Best movies like The Boys
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
When Continuation War started in Summer 1941, German soldiers arrived to Oulu. With their charm they conquered women and town boys. Finnish boys communicated with them on many levels: had trades, worked as interpreters, rotated business, spied on German love adventures and fought with each other about the favor of soldiers. In autumn 1944, the war was ending. Germans left Oulu by leaving behind fragile relationships, bastard kids and unfinished businesses. The most shocking of all was the faith of young Jake.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 960
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: crying, black and white
Best tv shows and movies like The Boys (1962):
Similar in 88%
Diamonds of the Night (1964)
Plot Summary:
Diamonds in the night is the tense, brutal story of two Jewish boys who escape from a train transporting them from one concentration camp to another. Ultimately, they are hunted down by a group of old, armed home-guardists. The film goes beyond the themes of war and anti-Nazism and concerns itself with man's struggle to preserve human dignity.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 67 min
Plot tags: spiritual, avant garde, black and white, surreal, no music, cinema verite
Similar in 77%
The Howling Miller (1982)
Plot Summary:
The main character is a miller, who sometimes acts strangely but is otherwise a goodhearted hardworking honest man. He sometimes keeps the villagers up all night by howling. Finally the villagers decide that the miller has to be committed into a mental hospital, where the hero does not have to spend too much time until he escapes. The miller takes to the woods near his home but there he is constantly harassed by the chief of the police with his posse.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 347
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Marathon (1968)
Plot Summary:
It is 5 May 1945 and the uprising against the hated German occupiers has broken out in Prague. The Czech guards open the gate of the Pankrác prison to allow the prisoners to escape en masse. Many of them are shot dead by the German guards but young Ruda (Jaromír Hanzlík) manages to run away. He is taken care of by one of the Prague fighters, concierge Kytka. Kytka hides him in the flat of the house's owner where only the young maid Karla (Jana Brejchová) is left, ordering her to take care of Ruda.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 28
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tragicomedy, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 77%
That Instant, That While (1981)
Plot Summary:
Autumn 1944. A doctor is accused in the collaboration with the Nazis and found guilty.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 26
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Czechoslovakia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: crying
Similar in 87%
Fall of the Eagles (1989)
Plot Summary:
No overview found.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Cuckoo in a Dark Forest (1985)
Plot Summary:
Set in World War 2 as the Germans occupy Czechoslovakia, teenage Emilka's father is murdered by the Nazis, but she is selected for special treatment by virtue of being blonde. She is billeted with the commandant of a concentration camp near the Baltic coast, where his kindness towards her provokes his wife's jealousy, but is compromised when Emilka witnesses his brutality towards the prisoners.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 110
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Czechoslovakia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: crying, freeze frame
Similar in 76%
The Interrogation (2009)
Plot Summary:
Nuori nainen on saanut kutsun saapua poliisin kuultavaksi. Hän pelkää joutuvansa ansaan. Hän on täydellistä suomenkieltä puhuva Neuvosto-desantti, joka on varomattomuuttaan jättänyt vakoiluradionsa pesulaan säilytettäväksi.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Summer of '44 - The Lost Generation (2017)
Plot Summary:
Summer 1944, Schwäbisch Hall. Contrary to the war propaganda and the decreed heroism, the 16-year-old boys dream of Swing music, sex and freedom - and of Lore, the air force helper from the air base, who attracts all eyes in her red swimsuit. At the same time, uncle, Knuffke, Bubu, tongue kiss and Hosenmacher suspect that they will not escape the horror of the front. "Stay tuned," Lore calls after them. But tongue kiss gets it first and also pants maker will not survive the war.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 316
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Czech Republic
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: psychological, suspense, suspenseful, tense, rough, touching, captivating
Similar in 88%
Sign of the Beast (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set during the Second World War in the Finnish war zone.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
The Partisans (1963)
Plot Summary:
Lieutenant Takala meets his fellow partisans of 20th division many year after the war. With flashbacks we see the events of summer 1944.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 349
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: black and white
Similar in 76%
Under the North Star II (2010)
Plot Summary:
Akseli Koskela returns from prison and tries to learn living again. He's not allowed to take part in politics anymore, but he sees a lot of injustice around him. He raises a family with his wife Elina while another war is around the corner.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 455
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: suspense, psychological, touching, family saga, epic, exciting
Similar in 76%
Barefoot (2017)
Plot Summary:
Story of a small boy is forced to move out of Prague during World War 2 to a small village of Slavonice where he meets the rest of his family. He needs to make new friends and get used to a new life which is immensely different from what this city boy was used to.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 882
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, suspense, suspenseful, light, humorous, melancholic, tragicomedy, crying
Similar in 80%
Tea with Mussolini (1999)
Plot Summary:
Semi-autobiographical film directed by Franco Zeffirelli, telling the story of young Italian boy Luca's upbringing by a circle of English and American women, before and during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Italy, UK
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: period piece, light, costume drama, sentimental, touching, realistic, retro, uplifting, political thriller, art house
Similar in 87%
Ithaca (2015)
Plot Summary:
In a small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses. And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain... and death... to the good people of Ithaca. And Homer Macauley will grapple with one message that will change him forever - from a boy into a man. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan's 1943 novel, The Human Comedy, ITHACA is the quintessential wartime tale of the Home Front. It is a coming-of-age story about the exuberance of youth, the sweetness of life, the sting of death and the modesty and sheer goodness that lives in each and every one of us.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: captivating, tense, thought provoking, realistic, crying, freeze frame
Similar in 81%
Lacombe, Lucien (1974)
Plot Summary:
In 1944 Lucien Lacombe, a young peasant in the Lot region is refused permission to join the French Resistance. Instead, the opposing "French Gestapo" obtain from him information about an underground leader and recruit him into their organization.Lucien enjoys his power and inclusion as a member of the German Police (Milice française) but soon falls in love with a Jewish girl. Forcing himself upon her family, Lucien becomes personally involved with the very people some of his collaborators and superiors are, in part, employed to oppress.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 138 min
Plot tags: anthology, art house, postmodern, visual, psychological, sincere, serious, realistic, disturbing, controversial
Similar in 87%
Persian Lessons (2020)
Plot Summary:
Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia, Germany, Belarus
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: captivating, suspense, independent film
Similar in 77%
Calm at Sea (2011)
Plot Summary:
A teenager joins the resistance in Nazi-occupied France during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 803
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, complex
Similar in 75%
Jacob the Liar (1974)
Plot Summary:
A Jewish ghetto in the east of Europe, 1944. By coincidence, Jakob Heym eavesdrops on a German radio broadcast announcing the Soviet Army is making slow by steady progress towards central Europe. In order to keep his companion in misfortune, Mischa, from risking his life for a few potatoes, he tells him what he heard and announces that he is in possession of a radio - in the ghetto a crime punishable by death. It doesn't take long for word of Jakob's secret to spread - suddenly, there is new hope and something to live for - and so Jakob finds himself in the uncomforting position of having to come up with more and more stories.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, War
Country: East Germany, Czechoslovakia
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, tense, uplifting, serious, tragicomedy, gloomy, semi serious, fairy tale, crying
Similar in 89%
Winter in Wartime (2008)
Plot Summary:
During World War II in the freezing Netherlands winter of 1944/1945 the western Netherlands are in the grip of a famine. Many people move east to provide for their families. Fourteen year old Michiel can't wait to join the Dutch resistance, to the dismay of his father, who, as mayor, works to prevent escalations in the village.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Netherlands, Belgium
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: tense, exciting, serious, realistic, captivating, sexy, sad, stylized, gloomy, tear jerker
Similar in 87%
Abandoned Houses, Empty Homes (2000)
Plot Summary:
A war movie that takes place in Finnish Karelia in 1944.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 309
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 85%
Silence (2011)
Plot Summary:
A drama between people under unconventional circumstances. In the Second World War Finland was the only nation who brought casualties killed-in-action back to be buried at home. These actions were carried out by men and women working in assembly centres near enemy lines. Silence is a story of a group of people in a limbo between life and death, in a mental no-man's- land, where heaven and hell, horror and joy, love and fear touch each other.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 462
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, sad, rough, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 78%
Ivan's Childhood (1962)
Plot Summary:
Poetic journey through the shards and shadows of one boy’s war-ravaged youth.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 39000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: bleak, atmospheric, disturbing, meditative, art house, black and white, psychological, brutal, serious, cerebral
Similar in 85%
The Unknown Soldier (1985)
Plot Summary:
Second silver screen adaption of the Finnish war book by Väinö Linna. The story is based on Linna's experiences as an infantry man in the Finnish army during the so called "Continuation War" (1941-1944).
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 197 min
Plot tags: realistic, exciting, rough, serious, captivating, sentimental, sexy, bleak, breathtaking, bloody
Similar in 76%
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
Plot Summary:
A World War II satire that follows a lonely German boy whose world view is turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend, Adolf Hitler, Jojo must confront his blind nationalism.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 428000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: New Zealand, USA, Czech Republic
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: sad, dark comedy, black comedy, funny, psychological, tense, touching, political, disturbing, controversial
Similar in 88%
Mother of Mine (2005)
Plot Summary:
1943: Nine-year-old Eero whose father is killed during the war is brought to Sweden to foster parents to his protection like thousands of other Finnish children. Eero feels lost, particularly as his foster mother Signe behaves very unfriendly. She was expecting a little girl and still mourns for her daughter who drowned in the sea.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland, Sweden
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, melancholic, bleak, realistic, sincere, captivating, serious, gloomy, surprise ending
Similar in 81%
Red Cherry (1995)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true story, this horrifying tale follows two orphaned friends as they struggle to survive during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 745
Genere: Drama, War
Country: China
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: touching, bleak, serious, mesmerizing, saga, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 77%
Goodbye, Children (1987)
Plot Summary:
A French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. He becomes the roommate of top student in his class. Rivals at first, the roommates form a bond and share a secret.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, West Germany, Italy
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: sad, heartbreaking, christian film, depressing, art house, sentimental, touching, emotional, realistic, sincere
Similar in 82%
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 80%
Ambush (1999)
Plot Summary:
It is the summer of 1941 and the Finnish army has been mobilized along the border with Russia. A platoon led by Lt. Eero Perkola is waiting for orders to go on the offensive. The platoon receives orders for a recon mission through the wilderness around the Lieksa lake to search for possible Russian defensive positions.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: War, Drama
Country: Finland
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: realistic, suspense, intense, sincere, disturbing, rough, bleak, serious, brutal, sex comedy
Similar in 82%
Unknown Soldier (2017)
Plot Summary:
The film follows Finnish army machine gun company in Continuation War against Soviet Union, 1941–1944. Based on Väinö Linna's best selling novel Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) and the novel's uncensored version, Sotaromaani (A War Novel).
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Finland, Belgium, Iceland
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, thought provoking, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, novela, historical drama