Best movies like The Hero
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A 20-year veteran of the Angolan civil war returns to the capital city of Luanda where he faces the challenges of assimilation and survival.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Angola, France, Portugal
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining
Best tv shows and movies like The Hero (2004):
Similar in 80%
Brothers (2008)
Plot Summary:
Two brothers separated at birth find themselves years later in Israel. Dan, who chose a life of work, lives with his family in a kibbutz in the south. Aaron, his brother, doctor in philosophy and law and the Torah, arrives from the USA to defend the rights of the students of the Torah.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 47
Genere: Drama
Country: Switzerland, Israel
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining
Similar in 77%
Daresalam (2001)
Plot Summary:
In a small Central African village, boyhood friends Djimi and Koni have come of age under a post-colonial government that levies crippling taxes and legally robs local farmers of their meager crops. When impulsive Koni savagely attacks a visiting government official, the resulting massacre forces the two friends on a journey that will transform them from boys into men, from farmers into soldiers and from villagers into revolutionaries. "We fight in one world so we can live in another," declares Koni as the two battle shoulder to shoulder against government troops. But while Koni embraces the politics and carnage of their dangerous new guerilla existence, Djimi longs for the simplicity and grace of the village life they've left behind. As the rebels move closer to victory, the two friends move closer to a clash of their own.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Burkina Faso, Chad
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Neon Heart (2018)
Plot Summary:
Taking us on a journey into the minds and souls of three people, the film is a kaleidoscopic exploration of sexuality, desire and disability. Feature debut by Laurits Flensted-Jensen. The director, who graduated as a documentary director from the National Film School of Denmark in 2013, has directed the shorts 'Snow' (graduation film) and 'Melon Rainbow' (2015), the latter selected for SXSW in Austin. Both 'Snow' and 'Melon Rainbow' were selected for Rotterdam https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/new#nextFilm Festival.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 328
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining
Similar in 79%
Sambizanga (1972)
Plot Summary:
Domingos is a member of an African liberation movement, arrested by the Portuguese secret police, after bloody events in Angola. He does not betray his companions, but is beaten to death in prison, and not knowing he is dead, his wife goes from a prison station to another, trying in vain to know where he is.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 614
Genere: Drama
Country: Angola, France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
The Warrior and the Savior (2013)
Plot Summary:
Orphaned by A.I.D.S., South African children Ibutho and Umsindisi SIlongo try to make a fresh start in the United States. What they do not know is that their struggles are far from over.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 48
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration:
Plot tags: captivating
Similar in 75%
Aruvi (2016)
Plot Summary:
A gentle girl born and brought up amidst the ever growing eco-social-consumeristic environment finds it difficult to fit in the society. She decides to take it hard on the people.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 14000
Genere: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: suspense, captivating, disturbing, sad, stylized
Similar in 78%
Morning Dew (2008)
Plot Summary:
The Ethiopian intellectual Anberber returns to his native country during the repressive totalitarian regime of Haile Mariam Mengistu and the recognition of his own displacement and powerlessness at the dissolution of his people's humanity and social values. After several years spent studying medicine in Germany, he finds the country of his youth replaced by turmoil. His dream of using his craft to improve the health of Ethiopians is squashed by a military junta that uses scientists for its own political ends. Seeking the comfort of his countryside home, Anberber finds no refuge from violence. The solace that the memories of his youth provide is quickly replaced by the competing forces of military and rebelling factions. Anberber needs to decide whether he wants to bear the strain or piece together a life from the fragments that lie around him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 612
Genere: Drama
Country: Ethiopia, Germany, France
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, realistic, rough
Similar in 77%
Adwa (1999)
Plot Summary:
In 1896, Ethiopia, an African nation, largely armed with spears and knives, defeats a well-equipped and organized Italian military bent on colonization.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Documentary, Drama, War
Country: USA, Germany, Ethiopia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 83%
Querô: A Damned Report (2007)
Plot Summary:
Querô is an orphan teenager, living alone near the docks in Santos, Brazil. Her mother, a prostitute, died when he was a baby, and he was raised in the bordello where she worked. He also doesn't know who his father is. Believing he rules his own destiny, he refuses to compromise with anyone else, the corrupt policemen always chasing him, the oppressive discipline in the juvenile institution Febem, or the drug dealers who try to lure him. But this independence has a price.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 367
Genere: Drama
Country: Brazil
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 82%
Battle Scars (2015)
Plot Summary:
Every Marine has a story, some they're proud of, other they'd rather forget. After coming home from his tour of duty in Afghanistan suffering from PTSD, Luke Stephens wants nothing more than to forget. What happens when our soldiers come back to Another Stateside?.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 239
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 76%
Wilderness: Part One (2017)
Plot Summary:
Set in the near future around Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinji got out from a youth detention center. Barikan suffers from stuttering and extreme shyness. These two men meet in a boxing gym. Shinji and Barikan become friends and pursue boxing under a hopeless situation.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 351
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 86%
New World (2020)
Plot Summary:
Set in the city of Beiping during the 22 days before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 is a story about the drastic changes in the lives of three brothers Jin Hai, Tie Lin, and Xu Tian as well as a romance between Xu Tian and Tian Dan. In investigating the murder that claimed the life of his fiancee, policeman Xu Tian starts on a trail that will eventually lead to his involvement in the liberation of Beiping. Jin Hai, Tie Lin, and Xu Tian are three friends who are as close as brothers. In the face of historic changes and conflicting beliefs, they make choices that take them on diverging paths. Xu Tian and communist member Tian Dan meet during their lowest moments and find a common goal that brings them together.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 40 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Jin (2013)
Plot Summary:
A bitter conflict has raged between guerrillas and the army in Turkey's Kurdish regions for over 30 years. Large expanses have now become war zones. Countless young people have lost their lives to the conflict. This dangerous but incredibly beautiful mountainous country is home to 17-year-old Jîn. But she is no longer safe since she secretly stole away from a group of rebels with whom she was fighting. Now she wanders the picturesque landscape alone, caught between two fronts. All of a sudden, the sound of gunfire and explosions rend the air above the untouched natural scenery. Attack is threatened from all sides. Desperate to find peace, Jîn decides to escape to another part of the country – an impossible plan, since the military is omnipresent and there are road blocks everywhere. As a Kurd without identity papers she risks arrest at every turn. In addition, as a woman with no family to shield her, many men will see her as fair game. But her courage is unbroken.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Turkey, Germany
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Socialphobia (2014)
Plot Summary:
A woman is attacked by Internet users after posting provocative remarks online. Using her personal information, they go to her place but what they find is her body; she took her own life. Who made her kill herself? Or, was she killed by someone else?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 539
Genere: Drama
Country: South Korea
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: social, tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 86%
Dry Season (2006)
Plot Summary:
Chad, 2006. After a forty-year civil war, the radio announces the government has just amnestied the war criminals. Outraged by the news, Gumar Abatcha orders his grandson Atim, a sixteen-year-old youth, to trace the man who killed his father and to execute him. Atim obeys him and, armed with his father's own gun, he goes in search of Nassara, the man who made him an orphan. It does not take long before he finds him. Nassara, who now goes straight, is married, goes to the mosque and owns a small bakery. After some hesitation Atim offers him his services as an apprentice. He is hired then it will be easy for him to gun down the murderer of his father. At least, that is what he thinks.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 966
Genere: Drama
Country: Chad, France, Belgium, Austria
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, bleak, captivating, islamic, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 88%
Timbuktu (2014)
Plot Summary:
A cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu find their quiet lives -- which are typically free of the Jihadists determined to control their faith -- abruptly disturbed. A look at the brief occupation of Timbuktu by militant Islamic rebels.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 18000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Mauritania, Qatar
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: disturbing, harsh, compassionate, emotional, intense, social, art house, independent film, intercultural, slow cinema
Similar in 76%
War Witch (2012)
Plot Summary:
Somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Komona a 14-year-old girl tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything started when she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: disturbing, touching, serious, bleak, social, sad, depressing, independent film, realistic, crying
Similar in 90%
Johnny Mad Dog (2008)
Plot Summary:
A cast of unknown performers are used in this drama about child soldiers fighting a war in an unnamed African country.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Belgium, Liberia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, disturbing, brutal, sad, bleak
Similar in 89%
Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
Plot Summary:
A historical drama based on the Thiaroye transit camp massacre, Camp de Thiaroye dismantles the myth of colonial assimilation to expose ingrained social and cultural mechanisms of racism, exploitation, and privilege. In 1944, the French army massacred several units of West African conscripts recently returned from the battlefields of Europe. What was essentially a demand by African veterans that they be paid the same wages as their French counterparts led to an attack on soldiers who had only recently been fighting the Nazis in Italy and Germany.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 626
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 80%
Dreaming of Space (2005)
Plot Summary:
A story of a simple, naive Russian man Konek and the people around him: his love and her sister and a mysterious man. The film is set in 1957, time of changes, time of waiting for something big to happen.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 729
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, atmospheric, serious, stylized, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Un Dimanche à Kigali (2006)
Plot Summary:
In April 1994, the middle-aged Canadian journalist Bernard Valcourt is making a documentary in Kigali about AIDS. He secretly falls in love for the Tutsi waitress of his hotel Gentille, who is younger than him, in a period of violent racial conflicts. When the genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda begins, Bernard does not succeed in escaping with Gentille to Canada. When the genocide finishes in July 1994, Bernard returns to the chaotic Kigali seeking out Gentille in the middle of destruction and dead bodies. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 706
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, emotional, political, bleak, captivating, realistic, contemplative, touching
Similar in 82%
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Plot Summary:
Tracing the struggle of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale to gain freedom from French colonial rule as seen through the eyes of Ali from his start as a petty thief to his rise to prominence in the organisation and capture by the French in 1957. The film traces the rebels' struggle and the increasingly extreme measures taken by the French government to quell the revolt.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 64000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, Algeria
Duration: 121 min
Plot tags: political, black and white, art house, bleak, realistic, disturbing, philosophical, sad, sincere, touching
Similar in 78%
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 86%
Soldier Boy (2019)
Plot Summary:
The film is based on real events. This is a story about exciting events that occurred in the life of the smallest soldier - the hero of the Great Patriotic War, six-year-old Sergei Aleshkov. He lost all his relatives and got into the army. With a six-year-old boy, they started playing the soldier game in order to preserve his childhood, and he, in order to comply with this honorary title, became a real defender of the Motherland.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 795
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Belarus, Russia
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Road to Berlin (2015)
Plot Summary:
A story about two young men during the last days of WWII.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 901
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Russia
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000)
Plot Summary:
Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Since they left Dib and his gang, they have been living on the portside of Casablanca. They live in constant fear of Dib's revenge. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib's gang. Matters are getting serious.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: Morocco, Tunisia, France, Belgium, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, bleak, social, disturbing, crying, islamic, realistic, masterpiece
Similar in 82%
Shake Hands with the Devil (2007)
Plot Summary:
Canadian Lt. General Romeo Dallaire was the military commander of the UN mission in Rwanda and this movie is personal and, all too true, story of his time there during the genocide of 1994. It is not quite as moving as the earlier Hotel Rwanda and is less geared to drama and emotional manipulation, but it is still grim and upsetting.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: disturbing, serious, rough, bleak, realistic, sad, sincere, political
Similar in 76%
Beasts of No Nation (2015)
Plot Summary:
A drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country. Follows the journey of a young boy, Agu, who is forced to join a group of soldiers in a fictional West African country. While Agu fears his commander and many of the men around him, his fledgling childhood has been brutally shattered by the war raging through his country, and he is at first torn between conflicting revulsion and fascination Depicts the mechanics of war and does not shy away from explicit, visceral detail, and paints a complex, difficult picture of Agu as a child soldier.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 86000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: disturbing, political, bleak, harsh, dramatic, tense, atmospheric, suspense, serious, rough
Similar in 82%
Shooting Dogs (2005)
Plot Summary:
Two westerners, a priest and a teacher find themselves in the middle of the Rwandan genocide and face a moral dilemna. Do they place themselves in danger and protect the refugees, or escape the country with their lives? Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, sad, emotional, sincere, christian film, breathtaking, inspirational, depressing, epic
Similar in 84%
Sometimes in April (2005)
Plot Summary:
Debra Winger, Oris Erhuero and Idris Elba star in this drama framed by the Rwandan genocide.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France, Rwanda, USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, sad, disturbing, inspirational, political, informative, bilingual