Best movies like Samson
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Sampson is one of several Andrzej Wajda films harking back to his youth during the Nazi Occupation of Poland. Many of these concern not only the struggle between good and evil, but also between passive and impassive. The hero is a Jewish youth. He, like his family, has always been silent and undemonstrative in the face of prejudice. Now he stands up for his right to survive, and in so doing represents the fighting spirit that culminated in the 1943 Warsaw Uprising. It was originally titled Samson, but re-spelled as Sampson upon its American release to avoid confusion with a sword-and-sandal epic of the same name.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 234
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: heroic
Best tv shows and movies like Samson (1961):
Similar in 84%
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:
Similar in 90%
The Pals (1979)
Plot Summary:
The war is over, and a group of young Partisans returns to their town to continue their interrupted education. They are doing everything in their way, because they are young enough to go to school and to horse around, but mature enough to react to lies and injustice. Loud, ready to fight, they are a problem in school, in youth organization, in town's command. And when they get used to normal life, one of them gets killed by Chetnik renegades' ambush. The comrades wear their uniforms again, take their weapons and succeed in revenging their comrade. When they return to school again, they are determined to pass the maturity test as well.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 156
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 84%
Deborah (1995)
Plot Summary:
In a small Polish town in the summer of 1939, a married painter and a young Jewish woman begin an affair. Based on the novel by Marek Sołtysik.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
Escapes (1968)
Plot Summary:
Political prisoners imprisoned in Yugoslavia will try to escape from prison by digging a channel under the ground and join the partisans.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 38
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Carriage to Vienna (1966)
Plot Summary:
A WW2 story of a young Austrian soldier running from the Russian army and a woman whom he forces to come along in order to save his wounded mate.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 78 min
Plot tags: road movie, dark
Similar in 81%
Occupation in 26 Pictures (1978)
Plot Summary:
Set in Dubrovnik, this drama chronicles a friendship, between three men, that began just before World War II. One of the men is of Italian origin, another is the wealthy heir of a shipping fortune, and the third is the son of a Jewish antique-store owner. Before the war, they are fast friends, enjoying one another's company at carnivals and at a private fencing club. When the war comes, the Italians and Germans move in to create the state of Croatia. The Italian boy becomes a fascist and courts and marries the sister of his rich friend. Soon enough, atrocities are being committed, and anyone suspected of Jewish parentage, or of leftist leanings, is killed. The Jewish boy and the factory owner's son escape the general roundup, take revenge for some of the indignities they and their families have suffered, and join the anti-fascist underground.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: black and white, pre war
Similar in 87%
The Ring with a Crowned Eagle (1992)
Plot Summary:
A Polish Resistance fighter who survived the Nazi years cannot accept the new Communist power.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, France, UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Massacre at Noon (1975)
Plot Summary:
In Autumn of 1941, the German army, determined to put down a Communist-led uprising in Serbia, is conducting a policy of killing 100 hostages for any German soldier killed. The city of Kraljevo is the site of one of those massacres, portrayed in this movie.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 85
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: heroic, crying
Similar in 84%
Wedding (1973)
Plot Summary:
Beginning in 1943. year. The tragic story of the prisoners... partisans and others who were found in a prison in Montenegro at the time when the Chetniks and the occupiers at all costs they want to crush the uprising in Yugoslavia.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 53
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Yugoslavia, Soviet Union
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
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
Similar in 76%
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:
Similar in 88%
Passenger (1963)
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
Similar in 82%
The Mother of Kings (1987)
Plot Summary:
Made in 1982, shelved for five years. Story opens with Lucja Krol's husband under the tram. She gives birth to her fourth son on the floor of their new apartment. Neighbor Wiktor, a communist intellectual, befriends the poverty-stricken family but is soon arrested and sent to jail. During the war Lucja narrowly escapes a Nazi roundup at the black market. Her sons hold ardent Communist meetings in their apartment, with her blessing. Lucja works hard, but without complaint. After the war, Klemens is inexplicably arrested, accused by the new regime of being a collaborator. Wiktor, now a high-ranking party member, trying to defend him, himself falls into disgrace. Klemens is tortured to "confess" and dies in jail, a Communist to the end. Lucja is never told about his fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 303
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: intellectual, pre war
Similar in 83%
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:
Similar in 82%
Godzina W (1980)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of a very memorable in Warsaw - August 1, 1944. The Germans have been withdrawing for some time, everyone is waiting for the signal of the Polish uprising to start.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 81
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Gaston's War (1997)
Plot Summary:
Gaston Vandermeerssche is a young, resourceful Flemish action hero of the Belgian resistance during World War II: he coaches surviving allied pilots trough occupied Belgium and France to Spain so they can regain England, each time a dangerous adventure as their poor mastery of local languages and customs add to the ever-present risks of trying to outsmart the Nazi troops and Gestapo agents. After a mess-up in the coordination from London he himself gets caught by the dreaded secret police for ruthless interrogation.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 313
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Pan Tadeusz: The Last Foray in Lithuania (1999)
Plot Summary:
A grand and patriotic tale of Poland's struggle for freedom just before Napoleon's war with Russia. Written in poetic style by Adam Mickiewicz, this story follows two feuding Polish families as they overcome their old conflicts and petty lives. However, they are able to unite as one with their patriotic and rebellious efforts to free the country they deeply love from Russian control.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Poland, France
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags: sincere, epic, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 86%
Forbidden (1984)
Plot Summary:
In Berlin in the early 1940s, romance is forbidden between the young countess who is studying veterinary medicine and a young man she meets at the home of a former professor. But they fall in love. She gets involved in helping Jews escape from the Nazis. All get out of Berlin except the young man. There is a room in her apartment where he can't be seen through the windows and a chest converted into a sofa where she and her brothers played hide-and-seek as children. This real life hide-and-seek game has high stakes. The movie is said to be based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 244
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: West Germany, UK
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
Silence of the Sea (2004)
Plot Summary:
In a small town in the West of France, during the German Occupation, a room is requisitioned by a Wehrmacht captain, Werner von Ebrennac. The house where he now stays is inhabited by young Jeanne, who makes a living by giving piano lessons, and by her grandfather. Quite upset, the two "hosts" decide to resist the occupier by never speaking a word to him. Now Werner is a lover of France and its culture, and he tries to persuade them that a rapprochement between Germany and France would be beneficial for the two nations. Quite unexpectedly Jeanne, little by little, falls in love with Werner. At the same time, the Francophile officer loses his illusions, realizing at last that what Nazi Germany actually wants is to thrall France and to stifle its culture.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, romantic drama
Similar in 78%
A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984)
Plot Summary:
Shortly after WWII an American soldier (Norman) and a Polish refugee (Emilia) fall in deep love. Eventually he will return to USA and both expect that she will soon follow him. Emilia's mother is sick but would recover by available medicine. Somehow the mother but not Emilia knows that there will only be one ticket. Realising that Emilia would never abandon her, the mother secretly throws away the daily doses given her by Emilia - and dies.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Poland, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: contemplative, intellectual, depressing, atmospheric, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 83%
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
Similar in 88%
Mother Night (1996)
Plot Summary:
An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: political, political thriller, dieselpunk, independent film, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 87%
Warsaw 44 (2014)
Plot Summary:
A beautiful story about youth, love, friendship and the pursuit of adventure during the bloody and brutal reality of the Warsaw Uprising.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: realistic, romantic, captivating, psychological, tense, suspense, social
Similar in 75%
Landscape After Battle (1970)
Plot Summary:
Film opens with the mad rush of haphazard freedom as the concentration camps are liberated. Men are trying to grab food, change clothes, bury their tormentors they find alive. Then they are herded into other camps as the Allies try to devise policy to control the situation. A young poet who cannot quite find himself in this new situation, meets a headstrong Jewish young girl who wants him to run off with her, to the West. He cannot cope with her growing demands for affection, while still harboring the hatred for the Germans and disdain for his fellow men who quickly revert to petty enmities.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 874
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, crying
Similar in 77%
A Love to Hide (2005)
Plot Summary:
A young Jewish girl, Sarah, is looking to escape the clutches of the Third Reich after seeing her parents and sister brutally slain by a smuggler who betrayed them while attempting to escape to England. Terrified, she is sheltered by her childhood friend Jean, a homosexual in a clandestine relationship with his lover Philippe.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, touching, sad, lgbt cinema, captivating, realistic, gloomy, sincere, queer cinema
Similar in 76%
For Those I Loved (1983)
Plot Summary:
Polish Martin Gray (Michael York) recalls the Holocaust, New York prosperity, and losing his wife (Brigitte Fossey) and family.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 561
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: France, Canada, Hungary
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Wall (1982)
Plot Summary:
A dramatic re-enactment of the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish uprising in April 1943 were 650 armed members of the Jewish Fighting Organization of Poland held off a 3,000 strong Nazi force in which only a handful of Jews survived. Tom Conti plays Dolek Berson, a Jewish smuggler who joins the resistance movement and is aided on the Aryan side of the wall by a former teacher named Regina Kowalski played by Rachel Roberts in her final role.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 222
Genere: Action, War, Drama
Country: Poland, USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: tense, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
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 79%
Uprising (2001)
Plot Summary:
Jews rise up in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis in 1943.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags: uplifting, captivating, rough, serious, political, tense, bleak, emotional, realistic, independent film
Similar in 82%
Angry Harvest (1985)
Plot Summary:
In the winter of 1942-43, a Jewish family leaps from a train going through Silesia. They are separated in the woods, and Leon, a local peasant who's now a farmer of some wealth, discovers the woman, Rosa, and hides her in his cellar. Leon's a middle-aged Catholic bachelor, tormented by his sexual drive. He doesn't tell Rosa he's seen signs her husband is alive, and he begs her to love him. Rosa offers herself to Leon if he'll help a local Jew in hiding who needs money. Leon pays, and love between Rosa and him does develop, but then Leon's peasant subservience and his limited empathy lead to tragedy. At the war's end, a ray of sunshine comes from an unexpected place.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 852
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: political, insightful, psychological, tense, sincere, serious, realistic, suspenseful, crying, eighties