Best movies like Sunshine
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The film follows a Jewish family living in Hungary through three generations, rising from humble beginnings to positions of wealth and power in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. The patriarch becomes a prominent judge but is torn when his government sanctions anti-Jewish persecutions. His son converts to Christianity to advance his career as a champion fencer and Olympic hero, but is caught up in the Holocaust. Finally, the grandson, after surviving war, revolution, loss and betrayal, realizes that his ultimate allegiance must be to himself and his heritage.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Hungary, Germany, Canada, Austria, France, UK, USA
Duration: 181 min
Plot tags: costume drama, erotic, family saga, sincere, romantic, sad, saga, art film, historical drama, epic
Best tv shows and movies like Sunshine (1999):
Similar in 80%
25 Fireman's Street (1973)
Plot Summary:
On one hot summer night, the residents of a Hungarian apartment house slated for demolition restlessly revisit their haunted pasts as they face an uncertain future. In a gently turning kaleidoscope of dream imagery, regret-laden nostalgia and painstakingly intimate detail, the looming wrecking ball pales in significance to the accumulated experiences each dreamer revisits. Pre-war prejudice, occupying Nazis and Stalinist deprivations all come and go as each tenant’s backward glance yields moments of aching sensuality, infectious exuberance and catastrophic loss.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 342
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Hungary
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, surreal, contemplative, talky, crying, pre war
Similar in 82%
The House of the Spirits (1993)
Plot Summary:
A rancher, his clairvoyant wife and their family face turbulent years in South America.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Germany, Denmark, Portugal
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, family saga, melancholic, realistic, costume drama, sexy, mystical, erotic
Similar in 78%
The Best of Youth (2003)
Plot Summary:
Spanning four decades, from the chaotic 1960s to the present, director Marco Tullio Giordana's passionate epic 'La Meglio Gioventu' follows two Italian brothers through some of the most tumultuous events of recent Italian history.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Italy
Duration: 366 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, sincere, emotional, realistic, political, sad, talky, captivating, family saga
Similar in 82%
The White Countess (2005)
Plot Summary:
The last movie from the team of Ismail Merchant, James Ivory, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Set in 1930s Shanghai, "The White Countess" is both Sofia (Natasha Richardson), a fallen member of the Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat named Jackson (Ralph Fiennes), who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, Germany, China, USA
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, emotional, atmospheric, period piece, costume drama, touching, lyrical, romantic drama, sincere
Similar in 77%
Come See the Paradise (1990)
Plot Summary:
Come See The Paradise is a deeply touching love story set against the backdrop of a dramatic and controversial period in American history, It follows the romance and eventual marriage of Jack McGurn (Dennis Quad), a hot blooded Irish American, and a beautiful Japanese American Lily Dawanura (Tamlyn Tomita), at the outset of World War II. The clash of cultures, at once painful for the two lovers, becomes insurmountable after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Lily and the Kawamuras are relocated To a bleak, outdoor internment camp in California, Jack is drafted into the Army, powerless to help the woman he loves abandoning all hope of ever winning her family's approval.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying, sentimental, romantic, clever
Similar in 75%
Onegin (1999)
Plot Summary:
In the opulent St. Petersburg of the Empire period, Eugene Onegin is a jaded but dashing aristocrat - a man often lacking in empathy, who suffers from restlessness, melancholy and, finally, regret. Through his best friend Lensky, Onegin is introduced to the young Tatiana. A passionate and virtuous girl, she soon falls hopelessly under the spell of the aloof newcomer and professes her love for him.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, period piece, romantic, costume drama, romantic drama, realistic, art house, historical romance, contemplative, clever
Similar in 86%
A City of Sadness (1989)
Plot Summary:
Soon after Japan relinquishes control of Taiwan in 1945, the Lin brothers face hardships from the changing culture. Bar owner Wen-heung (Chen Sown-yung), the eldest brother, falls foul of local gangsters, Wen-sun disappears, and Wen-leung, scarred by his experiences in the war, ends up in an insane asylum. Deaf-mute photographer Wen-ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), the youngest brother, decides to make a stand and fight the Kuomintang government from China that is assuming power.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: realistic, sad, saga, black and white, slow cinema, aesthetic, tense, rough, serious, captivating
Similar in 90%
Head in the Clouds (2004)
Plot Summary:
A romantic drama set in 1930's England, Paris, and Spain. Gilda Bessé shares her Paris apartment with an Irish schoolteacher, Guy Malyon, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. As the world drifts toward war, Gilda defiantly pursues her hedonistic lifestyle and her burgeoning career as a photographer. But Guy and Mia feel impelled to join the fight against fascism, and the three friends are separated.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: sexy, romantic, sentimental, captivating, stylized, cult classic, romantic drama, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 82%
The Land Girls (1998)
Plot Summary:
During World War II, the organisation "The Women's Land Army" recruited women to work on British farms while the men were off to war. Three such "land girls" of different social backgrounds - quiet Stella, young hairdresser Prue, and Cambridge graduate Ag - become best friends in spite of their different backgrounds.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: period piece, sentimental, touching, realistic, retro, anamorphic, historical drama, sincere, serious, crying
Similar in 88%
Zelary (2003)
Plot Summary:
A nurse and her surgeon-lover are part of a resistance movement in 1940s Czechoslovakia. When they are discovered, her lover flees and she must find a place to hide. A patient whose life she saved, a man from a remote mountain village where time stopped 150 years ago, agrees to hide her as his wife.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, sincere, contemplative, epic, mysterious, serious, sentimental, romantic
Similar in 87%
Good (2008)
Plot Summary:
The rise of national socialism in Germany should not be regarded as a conspiracy of madmen. Millions of "good" people found themselves in a society spiralling into terrible chaos. A film about then, which illuminates the terrors of now.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, disturbing, captivating, christian film, retro, political, sad, period piece, romantic drama
Similar in 87%
Haven (2001)
Plot Summary:
This is the true story of a woman named Ruth Gruber who travels to Europe to help escort 1000 Jewish War victims to the United States. She comes to love and feel sorry for them all, and fights for their rights to live in America.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 514
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: emotional, sincere, disturbing, serious, captivating, realistic, crying, uplifting
Similar in 80%
Holocaust (1978)
Plot Summary:
Holocaust is an American television miniseries broadcast in four parts in 1978 on the NBC television network. The series tells the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of the Weiss family of German Jews and that of a rising member of the SS, who gradually becomes a merciless war criminal. Holocaust highlighted numerous important events which occurred up to and during World War II, such as Kristallnacht, the creation of Jewish ghettos and later, the use of gas chambers. Although the miniseries won several awards and received critical acclaim, it was criticized by some, including noted Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel, who described it as "untrue and offensive.".
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 475 min
Plot tags: historical drama, depressing, anthology, touching, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Max (2002)
Plot Summary:
In 1918, a young, disillusioned Adolph Hitler strikes up a friendship with a Jewish art dealer while weighing a life of passion for art vs. talent at politics.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Hungary, Canada, UK
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sincere, thought provoking, realistic, avant garde, tense, clever, serious, talky, gloomy
Similar in 87%
The Affair of the Necklace (2001)
Plot Summary:
In pre-Revolutionary France, a young aristocratic woman left penniless by the political unrest in the country, must avenge her family's fall from grace by scheming to steal a priceless necklace.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: costume drama, period piece, factual, atmospheric, realistic, epic, serious, stylized, historical drama, light
Similar in 75%
Wuthering Heights (1992)
Plot Summary:
Young orphan Heathcliff is adopted by the wealthy Earnshaw family and moves into their estate, Wuthering Heights. Soon, the new resident falls for his compassionate foster sister, Cathy. The two share a remarkable bond that seems unbreakable until Cathy, feeling the pressure of social convention, suppresses her feelings and marries Edgar Linton, a man of means who befits her stature. Heathcliff vows to win her back.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: romantic, gothic, atmospheric, emotional, period piece, heartbreaking, touching, melancholic, costume drama, romantic drama
Similar in 83%
The English Patient (1996)
Plot Summary:
In the 1930s, Count Almásy is a Hungarian map maker employed by the Royal Geographical Society to chart the vast expanses of the Sahara Desert along with several other prominent explorers. As World War II unfolds, Almásy enters into a world of love, betrayal, and politics.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 198000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA, UK, Italy
Duration: 162 min
Plot tags: romantic, sentimental, emotional, touching, heartbreaking, sexy, erotic, scenic, epic, captivating
Similar in 76%
Augustus: The First Emperor (2003)
Plot Summary:
Caesar Augustus tells of how he became the emperor to his reluctant daughter, Julia following the death of her husband Agrippa.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Austria
Duration: 200 min
Plot tags: epic, serious, realistic, stylized, exciting, political, political thriller, costume drama, historical drama, crying
Similar in 82%
Talk of Angels (1998)
Plot Summary:
This is the story of a young Irish woman who comes to Spain to escape from the pressures she feels about her impending marriage to a political activist in Ireland. But in Spain in the 1930's, taking a job of governess in a wealthy family, she finds the same kinds of political unrest. In fact, it isn't long before she finds herself attracted to a married man who is similarly involved in the struggle against fascism and Franco. This awakens her to her nature that brings her to such men and resolves for her what she must do about the life she left in Ireland.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 893
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, sentimental, disturbing, independent film
Similar in 86%
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
Plot Summary:
In late 1930s Ferrara, Italy, the Finzi-Continis are a leading family: wealthy, aristocratic, and urbane; they are also Jewish. Their adult children, Micol and Alberto, gather a diverse circle of friends for tennis and parties at their villa with its lovely grounds, and try to keep the rest of the world at bay. But tensions between them all grow as anti-Semitism rises in Fascist Italy, and even the Finzi-Continis will have to confront the Holocaust.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: disturbing, compassionate, breathtaking, emotional, talky, sentimental, thought provoking, touching, serious, captivating
Similar in 88%
The Governess (1998)
Plot Summary:
When the father of privileged Rosina da Silva violently dies, she decides to pass herself off as a gentile and finds employment with a family in faraway Scotland. Soon she and the family father, Charles, start a passionate secret affair.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: enigmatic, emotional, colorful, period piece, costume drama, atmospheric, scenic, serious, historical drama, realistic
Similar in 78%
The Constant Gardener (2005)
Plot Summary:
Justin Quayle is a low-level British diplomat who has always gone about his work very quietly, not causing any problems. But after his radical wife Tessa is killed he becomes determined to find out why, thrusting himself into the middle of a very dangerous conspiracy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 147000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: UK, Germany, Kenya, France, USA, Switzerland
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: political thriller, suspenseful, tense, political, suspense, thought provoking, heartbreaking, depressing, captivating, psychological
Similar in 90%
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 88%
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 75%
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Plot Summary:
Doctor Zhivago is the filmed adapation of the Russian novel by Boris Pasternak from director David Lean that was an international success and today deemed a classic. Omar Sharif and Julie Christie play two protagonists who in fact love each other yet because of their current situation cannot find a way be together.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 81000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: Italy, UK, USA
Duration: 197 min
Plot tags: epic, atmospheric, emotional, romantic, scenic, costume drama, visual, sentimental, serious, realistic
Similar in 80%
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 88%
Europa Europa (1990)
Plot Summary:
A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth. Although improbabilities and happenstance are cornerstones of the film, it is based upon a true story.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Germany, France, Poland
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: political, realistic, retro, mind bending, psychedelic, surreal, epic, tense, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 88%
Bent (1997)
Plot Summary:
Max is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Eventually Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewish because in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a relationship with an openly gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: UK, Japan
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sexy, brutal, disturbing, bleak, serious, emotional, erotic, lgbt cinema, sad, homoerotic
Similar in 88%
The Counterfeiters (2007)
Plot Summary:
The story Jewish counterfeiter, Salomon Sorowitsch, coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Crime, Drama, History, War
Country: Austria, Germany
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: tense, brutal, bleak, harsh, serious, disturbing, suspenseful, realistic, intense, sincere
Similar in 82%
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