Best movies like Priest Daens
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies related to Priest Daens? Leverage your knowledge to help others toward tv series and films you've watched previously that may also preoccupy them. Support increasing the cohort of people bringing up videos among each other. We appreciate your contribution!
Plot Summary:
In the 1890s, Father Adolf Daens goes to Aalst, a textile town where child labor is rife, pay and working conditions are horrible, the poor have no vote, and the Catholic church backs the petite bourgeoisie in oppressing workers. He writes a few columns for the Catholic paper, and soon workers are listening and the powerful are in an uproar. He's expelled from the Catholic party, so he starts the Christian Democrats and is elected to Parliament. After Rome disciplines him, he must choose between two callings, as priest and as champion of workers. In subplots, a courageous young woman falls in love with a socialist and survives a shop foreman's rape; children die; prelates play billiards.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Belgium, France, Netherlands
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: bleak, sincere, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, road movie, rough, sexy
Best tv shows and movies like Priest Daens (1992):
Similar in 87%
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 86%
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 78%
Father Damien (1999)
Plot Summary:
The true story of the 19th century Belgian priest, Father Damien, who volunteered to go to the island of Molokai, to console and care for the lepers.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: Belgium, Netherlands, Australia
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: christian film, sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 75%
Wisconsin Death Trip (1999)
Plot Summary:
Wisconsin Death Trip is an intimate, shocking and sometimes hilarious account of the disasters that befell one small town in Wisconsin during the final decade of the 19th century. The film is inspired by Michael Lesy's book of the same name which was first published in 1973. Lesy discovered a striking archive of black and white photographs in the town of Black River Falls dating from the 1890s and married a selection of these images to extracts from the town's newspaper from the same decade. The effect was surprising and disturbing. The town of Black River Falls seems gripped by some peculiar malaise and the weekly news is dominated by bizarre tales of madness, eccentricity and violence amongst the local population.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 76 min
Plot tags: disturbing, social, sad, controversial, black and white, independent film, atmospheric, rough, bleak, serious
Similar in 90%
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 75%
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 87%
Germinal (1993)
Plot Summary:
It's mid 19th century, north of France. The story of a coal miner's town. They are exploited by the mine's owner. One day the decide to go on strike, and then the authorities repress them.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: France, Belgium, Italy
Duration: 160 min
Plot tags: political, emotional, realistic, philosophical, anthology, sincere, thought provoking, epic, serious, captivating
Similar in 89%
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
Plot Summary:
The life inside a farm in Italy at the beginning of the century. Many poor country families live there, and the owner pays them by their productivity. One of the families has a very clever child. They decide to send him to school instead of make him help them, although this represents a great sacrifice. The boy has to wake up very early and walk several miles to get to the school. One day the boy's shoes break when returning home, but they do not have money to buy other. What can they do?.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy
Duration: 186 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, realistic, touching, serious, contemplative, spiritual, family saga, saga, slow cinema, period drama
Similar in 84%
The Promised Land (1975)
Plot Summary:
The Polish film based on the book of the same name by Wladyslaw Reymont. Taking place in the nineteenth century town of Łódź, Poland, three friends want to make a lot of money by building and investing in a textile factory. An exceptional portrait of rapid industrial expansion shown through the eyes of one Polish town.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags: epic, serious, realistic, biting, crying, suspense
Similar in 89%
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)
Plot Summary:
This is a dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: scenic, philosophical, touching, biblical, thought provoking, psychedelic, epic, existential, esoteric, profound
Similar in 86%
Luther (1974)
Plot Summary:
A man's view cause a rift between peasants and the church.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 474
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: UK, Canada, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: independent film, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky, period drama
Similar in 90%
Andrei Rublev (1966)
Plot Summary:
An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 56000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 205 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, breathtaking, art house, black and white, philosophical, epic, visual, visually appealing, spiritual, bleak
Similar in 80%
Painted Fire (2002)
Plot Summary:
The struggles of an artist. Jang Seung-up (1843-1897), also called Owon, focusing on the years 1882 to 1897, when Korea was in political upheaval, caught between China and Japan, the conservative dynasty dying, and peasant revolt at hand. Jang, born poor, has genius; a merchant, Kim, becomes his patron, finding him a teacher. Jang must convince others that a commoner can have talent, then move beyond his ability to copy old masters and find his own style. He's bedeviled by a temper and alcohol, arguments with patrons as he seeks commissions, and relationships with kisaeng, particularly Mae-hyang, that start and stop. It's the life of a restless spirit producing great art.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: South Korea
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: realistic, serious, captivating, sentimental, melancholic, sincere, art film, period drama
Similar in 80%
Another Way (1982)
Plot Summary:
Political and sexual repression in Hungary, just after the revolution of 1956. In 1958, the body of Eva Szalanczky, a political journalist, is discovered near the border. Her friend Livia is in hospital with a broken neck; Livia's husband, Donci, is under arrest. In a flashback to the year before, we see what leads up to the tragedy. Eva gets a job as a writer. She meets Livia and is attracted to her. Livia feels much the same, but as a married woman, has doubts and hesitations. In their work, they (and Eva in particular) bang up against the limits of telling political truths; in private, they confront the limits of living out sexual and emotional truth.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 899
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Hungary
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: political, historical drama, sincere, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, queer cinema
Similar in 84%
Jimmy's Hall (2014)
Plot Summary:
In the 1930s political activist Jimmy Gralton is deported from Ireland during the 'Red Scare'.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Japan
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: captivating, realistic, touching, serious, inspirational, political, factual, historical drama, period drama, political drama
Similar in 90%
The Official Story (1985)
Plot Summary:
After the end of the Dirty War, a high school teacher sets out to find out who the mother of her adopted daughter is.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Argentina
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, captivating, sincere, suspenseful, disturbing, sad, emotional, realistic, light, epic
Similar in 76%
The Young Karl Marx (2017)
Plot Summary:
26 year-old Karl Marx embarks with his wife, Jenny, on the road to exile. In 1844 in Paris, he meets Friedrich Engels, an industrialist’s son, who has been investigating the sordid birth of the British working class. Engels, the dandy, provides the last piece of the puzzle to the young Karl Marx’s new vision of the world. Together, between censorship and the police’s repression, riots and political upheavals, they will lead the labor movement during its development into a modern era.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, Germany, Belgium
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: political, psychological, thought provoking, captivating, philosophical, social, independent film, historical drama, informative
Similar in 76%
Goya's Ghosts (2006)
Plot Summary:
Painter Francisco Goya faces a scandal involving his muse, who is labeled a heretic by a monk.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 32000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Spain, USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: period piece, intense, factual, thought provoking, realistic, dramatic, costume drama, historical drama, spiritual, sad
Similar in 81%
Machuca (2004)
Plot Summary:
Santiago, capital of Chile during the Marxist government of elected, highly controversial president Salvador Allende. Father McEnroe supports his leftist views by introducing a program at the prestigious "collegio" (Catholic prep school) St. Patrick to allow free admission of some proletarian kids. One of them is Pedro Machuca, slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo Infante's liberal-bourgeois home. Yet the new classmates become buddies, paradoxically protesting together as Gonzalo gets adopted by Pedro's slum family and gang. But the adults spoil that too, not in the least when general Pinochet's coup ousts Allende, and supporters such as McEnroe.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Chile, Spain, UK, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, touching, emotional, thought provoking, serious, realistic, social, hispanic, sentimental
Similar in 87%
Angela's Ashes (1999)
Plot Summary:
Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends the money on drink.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA, UK, Ireland
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, depressing, sad, compassionate, serious, melancholic, sincere, gothic, epic
Similar in 90%
Che! (1969)
Plot Summary:
Biography of Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who helped Fidel Castro in his struggle against the corrupt Batista regime, eventually resulting in the overthrow of that government and Castro's taking over of Cuba. The film covers Guevara's life from when he first landed in Cuba in 1956 to his death in an ambush by government troops in the mountains of Bolivia in 1967.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, political, factual, philosophical, exciting
Similar in 77%
Evita (1996)
Plot Summary:
The hit musical based on the life of Evita Duarte, a B-movie Argentinian actress who eventually became the wife of Argentinian president and dictator Juan Perón, and the most beloved and hated woman in Argentina.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Musical
Country: USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: intense, lyrical, emotional, sentimental, serious, captivating, realistic, period piece, stylized, erotic
Similar in 78%
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
Similar in 82%
Danton (1983)
Plot Summary:
Danton and Robespierre were close friends and fought together in the French Revolution, but by 1793 Robespierre was France's ruler, determined to wipe out opposition with a series of mass executions that became known as the Reign of Terror. Danton, well known as a spokesman of the people, had been living in relative solitude in the French countryside, but he returned to Paris to challenge Robespierre's violent rule and call for the people to demand their rights. Robespierre, however, could not accept such a challenge, even from a friend and colleague, and he blocked out a plan for the capture and execution of Danton and his allies.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, Poland
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: political, epic, talky, spiritual, anthology, art film, historical drama, historically accurate, serious, captivating
Similar in 89%
Luther (2003)
Plot Summary:
During the early 16th Century idealistic German monk Martin Luther, disgusted by the materialism in the church, begins the dialogue that will lead to the Protestant Reformation.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Germany, USA, Czech Republic, Italy
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: uplifting, political, biblical, christian film, sincere, touching, intellectual, inspirational, costume drama, intense
Similar in 87%
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
Plot Summary:
Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, Malawi
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: motivational, rough, inspirational, disturbing, touching, bleak, factual, psychological, uplifting
Similar in 77%
Oranges and Sunshine (2010)
Plot Summary:
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, Australia
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: realistic, sincere, serious, captivating, motivational, educational, sad, uplifting, touching, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Catch a Fire (2006)
Plot Summary:
The true story of anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and particularly the life of Patrick Chamusso, a timid foreman at Secunda CTL, the largest synthetic fuel plant in the world. Patrick is wrongly accused, imprisoned and tortured for an attempt to bomb the plant, with the injustice transforming the apolitical worker into a radicalised insurgent, who then carries out his own successful sabotage mission.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: France, UK, South Africa, USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: tense, political, factual, emotional, harsh, thought provoking, serious, disturbing, realistic, intense
Similar in 84%
Selma (2014)
Plot Summary:
"Selma," as in Alabama, the place where segregation in the South was at its worst, leading to a march that ended in violence, forcing a famous statement by President Lyndon B. Johnson that ultimately led to the signing of the Civil Rights Act.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 95000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: emotional, political, thought provoking, inspirational, sincere, uplifting, factual, serious, period piece, realistic
Similar in 82%
Gandhi (1982)
Plot Summary:
In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of 'passive resistance', endeavouring to win freedom for his people without resorting to bloodshed.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 238000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, India, USA, South Africa
Duration: 191 min
Plot tags: epic, spiritual, inspirational, political, uplifting, factual, motivational, touching, compassionate, emotional