Best movies like The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler (2009):
Similar in 75%
Spring 1941 (2007)
Plot Summary:
After Germany invades Poland and the Nazis order the confinement of all local Jews in the ghetto, medical doctor Artur Planck (Joseph Fiennes) manages to flee with his family, seeking refuge at the farm of Emilia (Kelly Harrison), their former grocer. With the Planck family hiding in her attic, Emilia finds her feelings for the physician growing stronger than she wants, or can control -- despite the dangers of the situation.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 789
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland, Israel
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, sexual, sexy
Similar in 82%
Playing for Time (1980)
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
Similar in 85%
Freedom (2009)
Plot Summary:
A Gypsy family travels the French roads during the Second World War, followed by Little Claude, a young boy seeking a new family after his parents "left and never returned". Upon reaching a town where they traditionally stop for a few months and work in vineyards, they learn that a new law forbids them from being nomadic. Theodore, the town's mayor, and Miss Lundi, the schoolteacher, protect and help the Gypsies. Despite this, They are arrested and placed in an internment camp. Theodore manages to rescue them and gives them a piece of property where they must settle. But the Gypsies' deeply ingrained thirst for freedom makes this sedentary lifestyle difficult to bear. After Theodore and Miss Lundi are arrested for resistance, the Gypsies decide they must get back on the move in order to remain free.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, captivating, emotional, realistic, serious, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Sarah's Key (2010)
Plot Summary:
On the night of 16 July 1942, ten year old Sarah and her parents are being arrested and transported to the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris where thousands of other jews are being send to get deported. Sarah however managed to lock her little brother in a closed just before the police entered their appartment.Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in Paris, gets the assignment to write an article about this raid, a black page in the history of France. She starts digging archives and through Sarah's file discovers a well kept secret about her own in-laws.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: emotional, captivating, disturbing, serious, sexy, social, educational, art film, powerful, realistic
Similar in 86%
Riphagen (2016)
Plot Summary:
The true story about the biggest warcriminal from Holland during world war II, Andries "Al Capone" Riphagen.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, period piece
Similar in 80%
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 84%
Run Boy Run (2013)
Plot Summary:
Run Boy Run is the true story of Jurek, an eight-year-old boy, who escapes from the Warsaw ghetto, then manages to survive in the woods and working as a farmhand, disguising himself as a Polish orphan. He encounters people who will betray him for a reward, who will beat him up or try to kill him, and he meets those, who will do and risk almost everything to help him. Jurek’s resilience is put to the ultimate test, when an accident cripples him, making it harder to find work. But he struggles on against all odds. Eventually the Russians reach his area and Jurek even finds a family where he could stay. Yet he is betrayed again, and a young man from a Jewish orphanage forcefully tries to bring Jurek back to his people and his faith.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Biography, Drama, War
Country: Germany, France, Poland
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: touching, captivating, bleak, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 88%
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 89%
Süskind (2012)
Plot Summary:
In Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, Walter Süskind is a member of the Dutch Jewish Council who rescues hundreds of children from the concentration camps.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, bleak
Similar in 83%
Stones for the Rampart (2014)
Plot Summary:
To be defeated and not be - a victory. This is the motto that life is guided by three young friends: Alek, Sophy and Rudy. Scouts, high school graduates high school in Warsaw drifting ambitious plans for the future broken through September 1939. Entering adulthood in a very dramatic times, which puts them a choice - to survive at any cost, or to join the fighting for a free homeland, risking everything. The boys brought up in patriotic homes, shaped by the ideals of scouting, they decide to fight. They become soldiers, and although every scrape with death, they can live a full life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Hamsun (1996)
Plot Summary:
Knut Hamsun is Norway's most famous and admired author. Ever since he was young he has hated the English for the starvation they caused Norway during WWI. When the Germans occupy Norway 9 April 1940 he welcomes them and the protection they can give from Great Britain. He supports the national socialist ideals, but opposes the way these ideals are turned into action - that Norwegians are jailed and executed. His wife Marie travels in Germany during the war as a sign of support from Knut and herself.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany
Duration: 159 min
Plot tags: sad, sincere, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky, period drama
Similar in 87%
Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973)
Plot Summary:
Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: independent film, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 84%
The Devil's Arithmetic (1999)
Plot Summary:
Hannah Stern, an American-born Jewish adolescent, is uninterested in the culture, faith and customs of her relatives; however, Hannah begins to revaluate her heritage when she has a supernatural experience that transports her back to a Nazi death camp in 1941. There, she meets a young girl named Rivkah, a fellow captive in the camp. As Rivkah and Hannah struggle to survive in the face of daily atrocities, they form an unbreakable bond.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, War
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: emotional, uplifting, serious, realistic, sentimental, touching, period piece, teen, surprise ending
Similar in 79%
The Last Train (2006)
Plot Summary:
A group of people are imprisoned in a rail car bound from Berlin to a concentration camp in 1945.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Czech Republic
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, serious, realistic, captivating, entertaining
Similar in 90%
Rosenstrasse (2003)
Plot Summary:
When Ruth's husband dies in New York, in 2000, she imposes strict Jewish mourning, which puzzles her children. A stranger comes to the house - Ruth's cousin - with a picture of Ruth, age 8, in Berlin, with a woman the cousin says helped Ruth escape. Hannah, Ruth's daughter engaged to a gentile, goes to Berlin to find the woman, Lena Fisher, now 90. Posing as a journalist investigating intermarriage, Hannah interviews Lena who tells the story of a week in 1943 when the Jewish husbands of Aryan women were detained in a building on Rosenstrasse. The women gather daily for word of their husbands. The film goes back and forth to tell Ruth and Lena's story. How will it affect Hannah?.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 78%
In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1997)
Plot Summary:
In the Warsau Ghetto of 1943, one man's struggle to keep his family together leads him to the ultimate crisis of faith, and one final chance at redemption. Written by legendary 'Twilight Zone' creator, Rod Sterling.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 352
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 82%
The Island on Bird Street (1997)
Plot Summary:
Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all the relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Denmark, UK, Germany, France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: tense, bleak, serious, realistic, suspense, independent film, period piece
Similar in 81%
The Birdcatcher (2019)
Plot Summary:
Norway, 1942, during World War II. After being separated from her family, Esther, a young Jewish girl from Trondheim, arrives at an isolated farm where she must assume a new identity in order to survive the Nazi persecution.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Norway, UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: tense, suspense, rough, thought provoking, heartbreaking, suspenseful, factual, period piece
Similar in 90%
Escape from Sobibor (1987)
Plot Summary:
During WWII, the death camp at Treblinka had an escape, causing the Commandant at a similar camp in Sobibor to vow (actually threaten) that his camp would never experience the same thing. But those who were its captives, the Jewish laborers that had been spared from the ovens, knew that they were on borrowed time and that their only hope was to escape... the only question was how to do it. On October 14, 1943, members of the camp's underground resistance succeeded in covertly killing eleven German officers and a number of Ukrainian guards. Of the 600 inmates in the camp, roughly 300 escaped, although most were later re-captured and killed. The escape forced the Nazis to close the death camp, dismantling it and planting a forest.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, rough, serious, suspenseful, psychological, exciting, thought provoking, suspense, philosophical
Similar in 82%
My Best Enemy (2011)
Plot Summary:
Poland 1943: An unlikely pair - a concentration camp prisoner and a captain in Hitler's notorious SS - free themselves from the wreckage of a crashed SS airplane. The two appear to be strangely familiar with each other and the extent of their extraordinary relationship is thrillingly revealed.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: Austria, Luxembourg
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, tense, serious, captivating, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Olga (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp. After World War II began, Vargas decided to uphold the Allies.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Romance, War
Country: Brazil
Duration: 141 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, bleak, contemplative, period piece
Similar in 83%
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 89%
Varian's War: The Forgotten Hero (2001)
Plot Summary:
Varian Fry rescues more than 2,000 artists from Nazi persecution during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 896
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK, USA, Canada
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: tense, sincere, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 81%
Jakob the Liar (1999)
Plot Summary:
In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, France, Germany
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: sad, cult classic, sincere, uplifting, humorous, emotional, realistic, gloomy, semi serious, sentimental
Similar in 75%
The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
Plot Summary:
The account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Jan and Antonina Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the Nazi invasion.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 46000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Czech Republic, UK, USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: factual, rough, tense, suspense, sad, suspenseful, disturbing, costume drama, thought provoking, touching
Similar in 80%
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 75%
The Diary of Anne Frank (1980)
Plot Summary:
The story of a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family who are forced into hiding by the Nazis during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 629
Genere: Biography, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: sincere, uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 75%
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 82%
The Hiding Place (1975)
Plot Summary:
The Hiding Place is an account of a Dutch family who risk their lives by offering a safe haven for Jews during World War II.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: USA
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: christian film, bleak, spiritual, independent film, sincere, uplifting, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 90%
The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank (1988)
Plot Summary:
During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Otto Frank decides to hide his family, who are Jewish, after his daughter Margot is called to appear for transport to a Nazi labour camp. Miep Gies, Otto Frank's office assistant hides them in the attic above the office. The film tells the true story of Gies' struggle to keep the family hidden and safe, as the Nazis turn Amsterdam upside-down. Based upon Gies' memoirs and Anne Frank's famous diary.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 483
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing