary:
Although liberated from Auschwitz on January 27, 1945, Levi did not reach Turin until October 19 of that year. After spending some time in a Soviet camp for former concentration camp inmates, he embarked on an arduous journey home in the company of Italian former prisoners of war from the Italian Army in Russia. His long railway journey home to Turin took him on a circuitous route from Poland, through Russia, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Germany.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: sincere, historical drama, uplifting, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 82%
Hatred (2016)
Plot Summary:
Summer of 1939. Zosia is a young Polish girl who is deeply in love with Ukrainian Petro. Their great love will be put to the test when her father decides to marry her to a wealthy widower Skiba. Right after wedding she is left alone because her husband is drafted to the Polish army for the war with Germany. Meanwhile, tensions grow due to Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians living side by side.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, art house, historical romance
Similar in 80%
Paradise Road (1997)
Plot Summary:
Paradise Road is a 1997 film which tells the story of a group of English, American, Dutch and Australian women who are imprisoned in Sumatra during World War II. It was directed by Bruce Beresford and stars Glenn Close as beatific Adrienne Pargiter, Frances McDormand as the brash Dr. Verstak, Pauline Collins as missionary Margaret Drummond (based on missionary Margaret Dryburgh), Julianna Margulies as American socialite Topsy Merritt, Jennifer Ehle as British doyenne and model Rosemary Leighton Jones, Cate Blanchett as Australian nurse Susan McCarthy and Elizabeth Spriggs as dowager Imogene Roberts. Basing his picture on real events, Bruce Beresford tells the story of a vocal orchestra created by the women in a Japanese P.O.W. camp, a classic survivors' tale extolling women's ability to survive hardship and atrocity through perseverance, solidarity and creativity.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: touching, harsh, serious, uplifting, emotional, realistic, costume drama, intense, gloomy, sentimental
Similar in 77%
Escape from Sobibor (1987)
Plot Summary:
During WWII, the death camp at Treblinka had an escape, causing the Commandant at a similar camp in Sobibor to vow (actually threaten) that his camp would never experience the same thing. But those who were its captives, the Jewish laborers that had been spared from the ovens, knew that they were on borrowed time and that their only hope was to escape... the only question was how to do it. On October 14, 1943, members of the camp's underground resistance succeeded in covertly killing eleven German officers and a number of Ukrainian guards. Of the 600 inmates in the camp, roughly 300 escaped, although most were later re-captured and killed. The escape forced the Nazis to close the death camp, dismantling it and planting a forest.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, rough, serious, suspenseful, psychological, exciting, thought provoking, suspense, philosophical
Similar in 80%
The Grey Zone (2001)
Plot Summary:
A Nazi doctor, along with the Sonderkomando Jews – who are forced to work in the crematoria of Auschwitz against their fellow-Jews – find themselves in a moral grey zone.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: depressing, bleak, disturbing, factual, emotional, harsh, compassionate, serious, realistic, heartbreaking
Similar in 85%
The Shop on Main Street (1965)
Plot Summary:
In a small town in Nazi-occupied Slovakia during World War II, decent but timid carpenter Tono is named "Aryan comptroller" of a button store owned by an old Jewish widow, Rozalie. Since the post comes with a salary and standing in the town's corrupt hierarchy, Tono wrestles with greed and guilt as he and Rozalie gradually befriend each other. When the authorities order all Jews in town to be rounded up, Tono faces a moral dilemma unlike any he's known before.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: sincere, atmospheric, emotional, touching, serious, realistic, depressing, social, black comedy, offbeat
Similar in 80%
Jakob the Liar (1999)
Plot Summary:
In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, France, Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sad, cult classic, sincere, uplifting, humorous, emotional, realistic, gloomy, semi serious, sentimental
Similar in 84%
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)
Plot Summary:
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 239000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, sad, heartbreaking, sentimental, tear jerker, serious, crying, thought provoking, gloomy