Best movies like Playing for Time
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
When Jewish songstress Fania Fénelon is plucked from the stage and sent to Auschwitz, she and other musicians find themselves assigned to a terrible task – using their talents to soothe fellow prisoners who are sentenced to die in the gas chambers.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: dark, disturbing, historical drama, freeze frame
Best tv shows and movies like Playing for Time (1980):
Similar in 85%
Counterpoint (1967)
Plot Summary:
In December of 1944, Lionel Evans, an internationally renowned American conductor, is on a USO tour with his 70-piece symphony orchestra in newly-liberated Belgium. While fleeing from a German counterattack, Evans and his orchestra members are captured by a Panzer division and taken to an old chateau in Luxembourg. Despite orders to execute every prisoner, General Schiller, an avid music lover, commands Evans to give a private concert for him.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Music, War
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: technicolor
Similar in 77%
Kornblumenblau (1989)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story of a Polish musician who survived the concentration camp only because he could play on the accordion the title melody.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 135
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: Poland
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Patti Cake$ (2017)
Plot Summary:
Straight out of Jersey comes Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Killa P, a.k.a. Patti Cake$, an aspiring rapper fighting through a world of strip malls and strip clubs on an unlikely quest for glory.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, disturbing, exciting, social, sad, independent film, crying, interesting
Similar in 86%
Backstage (2005)
Plot Summary:
An adolescent groupie zeroes in on her Blondie-like idol after the singer chances to cross her orbit on a publicity tour. Gradually their lives intertwine as, with near-operatic intensity, the film delves into the emotional dependency on both sides of celebrity culture.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 674
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: France
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, realistic, disturbing, crying
Similar in 75%
Cat's Play (1974)
Plot Summary:
Karoly Makk's heartbreaking story of two unmarried sisters who cast wistful glances back at their lives, but still believe in hope and love, earned an Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1974. In this follow-up to the director's internationally acclaimed Love, Makk once again exhibits his extraordinary skills at drawing emotionally compelling performances from his talented female leads. Makk's film opposes the bleakness of the outside world with passion, love, and loyalty.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 230
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: Hungary
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Boy's Choir (2000)
Plot Summary:
A young teen's father dies, and he is sent to an orphanage. He's teased because he stutters almost runs away, until a beautiful, androgynous boy, Yasuo (Sora Toma), convinces him to join the choir.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: Japan
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 88%
The Harmonists (1997)
Plot Summary:
Comedian Harmonists tells the story of a famous, German male sextet, five vocals and piano, the "Comedian Harmonists", from the day they meet first in 1927 to the day in 1934, when they become banned by the upcoming Nazis, because three of them are Jewish.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Germany, Austria
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: visually stunning, sentimental, touching, visual, sincere, uplifting, feel good, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 85%
Julia (1977)
Plot Summary:
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: factual, atmospheric, captivating, realistic, political, touching, visually stunning, historical drama, serious, contemplative
Similar in 84%
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 81%
Swing Kids (1993)
Plot Summary:
The story of a close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany who listen to banned swing music from the US. Soon dancing and fun leads to more difficult choices as the Nazi's begin tightening the grip on Germany. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: emotional, serious, realistic, sentimental, touching, political, retro, depressing, breathtaking, sad
Similar in 85%
Vox Lux (2018)
Plot Summary:
In 1999, teenage sisters Celeste and Eleanor survive a seismic, violent tragedy. The sisters compose and perform a song about their experience, making something lovely and cathartic out of a catastrophe - while also catapulting Celeste to stardom. By 2017, Celeste is a mother to a teenage daughter of her own and is struggling to navigate a career fraught with scandals when another act of terrifying violence demands her attention.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: exciting, inspirational, rough, thought provoking, suspense, philosophical, political, cult classic, visually stunning, freeze frame
Similar in 76%
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Plot Summary:
Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson's play.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 57000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: rough, uplifting, serious, suspense, costume drama, deep, visual, cult classic, tension, crying
Similar in 81%
Wild Rose (2018)
Plot Summary:
A young Scottish singer, Rose-Lynn Harlan, dreams of making it as a country artist in Nashville after being released from prison.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 15000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: UK, USA, Canada
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sincere, thought provoking, humorous, captivating, disturbing, feel good, social, stylized, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 79%
Lili Marleen (1981)
Plot Summary:
Lili Marleen is the story of a German singer named Wilkie who while working in Switzerland falls in love with a Jewish composer named Robert who’s family is helping people to flee from the Nazis. Roberts family is skeptical of Walkie thinking she could be a Nazi as she becomes famous for singing Lili Marleen.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: clever, witty, stylized, art house, romantic drama, sincere, serious, realistic, cynical, light
Similar in 87%
Taking Sides (2001)
Plot Summary:
A tale based on the life of Wilhelm Furtwangler, the controversial conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic whose tenure coincided with the controversial Nazi era. One of the most spectacular and renowned conductors of the 30s, Furtwangler's reputation rivaled that of Toscanini's. After the war, he was investigated as part of the Allies' de-Nazification programme. In the bombed-out Berlin of the immediate post-war period, the Allies slowly bring law and order--and justice--to bear on an occupied Germany. An American major is given the Furtwangler file, and is told to find everything he can and to prosecute the man ruthlessly. Tough and hard-nosed, Major Steve Arnold sets out to investigate a world of which he knows nothing. Orchestra members vouch for Furtwangler's morality--he did what he could to protect Jewish players from his orchestra. To the Germans, deeply respectful of their musical heritage, Furtwangler was a demigod; to Major Arnold, he is just a lying, weak-willed Nazi.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Music, War
Country: France, UK, Germany, Austria
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, atmospheric, touching, clever, contemplative, talky
Similar in 81%
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Plot Summary:
A Jewish pawnbroker, a victim of Nazi persecution, loses all faith in his fellow man until he realizes too late the tragedy of his actions.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: depressing, emotional, realistic, bleak, heartbreaking, atmospheric, compassionate, psychological, serious, suspenseful
Similar in 86%
Triumph of the Spirit (1989)
Plot Summary:
Fact based story about a former Greek Olympic boxer who was taken as a prisoner during World war II and placed in the Auschwitz prison camp. There he was permitted to survive as long as he fought for the amusement of his captors. His father and brother were also held as insurance that he would continue to fight.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Sport, War
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: disturbing, independent film, tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crying, inspirational, odd
Similar in 89%
Respect (2021)
Plot Summary:
The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: USA, Canada
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: captivating, uplifting, factual, emotional, disturbing, period piece, deep, anamorphic, historical drama, touching
Similar in 85%
Fateless (2005)
Plot Summary:
An Hungarian youth comes of age at Buchenwald during World War II. György Köves is 14, the son of a merchant who's sent to a forced labor camp. After his father's departure, György gets a job at a brickyard; his bus is stopped and its Jewish occupants sent to camps. There, György find camaraderie, suffering, cruelty, illness, and death. He hears advice on preserving one's dignity and self-esteem. He discovers hatred. If he does survive and returns to Budapest, what will he find? What is natural; what is it to be a Jew? Sepia, black and white, and color alternate to shade the mood.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Hungary, Germany, UK, Israel, France, USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, disturbing, emotional, realistic, gloomy, retro, touching, educational, sad
Similar in 80%
The Aryan Couple (2004)
Plot Summary:
A WWII Drama about a German/Jewish industrialist who, in order to ensure his family's safe passage out of Germany, is forced to hand over his business to the Nazis.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, serious, captivating, suspenseful, tense, realistic, gloomy, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 85%
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
Similar in 78%
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 84%
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 80%
Walking with the Enemy (2013)
Plot Summary:
Regent Horthy is the leader of Hungary and a German ally, but his favorable standing with Hitler changes as the war comes to an end. Forced to cede Hungary’s power or else witness the execution of his son, Regent Horthy gives up control of his country to the Nazis, who quickly move Hungarians to ghettos and death camps, with no hope in sight. But the despair changes when a young man named Elek emerges. Separated from his family during the relocations and aided by the woman he loves , Elek defies the enemy by becoming one of them. In a race against time, disguised as a Nazi Officer he embarks on a mission to save his family and thousands of his countrymen.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Romania, Hungary, Canada, USA
Duration: 124 min
Plot tags: bleak, emotional, realistic, political thriller, costume drama, serious, independent film
Similar in 76%
Sound of Metal (2019)
Plot Summary:
Metal drummer Ruben begins to lose his hearing. When a doctor tells him his condition will worsen, he thinks his career and life is over. His girlfriend Lou checks the former addict into a rehab for the deaf hoping it will prevent a relapse and help him adapt to his new life. After being welcomed and accepted just as he is, Ruben must choose between his new normal and the life he once knew.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 145000
Genere: Drama, Music
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: psychological, disturbing, tense, captivating, melancholic, realistic, philosophical, touching, offbeat, serious
Similar in 82%
Out of the Ashes (2003)
Plot Summary:
The real-life story of Gisella Perl, a Jewish Hungarian doctor imprisoned in the notorious Auschwitz death camp of World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, bleak, captivating, emotional, contemplative, uplifting
Similar in 90%
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 78%
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
Similar in 77%
The Pianist (2002)
Plot Summary:
The true story of pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 890000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music, War
Country: France, Poland, Germany, UK, USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: emotional, heartbreaking, harsh, bleak, suspense, poignant, reflective, touching, dramatic, motivational
Similar in 81%
In Darkness (2011)
Plot Summary:
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lvov (former Poland).
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Germany, Canada
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: harsh, disturbing, sincere, uplifting, social, educational, tense, serious, realistic, suspenseful