Best movies like The Magnate
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
This Polish historical drama film traces the fascinating saga of a wealthy, princely Polish dynasty in years 1900-1935.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 155
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 171 min
Plot tags: family saga
Best tv shows and movies like The Magnate (1987):
Similar in 82%
Short Working Day (1995)
Plot Summary:
Kieślowski’s study of a political strike, controversially told from the viewpoint of a Communist functionary trying to keep order.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 402
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: political drama
Similar in 78%
The Constant Factor (1980)
Plot Summary:
The main character in this effective, convincing drama is Witold (Tadeusz Bradecki) who is high in what later would be termed the "emotional quotient" or the ability to bounce back from adverse, tragic circumstances. Witold has been nursing both his sick mother and a deeply rooted desire to climb the Himalayas. His father had died climbing in those mountains, and they have an allure for Witold as well. But his dreams begin to crumble when his mother succumbs to her illness and trouble brews at work. The situation becomes bad enough to scramble Witold's life with no indication of future improvement.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: intellectual
Similar in 76%
Spiral (1978)
Plot Summary:
In what appears to be an inexplicable incident, a man drives up to a resort hotel in midwinter, throws away his car keys, enters, and proceeds to agitate everyone he meets with his urgency -- a message he is somehow unable to communicate. Then he leaves, disappearing in the snow. Later, the people he appeared to have upset have gathered to search for him and find him frostbitten, but alive. Visiting him at the sanatorium to which he has been taken, they gradually discover what was really happening.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: intellectual
Similar in 88%
A Lonely Woman (1987)
Plot Summary:
The first motion picture film by Agnieszka Holland about loneliness, longing for affection, and misfortune. Irena, a postal delivery worker, is struggling with a inadequate housing, a drunk neighbor who wants to take her place, and a heartless boss, knowing that the whole day at work, she is leaving her young son. But the worst is the loneliness, exacerbated by her single mother status. She meets a crippled pensioner Jacek, who appears to be the key to her happiness, but tragedy continues to strike.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 501
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Lesson of a Dead Language (1979)
Plot Summary:
An officer stationed in a remote Galician outpost at the end of the First World War is dying of consumption. Suffering from feverish dreams and hallucinations, he begins to collect religious art and attends seances.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 113
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
Sauna (1992)
Plot Summary:
A film based on a simple situation: several men talk in the sauna.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 141
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Barrier (1966)
Plot Summary:
A dream-like meditation on post-industrial life in Communist Poland.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 515
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Poland
Duration: 77 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
The Unburied Man (2004)
Plot Summary:
One of the doyennes of Hungarian film deals with a dark period of national history: the Soviet regime in Hungary. She portrays it through the fate of the former prime minister and national hero, Imre Nagy. The script is based on the diary written by Imre Nagy, and the memories of his daughter, Erzsébet Nagy, as well as authentic documents and records.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 400
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Hungary, Slovakia, Poland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Hands Up! (1981)
Plot Summary:
Beginning with a sci-fi prologue before finding itself with several doctors attending a medical school reunion in a sealed-up railway carriage. Between drinks, the disenchanted medicos ruminate over the effect that communism (particularly the Stalinist brand) has had on their profession. Originally banned in 1967 and finally released in 1981 after Skolimowski shot new sequences, the 76 minute 1981 version was the only one ever officially released.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 409
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: philosophical, experimental, avant garde, dark comedy, political
Similar in 75%
Death of a President (1977)
Plot Summary:
After Poland won freedom from of its long overlordship by Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, it took a further four years for its National Assembly to elect Gabriel Narutowicz as its first president. Narutowicz was a professor who until his election had been living in Switzerland. Those were chaotic times, and shortly after his election, he was assassinated by right-wing fanatics. This epic Polish film chronicles the circumstances of Narutowicz's election and assassination.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 272
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Inspection of the Crime Scene 1901 (1980)
Plot Summary:
More documentary in its approach than dramatized history, this is a compelling story about a 1901 children's strike in Wrzesnia near the Polish border with Prussia. Poland was partitioned at this time, and a rigidly patriotic Prussian teacher in Wrzesnia follows the dictates of the Germans in parliament and insists that the children be taught their religion classes in German. When the children refuse to take part in the classes, they are supported by the local priest, but that does not save them from being beaten. They are also kept after school and tormented in other ways as well. Newspapers, parents, and the nation as a whole get involved, transforming a simple children's strike into a national incident.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 56
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 87%
Wielki bieg (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set in 1952, the story follows events around the "Peace Run", a propaganda 3-day marathon for peace. The winner is to be presented with a new motorcycle by the country's president. Chief organizer is a ruthless manipulator who will stop at nothing to make sure that the right man wins. There are two runners, Budny and Stolar, who are participating in the race for different reasons.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 95
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Fever (1981)
Plot Summary:
The film is set in 1905, in a time of feverish revolutionary underground activity in Poland partitioned between three neighbours. All the characters are committed anarchists. The bomb maker puts an invention together to place it at the disposal of young inexperienced terrorists fighting against Tsarist oppression. The story follows the passing of this bomb from anarchist to anarchist as several attempts are made on the life of Tsarist governor general, until, at the end, it is effectively and harmlessly defused by a bomb expert. The presence of the bomb has a destroying effect on all of the Polish revolutionaries, they either die or breakdown.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 279
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Mother of Kings (1987)
Plot Summary:
Made in 1982, shelved for five years. Story opens with Lucja Krol's husband under the tram. She gives birth to her fourth son on the floor of their new apartment. Neighbor Wiktor, a communist intellectual, befriends the poverty-stricken family but is soon arrested and sent to jail. During the war Lucja narrowly escapes a Nazi roundup at the black market. Her sons hold ardent Communist meetings in their apartment, with her blessing. Lucja works hard, but without complaint. After the war, Klemens is inexplicably arrested, accused by the new regime of being a collaborator. Wiktor, now a high-ranking party member, trying to defend him, himself falls into disgrace. Klemens is tortured to "confess" and dies in jail, a Communist to the end. Lucja is never told about his fate.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 303
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: intellectual, pre war
Similar in 77%
Sunday Pranks (1983)
Plot Summary:
Made in 1983, shelved for four years. A chilling tale about kids playing in a bombed-out Warsaw courtyard on the day of Stalin's death, while their parents are away at the church or a memorial procession.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 92
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Story of Sin (1975)
Plot Summary:
A beautiful Polish girl whose lover has gone to Rome to seek a divorce from his previous wife travels around Europe in search of him and suffers a variety of tragic adventures as the men around her try to fit her into their own selfish schemes.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 859
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: erotic, disturbing, controversial, beautiful
Similar in 77%
Kontrakt (1980)
Plot Summary:
Bearing traces of the old Anton Chekhov play The Wedding, The Contract is set during an "arranged" ceremony. The bride and groom barely know each other, but this matters not at all to their tradition-bound families. At the last minute, the bride balks. Only slightly nonplused, the groom's father, a status-seeking doctor, decides to go ahead with the expensive reception anyway. Polish director Krzysz Zanussi uses this scenario to stick it to capitalist corruption, and to society's destruction of the individual spirit. Leslie Caron, the one recognizable member of the cast, is outstanding as a wealthy, over-the-hill ballerina who happens to be a kleptomaniac.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Pharaoh (1966)
Plot Summary:
Young Pharaoh Ramses XIII clashes with Egypt's clergy over influence on the affairs of the state and its coffers.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: epic
Similar in 87%
Lucrezia Borgia (1990)
Plot Summary:
The dreamy young Hamlet in his castle, undecided whether or not to have sexual approaches with his girls, considering that already has amorous relations with his sister Lucrezia Borgia.
IMDB Rating: 4.5
IMDB Votes: 63
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Italy
Duration: 82 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 86%
Death as a Slice of Bread (1994)
Plot Summary:
The violence and high drama of this film is taken directly from recent Polish history. On December 13, 1981 national security forces swoop down on unsuspecting workers of the Wujek mine and arrest a Solidarity leader. Pushed to the limits, the miners call a massive strike, which is specifically forbidden under the martial law. A battle between the heavily armed police and the outnumbered miners ensues, and nine miners are killed.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Birch Wood (1970)
Plot Summary:
Takes place in a prewar Poland. A tubercular young man comes to stay with his brother on a farm. He is in love with life and constantly plays 1930's music on a piano. He gets involved with his brother's problems and also becomes the lover of a simpleminded farm girl. The brother's dead wife may have had an affair with the hired man who is to marry the farm girl. His daughter will not confirm his suspicions. But the brother's death leads to his acceptance of the past, forgiving his wife's memory and making up with his little daughter.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 937
Genere: Drama
Country: Poland
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, sexual, sexy
Similar in 89%
General Nil (2009)
Plot Summary:
Generał Nil is a Polish historical film, based on the life of general Emil August Fieldorf, pseudonym "Nil". The film was directed by Ryszard Bugajski and was released in 2009.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 869
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
To Kill a Priest (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young priest speaks out against the Communist regime in Poland and is killed for it.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: France, USA
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, rough, suspenseful, captivating
Similar in 86%
Shivers (1981)
Plot Summary:
Set in the early 1950's, during the Stalin's Personality Cult. The story opens in a provincial town. Tomek's father, a former member of the Home Army is arrested so the mother is left with the task of raising two kids alone. The neighbor upstairs commits suicide when her husband is also arrested and transported to the prison camp. It's winter so the kids keep their hands warm at school by hand-beating themselves. The teachers at school are mean, narrow minded idealists, When they ask the kids who goes to church on Sundays, the whole class stands up to defeat the purpose of the propaganda lesson. Tomek is sent to the training school in the summer. There he absorbs most of the ideology pumped into his head, and when his father is released from prison he finds another boy he has left.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 509
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: political
Similar in 79%
Man of Iron (1981)
Plot Summary:
In Warsaw in 1980, the Communist Party sends Winkel, a weak, alcoholic TV hack, to Gdansk to dig up dirt on the shipyard strikers, particularly on Maciek Tomczyk, an articulate worker whose father was killed in the December 1970 protests. Posing as sympathetic, Winkel interviews the people surrounding Tomczyk, including his detained wife, Agnieszka.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Poland
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags: political, thought provoking, serious, realistic, contemplative, crying
Similar in 77%
1939 Battle of Westerplatte (2013)
Plot Summary:
This harrowing war film is an epic dramatization of the first battle of World War II. The Battle of Westerplatte that began on 1 September 1939 will forever be remembered as the one that announced the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Over one week, fewer than 200 Polish soldiers fought against heavy German bombardment and in the process came to symbolize the power of resistance. As the violence rages, a complex battle of a more personal nature plays out between two Polish commanders over how to best lead their men. Amid the bloodshed, they must ask themselves – should they fight until the last man standing or surrender in the face of overwhelming odds? What unfolds is a stirring exploration of the fight against the forces of tyranny.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 956
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Poland, Lithuania
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: tense, realistic, bleak, serious, gloomy
Similar in 84%
Brecht (2019)
Plot Summary:
Bertolt Brecht, a theatre revolutionary, poet of the state, outsider, looks back on his life in 1956, the year of his death, in East Berlin: adolescent provocations in Augsburg during the First World War, early poetic and amorous flights of fancy in the Munich and Berlin of the 1920s, his escape from Hitler, returning from the US exile, followed by his later years caught in a dilemma between timeless classic and a failing GDR class fighter, an indefatigable free spirit and compromised artist.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 388
Genere: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Germany, Austria, Czech Republic
Duration: 187 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, thought provoking, disturbing, humorous, visually appealing, fun
Similar in 75%
Hanussen (1988)
Plot Summary:
A man's story parallels Hitler's rise. Austrian Klaus Schneider, wounded in World War I, recovers in the care of Dr. Emil Bettleheim. Bettleheim discovers that Schneider possesses powers of empathy and of clairvoyance, such that could aid suicidal patients. After the war, with one friend as his manager and another as his lover, Schneider changes his name to Eric Jan Hanussen and goes to Berlin, as a hypnotist and clairvoyant performing in halls and theaters. He always speaks the truth, which brings him to the attention of powerful Nazis. He predicts their rise (good propaganda for them) and their violence (not so good). He's in pain and at risk. What is Hanussen's future?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Hungary, West Germany, Austria
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: spiritual, sad, esoteric, intelligent, tense, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 81%
Katyn (2007)
Plot Summary:
An examination of the Soviet slaughter of thousands of Polish officers and citizens in the Katyn forest in 1940.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 122 min
Plot tags: disturbing, sentimental, heartbreaking, realistic, sad, sincere, touching, epic, social, controversial
Similar in 88%
Reunion (1989)
Plot Summary:
Two young boys from very different backgrounds become friends in 1933 Stuttgart. However, they don't realize how different they are until much later as one is the son of a well-to-do Jewish doctor and the other the son of a German aristocrat. After that summer and the election of Hitler, things change as antisemitism gains fervor. After the core of the film deals with that era, the film flashes to the present and the Jewish man now returns to his boyhood home and seeks his old friend with some surprises.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 557
Genere: Drama, History
Country: France, West Germany, UK
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: independent film, thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing