Best movies like Persona Non Grata
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The story of a Japanese diplomat, sometimes called the Schindler of Japan, and his life lading up to and after his decision to issue over 2,000 visas to Jewish refugees in Kaunas, Lithuania resulting in saving the lives of over 6,000 people. This is the story of a man who believed in doing all he could do for the benefit of his beloved Japan, including trying to keep her from becoming embroiled in a worldwide conflict he saw as inevitable. Along the way, he came face to face with the plight of the European Jews as they tried to escape the onslaught of the Nazi's and the rapidly advancing German army. Caught between the unbending policies of his country now bound by treaty with Nazi Germany and his awakening moral responsibilities, we follow his life from his early days in Manchuria to his eventual posting in Lithuania and his appointment with destiny which would forever brand him a hero.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Adventure, Biography, History, War
Country: Japan, Poland, USA
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like Persona Non Grata (2015):
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The Crossing (2020)
Plot Summary:
One day, just before Christmas in 1942, Gerda's and Otto's parents are arrested for being part of the Norwegian resistance movement during the Second World War, leaving the siblings on their own. Following the arrest, they discover two Jewish children, Sarah and Daniel, hidden in a secret cupboard in their basement at home. It is now up to Gerda and Otto to finish what their parents started: To help Sarah and Daniel flee from the Nazis cross the border to neutral Sweden and reunite them with their parents.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 855
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, War
Country: Norway
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, disturbing
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The Angel of Auschwitz (2019)
Plot Summary:
This is a tale of how the angel of life was confronted by the angel of death. Set in Auschwitz Birkenau, 1944.
IMDB Rating: 3.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: UK
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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An Enemy to Die For (2012)
Plot Summary:
Despite the threat of war in the fall of 1939, the Germans decide to launch a sea expedition in search of evidence for Pangaea. Although the multi national geologists embark enthusiastically on their research mission, the growing political tension between their countries soon affects their work. With Britain and France declaring war on Germany, the civilian scientists now find themselves mere pawns in a global power struggle.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 949
Genere: History, Thriller, War
Country: Sweden, Germany, Norway
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
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Mao Zedong 1949 (2019)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1949, as the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China prepare to establish a new Chinese state, the People's Republic of China.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 506
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: China
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: captivating, political, suspense, disturbing
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Hanagatami (2017)
Plot Summary:
Spring, 1941. Sixteen-year-old Toshihiko attends school in the coastal town of Karatsu, where his aunt cares for his ailing cousin. Immersed in the seaside's nature and culture, Toshihiko soon befriends the town's other extraordinary adolescents as they all contend with the war's gravitational pull.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 749
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 169 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, surreal, disturbing
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Berenshtein (2021)
Plot Summary:
The unbelievable story of Leonid Bernshtein, a young Jewish soldier who rose to become the leader and led the operation to destroy the secret facility of the notorious Nazi V2 ballistic missiles.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 409
Genere: Biography, History, War
Country: Israel
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
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The Champion of Auschwitz (2020)
Plot Summary:
It is 1940. The first transport of prisoners arrives at the newly created concentration camp Auschwitz. One of them is Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski, pre-war boxing champion of Warsaw. The camp officers force him to fight in the ring for his and other prisoners’ lives. However, his every win strengthens the hope that Nazis are not invincible. Auschwitz officers notice the growing resistance. The confrontation with the authorities of the camp becomes inevitable.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Sport
Country: Poland
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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The Little Comrade (2018)
Plot Summary:
In the midst of Stalinist tyranny, six-year-old Leelo's mother is sent to a prison camp. Haunted by her mother's last words telling her to be a good kid, Leelo vows to be on her best behaviour in the confusing grown-up world in the hope that it will bring her mother back.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Estonia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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A Melody to Remember (2016)
Plot Summary:
Second Lieutenant Han Sang-yeol leads his platoon during the Korean War in the early 1950s. He carries emotional scars and pain within. So when he meets some children from a choir, who have lost everything in the war, Sang-yeol is deeply moved and tries to protect to them.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 372
Genere: Action, Drama, War
Country: South Korea
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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Return to the Hiding Place (2013)
Plot Summary:
When a young resistance fighter witnesses atrocities towards the Jews, he's drawn into a web of espionage and clandestine activities. When he meets a young physics students and resistance journalist - Hans Poley - they embark on a hunt through underground tunnels, Gestapo hijacks and daring rescues.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 779
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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The Bad Poet (2020)
Plot Summary:
1936. Giovanni Comini, the youngest Federal in Fascist Italy, is summoned to Rome for a delicate mission: to monitor aging national poet Gabriele D'Annunzio, whose increasingly restless behavior Mussolini fears could damage his alliance with Nazi Germany. However, after spending time with D'Annunzio, Comini finds himself torn between loyalty to the Party and his fascination with the poet, who will put his burgeoning career at risk.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 610
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, disturbing
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Wife of a Spy (2020)
Plot Summary:
It’s 1940, and the population of Japan is divided over its entry into World War II. Satoko, the wife of a fabric merchant, is devoted to her husband but is beginning to suspect he’s up to something. Soon she allows herself to be drawn into a game in which she enigmatically conceals her intentions.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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Munich: The Edge of War (2021)
Plot Summary:
At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, dramatic, political
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De Gaulle (2020)
Plot Summary:
Paris, June 1940. The de Gaulle couple is confronted with the military and political collapse of France. Charles de Gaulle joins London while Yvonne, his wife, finds herself with her three children on the road of the exodus.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, suspenseful, psychological, exciting, tense, interesting
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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
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Oba: The Last Samurai (2011)
Plot Summary:
In 1944, the American military lands on the shores of Saipan. Refusing to commit suicide with his superiors or be forced into camps for prisoners of war, Captain Oba Sakae leads a group of his men and other similarly minded local residents into the mountains. Even after hearing reports of the Japanese military's surrender, Oba dismisses the reports as propaganda and continues to launch guerilla attacks against the American soldiers, earning him the nickname "The Fox". Soon, even the American commander who's charged with the task of capturing Oba comes to admire his persistent enemy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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The Resistance Banker (2018)
Plot Summary:
In the occupied Netherlands during World War II, banker Walraven van Hall (Barry Atsma) is asked to use his financial contacts to help the Dutch resistance. He doesn’t have to think about it for long. With his brother Gijs van Hall (Jacob Derwig), he comes up with a risky plan to take out huge loans and use the money to finance the resistance. When this proves not enough, the brothers set about committing the biggest banking fraud in Dutch history, taking tens of millions of guilders out of the Dutch Central Bank – right under the noses of the Nazis. But the bigger the operation gets, the more people it involves. And every day brings a bigger risk of someone making that one mistake that could put an end to the whole business – and the lives of the resistance bankers.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, suspense, touching, captivating, disturbing, powerful
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Curtiz (2018)
Plot Summary:
Hollywood, 1942. The US government pressures Hungarian-born film director Michael Curtiz, who is about to finish shooting Casablanca, to accentuate the film's propaganda message in order to sway public opinion in favor of the country's intervention in the European war.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Hungary
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing, meta, black and white
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Perlasca: The Courage of a Just Man (2002)
Plot Summary:
It is the real story of Giorgio Perlasca (Luca Zingaretti). During the 1920s he was an Italian Fascist supporter, fighting in Africa an in the Spanish civil war where he deserved a safe conduct for Spanish embassies. After some years, disillusioned by fascism, he is a fresh supplier for the Italian army. In the war years he is in Budapest for his business. He lives an easy life there, well introduced into the Hungarian high society, without any problem coming from the war situation. When the Nazi occupied Hungary, in 1944, instead to leave (Italy had already surrendered to the Allies) he escaped to the Spanish embassy in Budapest using his old safe conduct and becoming a Spanish citizen, changing name into Jorge Perlasca. He starts working as a diplomat here. When Sanz Briz (Geza Tordy), the Spanish consul, is removed, Perlasca immediately substitutes him, like if he was officially appointed from Spanish authorities... Written by 1felco.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, France, Sweden, Hungary
Duration: 197 min
Plot tags: disturbing, uplifting, serious, emotional, captivating, realistic, epic
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Stones for the Rampart (2014)
Plot Summary:
To be defeated and not be - a victory. This is the motto that life is guided by three young friends: Alek, Sophy and Rudy. Scouts, high school graduates high school in Warsaw drifting ambitious plans for the future broken through September 1939. Entering adulthood in a very dramatic times, which puts them a choice - to survive at any cost, or to join the fighting for a free homeland, risking everything. The boys brought up in patriotic homes, shaped by the ideals of scouting, they decide to fight. They become soldiers, and although every scrape with death, they can live a full life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, disturbing
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The Conference (2022)
Plot Summary:
On January 20, 1942, the Wannsee Conference takes place in Berlin, a meeting that had only one item on the agenda: The Final Solution, the organization of the systematic mass murder of eleven million European Jews.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Germany
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, disturbing, tense, captivating
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Bletchley Park: Code-breaking's Forgotten Genius (2015)
Plot Summary:
Gordon Welchman was one of the original elite codebreakers crucial to the allies defeating the Nazis in World War II. He is the forgotten genius of Bletchley Park.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, captivating, realistic, disturbing
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On Wings of Eagles (2016)
Plot Summary:
Eric Liddell - China's first gold medalist and one of Scotland's greatest athletes - returns to war-torn China.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Sport, War
Country: China, Hong Kong, USA
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: tense, thought provoking, captivating, suspense, christian film
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The Rebels of PT-218 (2021)
Plot Summary:
At the height of WWII, the Atlantic Ocean becomes a deadly battleground as an American torpedo boat fights against the constant bombardment of German forces.
IMDB Rating: 3.7
IMDB Votes: 717
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
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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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First They Killed My Father (2017)
Plot Summary:
A 5-year-old girl embarks on a harrowing quest for survival amid the sudden rise and terrifying reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 20000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Cambodia, USA
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, factual, psychological, rough, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, emotional, political, independent film
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Emperor (2012)
Plot Summary:
As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, sincere, thought provoking, retro, epic, social, sex comedy, patriotic, historical drama
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Hitler: The Rise of Evil (2003)
Plot Summary:
A unique slant, profiling the life of Adolf Hitler as a child and his rise through the ranks of the National German Workers' Party prior to World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags: serious, bleak, captivating, realistic, disturbing, political, factual, suspense, rough, suspenseful
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Conspiracy (2001)
Plot Summary:
The historical recreation of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, in which Nazi and SS leaders gathered in a Berlin suburb to discuss the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". Lead by SS-General Reinhard Heydrich, this group of high ranking German officials came to the historic and far reaching decision that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated in what would come to be known as the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 24000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: political, factual, bleak, disturbing, atmospheric, intense, suspense, realistic, historical drama, non fiction
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Into the Storm (2009)
Plot Summary:
This powerful follow-up to “The Gathering Storm” follows Churchill from 1940 to 1945 as he guided his beleaguered nation through the crucible of the war years--even as his marriage was encountering its own struggles.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, sincere, political, historical drama, historically accurate, gloomy, period drama, political drama