Best movies like The Legend of Suram Fortress
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
A film version of a well-known Georgian folk-tale. A young boy has to be immured into the walls of a fortress in order to stop it from crumbling to pieces.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: art house, spiritual, surreal, contemplative, poetic, serious, stylized, gloomy, folk tale, weird
Best tv shows and movies like The Legend of Suram Fortress (1985):
Similar in 76%
Pastorale (1975)
Plot Summary:
In the mountain village comes a group of young musicians in Tbilisi. Here they are going to relax and rehearse. Sad story about the final rupture occurred, the peasants do not sing beautiful old songs, the musicians play music incomprehensible to them ... Far from the idyllic image of rural life.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 543
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 80%
The Entreaty (1967)
Plot Summary:
Based on the poems “Aluda Ketelauri” and “The Guest and the Host” by the classic of Georgian literature Vazha Pshavela This film opens Tengiz Abuladze’s trilogy (“The Plea”, “The Wishing Tree”, “Repentance”), which discusses the subject of common human values using original national material. The death of heroes, the knights of truth and good, leads the Poet to the conclusion that the evil is invincible. Exhausted by struggle and privations, the Poet lays down his arms. He is visited then by all of his favorite heroes. They put out candles by dipping them into a beer cup – a ritual Khevsuri gesture meaning renunciation. And only after seeing what misfortune and harm the rejection of fighting the evil results in, the Poet takes up arms again.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 869
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: spiritual, crying, avant garde
Similar in 76%
Wings (1966)
Plot Summary:
Maya Bulgakova gives a marvelous performance as a once heroic Russian fighter pilot now living a quiet, disappointingly ordinary life as a school principal.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 85 min
Plot tags: spiritual, art house, heartfelt, psychological, touching, serious, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 82%
Ashik Kerib (1988)
Plot Summary:
Wandering minstrel Ashik Kerib falls in love with a rich merchant's daughter, but is spurned by her father and forced to roam the world for a thousand and one nights - but not before he's got the daughter to promise not to marry till his return. It's told in typical Paradjanov style, in a series of visually ravishing 'tableaux vivants' overlaid with Turkish and Azerbaijani folksongs.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: spiritual, art house, surreal, fairy tale, atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, allegory
Similar in 84%
Electra (1962)
Plot Summary:
Living in exile after the death of their father, the grown children of a murdered and usurped king converge to exact eye-for-an-eye revenge.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: retro, spiritual, epic, rough, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 87%
Medea (1988)
Plot Summary:
It is an adaptation of the Greek tragedy Medea from Euripides, a version where the Gods willing and intervations are absent. Medea is the tragic character that after helping Jason in the Voyage of the Argonauts (myth says that she has even sacrificed her own brother for Jason's success), she gets from him only betrayal, as he arranges to marry the King's of Corinth daughter. The king decides to exile Medea, as she is a danger for his daughter happiness, but Medea asks from him just a day… before she goes outside the borders. That day Medea gets her revenge….
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags: serious, spiritual, art house, mythical, visual, sincere, emotional, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 88%
Repentance (1984)
Plot Summary:
The day after the funeral of Varlam Aravidze, the mayor of a small Georgian town, his corpse turns up in his son's garden. Although it is secretly reburied, the corpse keeps returning until the police capture the local woman who is responsible. This woman says that Varlam should never be laid to rest since his Stalin-like reign of terror led to the disappearance of her family and friends.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: christian film, parody, captivating, manga, independent film, art film, dark comedy, thought provoking, bleak, serious
Similar in 90%
King Lear (1970)
Plot Summary:
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: spiritual, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 80%
Hamlet (1964)
Plot Summary:
Shakespeare's 17th century masterpiece about the "Melancholy Dane" was given one of its best screen treatments by Soviet director Grigori Kozintsev. Kozintsev's Elsinore was a real castle in Estonia, utilized metaphorically as the "stone prison" of the mind wherein Hamlet must confine himself in order to avenge his father's death. Hamlet himself is portrayed (by Innokenti Smoktunovsky) as the sole sensitive intellectual in a world made up of debauchers and revellers. Several of Kozintsev directorial choices seem deliberately calculated to inflame the purists: Hamlet's delivers his "To be or not to be" soliloquy with his back to the camera, allowing the audience to fill in its own interpretations.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, fairy tale, philosophical, spiritual, visually appealing, black and white, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative
Similar in 77%
The Red Knight (2003)
Plot Summary:
Who really is behind the legend of "Red Dragon"?.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 329
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Luxembourg
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, stylized, captivating
Similar in 76%
The Color of Pomegranates (1969)
Plot Summary:
The life of revered the 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova (Vilen Galstyan). Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse (Sofiko Chiaureli). The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating an impressionistic work.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, Music
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 79 min
Plot tags: surreal, poetic, atmospheric, avant garde, psychedelic, mind bending, experimental, contemplative, scenic, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Heart of Glass (1976)
Plot Summary:
A small Bavarian village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: West Germany
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: surreal, art house, disturbing, experimental, allegory, atmospheric, mind bending, psychedelic, psychological, serious
Similar in 79%
Last Days in the Desert (2015)
Plot Summary:
On his way out of the wilderness, Jesus struggles with the Devil over the fate of a family in crisis, setting himself up for a dramatic test.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: biblical, atmospheric, serious, contemplative, stylized, independent film, fable
Similar in 83%
The Annunciation (1984)
Plot Summary:
The Annunciation (in Hungarian: Angyali üdvözlet) is a Hungarian film directed by András Jeles in 1984, based on The Tragedy of Man (1861) by Imre Madách. When Adam (Péter Bocsor) and Eve (Júlia Mérő), having succumbed to Lucifer's temptation, are cast out of the Garden of Eden, Adam holds Lucifer (Eszter Gyalog) to his promise, reminding him that "You said I would know everything!". So Lucifer grants Adam a dream of the world to come. And what a bizarre dream: Adam becomes Miltiades in Athens; a knight called Tancred in Byzantium; Kepler in Prague; Danton in revolutionary Paris; and a nameless suitor in Victorian London. Guided by a deceptively sweet but ultimately contemptuous Lucifer, Adam confronts an endless procession of the horror of the human story ... rapists and concubines, betrayal and savagery, mindless cruelty and fanaticism.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 577
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, surreal, serious, captivating, realistic, stylized, experimental, existential, art film, cult classic
Similar in 87%
Scarecrow (1984)
Plot Summary:
A twelve years old girl Lena who has come to live with her grandfather in a small Russian town is being bullied by her classmates. She took the rap of being a class traitor because she was in love with the boy who had betrayed his classmates when they were bunking off and going to cinema instead of a literature lesson. The class is penalized for that, not being allowed to go to Moscow for fall holidays with the rest of the school. Lena is being ostracized, "boycotted" however not telling the truth, waiting that the boy himself would confess to be guilty.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: bleak, suspenseful, sincere, touching, spiritual, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, biting
Similar in 88%
Heat (1963)
Plot Summary:
Larisa Shepitko's diploma film. An idealistic high school graduate goes to work on a state farm on the Kazakh steppe, only to clash with its authoritarian leader.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 223
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985)
Plot Summary:
Russian provincial town in the middle of the 1930s Stalin's Great Purge. Ivan Lapshin, the head of the local police, does what he has to do. And he does it well.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, spiritual, aesthetic
Similar in 78%
The Lonely Voice of Man (1987)
Plot Summary:
The film is Sokurov's feature film debut and is based on the novel The River Potudan by Andrei Platonov. It's a story about the lives of people in the Russian countryside in the beginning of the 20th century. The film was completed in 1979 as a graduation film, but was banned by the Soviet state and didn't premiere until 1987.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 716
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: poetic, spiritual, contemplative, avant garde
Similar in 78%
The Second Circle (1990)
Plot Summary:
A man tries to come to terms with his father's death and to deal with the mundane details of his burial in a society cut off from spirituality.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 767
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: spiritual, avant garde
Similar in 84%
The Asthenic Syndrome (1989)
Plot Summary:
In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher of epicly indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 153 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 80%
The Wishing Tree (1976)
Plot Summary:
This poetic parable is part of Tenghiz Abuladze’s cinematic triptych: “The Supplication” – “The Wishing Tree” – “Repentance”. The place is Georgia at the beginning of the 20th century. That’s how director Tenghiz Abuladze described his film: “’The Wishing Tree’ is a film about the people lit up by a dream. Every character has its own ideal. One is worshipping the skies, another the earth, some idolize the body, others elevate the spirit. Some destroy the body, others the soul…” Marita, the film’s heroine, arrived here to live with her aunt. She meets a poor young lad, Gedia, and falls in love with him. But her relatives are determined to marry the girl off to a local rich man….
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Nine Days of One Year (1962)
Plot Summary:
Two young scientists are exploring new fields of nuclear physics. Dmitry Gusev and Ilya Kulikov are good friends, but rivals in love. Dmitry marries Lyolya and they live happily together. Luck has it that he makes an important discovery. Unfortunately he exposes himself to radioactivity during the experiments. As a result he falls seriously ill. However Dmitry has a strong spirit. His will to live, the deep passion for his work and his strong love for mankind makes it possible for him to recover.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: spiritual
Similar in 89%
An Unfinished Piece for Mechanical Piano (1977)
Plot Summary:
At the dilapidated country estate of Anna Petrovna Voinitseva, a group of feckless Russian aristocrats whiles away a summer afternoon. Unbeknownst to their respective spouses, local schoolteacher Platonov and the wife of Anna's stepson, Sophia, are former lovers whose meeting revives both passion and regret. Thrilled to see each other, they are nevertheless haunted by the loss of their youthful ideals.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, spiritual, psychological, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 89%
Beyond the Hills (2012)
Plot Summary:
A drama centered on the friendship between two young women who grew up in the same orphanage; one has found refuge at a convent in Romania and refuses to leave with her friend, who now lives in Germany.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Drama
Country: Romania, France, Belgium
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: sincere, disturbing, realistic, bleak, depressing, slow cinema, touching, spiritual, lgbt cinema, social
Similar in 86%
Red Desert (1964)
Plot Summary:
Amid the modern wastelands and toxic factories of Italy, wife and mother Giuliana (Monica Vitti) desperately tries to conceal her tenuous grip on reality from those around her, especially her successful yet neglectful husband, Ugo (Carlo Chionetti). Ugo's old pal, Corrado (Richard Harris), shows up in town on a business trip and is more sensitive to Giuliana's anxieties. They begin an affair, but it does little to quell Giuliana's existential fears, and her mental state rapidly deteriorates.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, atmospheric, realistic, serious, poetic, philosophical, neorealism, existential, contemplative
Similar in 90%
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life (1995)
Plot Summary:
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Japan, Germany
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: black and white, art house, surreal, cult classic, psychological, atmospheric, mindfuck, mind bending, psychedelic, spiritual
Similar in 81%
Nostalgia (1983)
Plot Summary:
The Russian poet Andrei Gorchakov, accompanied by guide and translator Eugenia, is traveling through Italy researching the life of an 18th-century Russian composer. In an ancient spa town, he meets the lunatic Domenico, who years earlier had imprisoned his own family in his house for seven years to save them from the evils of the world. Seeing some deep truth in Domenico's act, Andrei becomes drawn to him. In a series of dreams, the poet's nostalgia for his homeland and his longing for his wife, his ambivalent feelings for Eugenia and Italy, and his sense of kinship with Domenico become intertwined.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, Soviet Union
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, philosophical, art house, cerebral, contemplative, poetic, black and white, visual, mind twisting, emotional
Similar in 77%
The Sacrifice (1986)
Plot Summary:
Alexander, a journalist, philosopher and retired actor, celebrates a birthday with friends and family when it is announced that nuclear war has begun.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 30000
Genere: Drama
Country: Sweden, France, UK
Duration: 149 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, philosophical, art house, spiritual, slow cinema, contemplative, visual, cerebral, christian film, existential
Similar in 78%
The Steamroller and the Violin (1961)
Plot Summary:
Seven year old Sasha practices violin every day to satisfy the ambition of his parents. Already withdrawn as a result of his routines, Sasha quickly regains confidence when he accidentally meets and befriends worker Sergei, who works on a steamroller in their upscale Moscow neighborhood.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 46 min
Plot tags: art house, serious, realistic, spiritual, uplifting, touching, feel good, stylized, slow cinema, weird
Similar in 83%
The Return (2003)
Plot Summary:
A story of two Russian boys whose father suddenly returns home after a 12-year absence. He takes the boys on a holiday to a remote island on a lake that turns into a test of manhood of almost mythic proportions.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 47000
Genere: Drama
Country: Russia
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, emotional, art house, road movie, atmospheric, cerebral, thought provoking, lyrical, suspenseful, independent film