Best movies like The Perfect Circle
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
An alcoholic Bosnian poet sends his wife and daughter away from Sarajevo so they can avoid the troubles there. However, he is soon descended upon by a pair of orphaned brothers. The brothers have escaped a massacre in their own village and have come to the Bosnian capital in search of a long lost Aunt. The poet befriends the boys and together they try to survive the horror of the siege of Sarajevo.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: islamic, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, disturbing
Best tv shows and movies like The Perfect Circle (1997):
Similar in 83%
The Search (2014)
Plot Summary:
A woman who works for a non-governmental organization (NGO) forms a special relationship with a young boy in war-torn Chechnya.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Georgia
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: touching, emotional, realistic, serious, non-linear, interesting, remake of american film
Similar in 77%
And This Will Pass, Too... (1985)
Plot Summary:
Wonderful war stories about Isidor Katanic, officer who spent his working life as a calligrapher writing to various documents. Resignation living at home, living with rampant wife and her son from a previous marriage, sloth. Very soon retire and go to the river. On the bank of the Sava river meets an old friend, a former captain in love with the river. Accepting new way of life, isidor becomes a different man. But it comes terrifying wartime.Yugoslavia was occupied, the terror begins. Isidor is witnessed changes and in him growing need to resist the atrocities of the invaders. He refuses to flee with his family from Belgrade, it becomes illegal brave, little hero of invisible front.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (2006)
Plot Summary:
A woman and her daughter struggle to make their way through the aftermath of the Balkan war.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Austria, Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, realistic, psychological, serious, emotional, islamic, captivating, social, masterpiece
Similar in 80%
Warriors (1999)
Plot Summary:
If the conflict in Bosnia has become something of a forgotten war, it's not for the want of trying from the immensely powerful BBC film Warriors, the story of five young soldiers and their harrowing experiences in the region.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK
Duration: 175 min
Plot tags: independent film, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 90%
Go West (2005)
Plot Summary:
In the nineties the Yugoslavia Federation falls apart in bloody wars. Perpetual student Milan, a Serb from a patriarchal community and Kenan, a Muslim cellist, are a homosexual couple living in Sarajevo. Their lives, intimate and public, are shaken up by the aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina, whose devastating consequences unfold in inter-ethnic hatred. Trapped in Sarajevo during the siege of the Serb forces, the lovers manage to flee to Milan's home village and there they take shelter, waiting for Milan's father, Ljubo, to find a way to the Netherlands. Witnessing the brutality of Serb forces and their hatred towards Muslims, Milan desperately improvises: he disguises Kenan as a woman and begins to present him as his wife, Milena, a secret discovered by Milan's best friend, Lunja. Milan is drafted into the army and the situation becomes almost unbearable for Kenan. His one companion, is Ranka, a waitress in a local café, a woman whose dark secrets terrify most of the villagers.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 909
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War, Western
Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, emotional, realistic, lgbt cinema, islamic, bleak, queer cinema
Similar in 90%
Halima's Path (2012)
Plot Summary:
In order to recover the body of her son lost during the war in Bosnia, a grieving, but strong-willed Muslim woman, Halima, must track down her estranged niece, who we find carries a mysterious connection to him.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 80%
Sky Hook (2000)
Plot Summary:
Sky Hook (Serbian: Nebeska udica) is a 2000 Yugoslavian film directed by Ljubiša Samardžić. It was Yugoslavia's submission to the 73rd Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, suspense, sentimental, touching, melancholic
Similar in 89%
Witnesses (2003)
Plot Summary:
Set amid the atrocities of war in the Balkans, Witnesses is retold, Rashomon-style, from various characters' viewpoints, adding new information about the complexity of war and humanity. Beginning inside a rustic house with a woman in black (Mirjana Karanovic) standing beside her husband's coffin, Witnesses interweaves the stories of a small town confronting ethnic hatred and deep moral ambiguities.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 828
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Croatia
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, bleak, serious, disturbing, realistic, non-linear
Similar in 84%
Comanche Territory (1997)
Plot Summary:
Spanish TV reporters covering the War in Bosnia. Based on true experience.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 378
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Spain, France, Germany, Argentina
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 80%
The Notebook (2013)
Plot Summary:
In a village on the Hungarian border, two young brothers grow up during war time with their cruel grandmother and must learn every trick of evil to survive in the absurd world of adults.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Hungary, Germany, Austria, France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, realistic, serious, sad, cult classic, cult film
Similar in 85%
Shot Through the Heart (1998)
Plot Summary:
The horrors of war are examined from the view points of lifelong friends (Linus Roache, Vincent Perez), who end up on opposing sides in the civil war in Sarajevo. One is an expert marksman, who trains the snipers used to terrify the city and the other becomes a freedom fighter, who rejects his friend's offer to gain an escape from the city. As might be expected, the two eventually have to face-off against one another.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, biting, suspense
Similar in 77%
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 81%
Savior (1998)
Plot Summary:
A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, depressing, tense, rough, suspenseful, realistic, road movie, smart, serious
Similar in 89%
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 76%
Killer Kid (1994)
Plot Summary:
Eleven-year-old Laïd lives in war-torn Lebanon. Chosen and trained by an extremist organisation, he has been forced to enter the adult world far too early. He has been transformed into a fanatical and programmed machine, whose life could be summed up in the words "kill without hesitation".Because of his intellect and his commitment to the holy war he is handpicked for a deadly assignment in Paris. But in order to get access to the target he has to learn how to merge in, to become an ordinary eleven-year-old. Karim becomes his role model. Karim is the same age as Laïd and grew up in one of the Paris suburbs. He is carefree and "hip" and becomes the perfect teacher in a world of skateboards, rap music and video games.Despite the cultural differences, despite the fact that one of them is an indoctrinated machine and the other one a perfectly ordinary carefree boy, a friendship begins to grow between the two.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, realistic, disturbing, crying
Similar in 78%
A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Plot Summary:
After their father dies, a family of five are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq. Matters are made worse when 12 year old Ayoub, the new head of the family, is told that his handicapped brother, Madi, needs an immediate operation in order to remain alive. This heartbreaking tale shows the lengths to which a family will go in order to survive in the harshest of conditions, where even the horses are fed liquor in order to work.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France
Duration: 80 min
Plot tags: realistic, bleak, meditative, emotional, harsh, sincere, rough, serious, inspirational, political
Similar in 89%
No Man's Land (2001)
Plot Summary:
Two soldiers from opposite sites get stuck between the front lines in the same trench. The UN is asked to free them and both sides agree on a ceasefire, but will they stick to it?.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 48000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, War
Country: France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Italy, Belgium, UK, Slovenia
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: bleak, harsh, political, talky, sentimental, thought provoking, sincere, rough, humorous, captivating
Similar in 81%
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)
Plot Summary:
Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: disturbing, realistic, harsh, brutal, heartbreaking, political, emotional, thought provoking, touching, serious
Similar in 88%
David (1979)
Plot Summary:
Although members of the Hitler Youth chant anti-Semitic paroles in front of his house during the Purim festival, Rabbi Singer is still profoundly convinced that Germany will stay a safe country for him, his family, and his fellow believers. But several years later, his son David is banned from going to school because he is a Jew. Shortly after, Rabbi Singer and his wife are deported. Now, young David also fears for his life. In constant fear of being detected, he tries to find a way to leave Germany.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 165
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 77%
Circle of Deceit (1981)
Plot Summary:
Georg Laschen leaves his family in West Germany to go work as a war correspondent in Beirut during the fights between Christians and Palestinians.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 948
Genere: Drama, War
Country: West Germany, France
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags: political, sincere, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 88%
Harrison's Flowers (2000)
Plot Summary:
Harrison Lloyd is a Pulitzer-winning photojournalist. His wife and family are making it hard for him to keep his mind on his work when he's in a war zone, and he wants to change jobs to something less stressful. But he's got one last assignment, in war-torn Yugoslavia, in 1991, at the height of the fighting. Word comes back that he apparently died in a building collapse, but his wife Sarah (also a journalist for Newsweek) refuses to believe that he's dead and goes looking for him. She's helped immensely by the photo-journalists Eric Kyle and Marc Stevenson that she runs into over there; together, they're determined to make it through the chaotic landscape to Vukovar, which is not only the nexus of the war but where she believes Harrison is located. Meanwhile, Harrison's son Cesar is looking after his father's prized greenhouse, keeping hope, and flowers, alive.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: France
Duration: 130 min
Plot tags: disturbing, suspense, bleak, realistic, political, art house, brutal, serious, gloomy, crying
Similar in 90%
Nina's House (2005)
Plot Summary:
Starting in 1944 in the wake of the Liberation and continuing into the '60s, 'houses of hope' were established to lend a semblance of continuity to youngsters orpahaned by the war. Nina's Home takes place between September 1944 and January 1946 in an orphanage housed in a chateau outside Paris. At the outset, the country residence is run by Nina who has a core population of French Jewish children whose parents are probably dead. Food is scarce. News of the Concentration Camps hasn't hit yet, but some months later, a contingent of youths arrive form the liberated camps. The children are a disparate, wild, damaged group and conflicts ensue. Nina's challenge is to help them make their first delicate moves toward the future and in the process restore all of them, including herself, to life.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 237
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: uplifting, touching, serious, captivating, emotional, bleak, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 84%
In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)
Plot Summary:
During the Bosnian War, Danijel, a soldier fighting for the Serbs, re-encounters Ajla, a Bosnian who's now a captive in his camp he oversees. Their once promising connection has become ambiguous as their motives have changed.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 35000
Genere: Drama, Romance, War
Country: USA
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, erotic, exciting, romantic, sexy, romantic drama, bleak
Similar in 76%
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996)
Plot Summary:
In the opening stages of the Bosnian War, a small group of Serbian soldiers are trapped in a tunnel by a Muslim force.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 17000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: social, controversial, manga, clever, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 90%
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 89%
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 79%
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 86%
Turtles Can Fly (2004)
Plot Summary:
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 21000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Iran, France, Iraq
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, emotional, atmospheric, stylized, rough, heartbreaking, political, dramatic, realistic
Similar in 86%
Come and See (1985)
Plot Summary:
The invasion of a village in Byelorussia by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 92000
Genere: Drama, Thriller, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: bleak, disturbing, thought provoking, rough, political, psychological, atmospheric, depressing, controversial, serious
Similar in 79%
Butterfly (1999)
Plot Summary:
The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who introduces the boy to different things in the world. While the story centres on Moncho's ordinary coming-of-age experiences, tensions related to the looming Spanish Civil War periodically interrupt Moncho's personal growth and daily life.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, touching, realistic, political, compassionate, melancholic, intense, psychological, sincere