Best movies like The Travelling Players
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
This expansive Greek drama follows a troupe of theater actors as they perform around their country during World War II. While the production that they put on is entitled "Golfo the Shepherdess," the thespians end up echoing scenes from classic Greek tales in their own lives, as Elektra (Eva Kotamanidou) plots revenge on her mother (Aliki Georgouli) for the death of her father, and seeks help from her brother, Orestes (Petros Zarkadis), a young anti-fascist rebel.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, Music, War
Country: Greece
Duration: 230 min
Plot tags: contemplative, slow cinema, road movie, art film, aesthetic, thought provoking, bleak, epic, serious, captivating
Best tv shows and movies like The Travelling Players (1975):
Similar in 83%
The Hunters (1977)
Plot Summary:
During a hunting party on New Year's Eve 1976, five representatives of the bourgeoisie encounter with their companion the body of a partisan from the Civil War of the late forties. What they are most confused about is the fact that the corpse that lies at their feet is still bleeding….
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Greece, France, West Germany
Duration: 168 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 87%
Days of 36 (1972)
Plot Summary:
The assassin of a prominent trade unionist takes a conservative MP hostage and the government prevaricates over tactics so as not to alienate potential political allies.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Greece
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
Plot Summary:
"A," a Greek filmmaker living in exile in the United States, returns to his native Ptolemas to attend a special screening of one of his extremely controversial films. But A's real interest lies elsewhere--the mythical reels of the very first film shot by the Manakia brothers, who, at the dawn of the age of cinema, tirelessly criss-crossed the Balkans and, without regard for national and ethnic strife, recorded the region's history and customs. Did these primitive, never-developed images really exist?.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Greece, France, Italy, Germany, UK, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Romania, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Duration: 176 min
Plot tags: road movie, contemplative, philosophical, sincere, surreal, avant garde, visual, slow cinema, visually stunning, poetic
Similar in 76%
Alexander the Great (1980)
Plot Summary:
Based on some historical events, the film gives a romanticized biography of Theodoros Kolokotronis, a Greek historical hero serving as a metaphor for Greece herself. Based on a circular view of history, the film presents conflicting ideologies - primitive communism, anarchism, chiefdom or kingdom, personality cult - and shows the institutions of property and power in a bad light.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Greece, Italy, West Germany
Duration: 210 min
Plot tags: slow cinema, aesthetic
Similar in 82%
Cloudy Sunday (2015)
Plot Summary:
During World War II in Greece, under the submission of Germans, one Christian, Giorgos, falls in love with a Jewish, Estrea, something completely forbidden. Can they and their families overcome all the obstacles, along with racial discriminations and hardship? The story mainly takes place in an ouzeria, in which Tsitsanis works, one of the greatest Greek composer, librettist and singer in the 20th century.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Music, War
Country: Greece
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, touching, unusual plot structure, suspense, contemplative
Similar in 83%
Germany Pale Mother (1980)
Plot Summary:
Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna moves in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 825
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: West Germany
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: art house, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, gloomy, semi autobiographical, fairy tale, masterpiece
Similar in 77%
Rembetiko (1983)
Plot Summary:
The story of a group of Rembetes, singers and musicians of the Greek equivalent to the blues, in the early decades of the 20th century, seen through the eyes of a young female singer.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Biography, Drama, Music
Country: Greece
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: philosophical, atmospheric, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
Intimate Enemies (2007)
Plot Summary:
A drama following a French platoon during Algeria's war of independence.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France, Morocco
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, serious, disturbing, sexy, bleak
Similar in 75%
Johnny the Partisan (2000)
Plot Summary:
After the 8th September 1943 north of Italy is occupied by Germans. Italian army collapsed and the soldiers are escaped to the mountains trying to set up a resistance. Many civilians did the same and Johnny, an English literature student, is among them. Johnny avoids to band together the red partisans (communists) and tries to be part of the azure bands (former regular soldiers). But in both cases he is deluded by the partisan bands and discovers that the partisan war is less poetic and genuine that he thought. At one point anyway the partisans free Alba from Germans. When the city falls again in German hands Johnny escape with Ettore and Pierre. But, one after another, German army and Italian fascists captures the partisans and Johnny will pass the winter alone and isolated. He then finds the way to participate to one of the last attack to occupants, in fact the war will be over two months later.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 324
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 135 min
Plot tags: suspense, disturbing, exciting, bleak
Similar in 86%
The Weeping Meadow (2004)
Plot Summary:
This is the first film of Theo Angelopoulos' trilogy. The story starts in 1919 with some greek refugees from Odessa arriving somewhere near Thessaloniki. Among these people are two small kids, Alexis and Eleni. Eleni is an orphan and she is also taken care by Alexis' family. The refugees build a small village somewhere near a river and we watch as the kids grow up and fall in love. But difficult times of dictatorship and war are coming.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: Greece, France, Italy, Germany
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags: sentimental, sincere, touching, captivating, philosophical, breathtaking, contemplative, art house, slow cinema, poetic
Similar in 76%
Eleni (1985)
Plot Summary:
Nick is a writer in New York when he gets posted to a bureau in Greece. He has waited 30 years for this. He wants to know why his mother was killed in the civil war years earlier. In a parallel plot line we see Nick as a young boy and his family as they struggle to survive in the occupied Greek hillside. The plot lines converge as Nick's investigations bring him closer to the answers.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: political, independent film, psychological, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, suspenseful, contemplative
Similar in 76%
Purple Butterfly (2003)
Plot Summary:
Ding Hui is a member of Purple Butterfly, a powerful resistance group in Japanese occupied Shanghai. An unexpected encounter reunites her with Itami, an ex-lover... and officer with a secret police unit tasked with dismantling Purple Butterfly.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: China, France
Duration: 127 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, bleak, captivating, suspenseful, tense, atmospheric, non-linear
Similar in 78%
The Battle on the River Neretva (1969)
Plot Summary:
In January 1943 the German army, afraid of an Allied invasion of the Balkans, launched a great offensive against Yugoslav Partisans in Western Bosnia. The only way out for the Partisan forces and thousands of refugees was the bridge on the river Neretva.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Yugoslavia, Italy, West Germany, USA, France
Duration: 175 min
Plot tags: epic, exciting, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, crying, vintage
Similar in 86%
Auschwitz (2011)
Plot Summary:
Auschwitz is a hard-hitting war film which shows life as it really was at the death camp.
IMDB Rating: 3.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Canada, Germany
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: disturbing, rough, thought provoking, bleak, realistic, tense, serious, postmodern, controversial, gloomy
Similar in 87%
The Round Up (2010)
Plot Summary:
1942. Joseph is eleven. And this June morning, he must go to school, a yellow star sown on his chest. He receives the support of a goods dealer. The mockery of a baker. Between kindness and contempt, Jo, his Jewish friends, their families, learn of life in an occupied Paris, on the Butte Montmartre, where they've taken shelter. At least that's what they think, until that morning on July 16th 1942, when their fragile happiness is toppled over.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France, Germany, Hungary
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, emotional, disturbing, bleak, serious, realistic, sincere, touching, contemplative
Similar in 85%
Ghetto (2005)
Plot Summary:
In 1942, in Vilna, the Nazi annihilate 55,000 Jews and squeeze the 15,000 survivors in a seven blocks ghetto. The twenty-two year old sadistic commander Kittel is assigned to administrate the ghetto in the capital of Lithuania, becoming the master of life or death. When he finds the gorgeous Hayyah sneaking with one kilo of beam stolen from the German army, he sentences her to death; but when he is informed that she was a former successful singer, he decides to activate the old theater and promote shows in the ghetto. The Jew Chief of Police Gens uses the theater and a sewing factory to save as much lives as he can; in his ambiguous position, he kills Jews to save lives of others.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: History, War
Country: Germany, Lithuania
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, realistic, emotional, rough, suspense, sad, captivating
Similar in 81%
Perlasca: The Courage of a Just Man (2002)
Plot Summary:
It is the real story of Giorgio Perlasca (Luca Zingaretti). During the 1920s he was an Italian Fascist supporter, fighting in Africa an in the Spanish civil war where he deserved a safe conduct for Spanish embassies. After some years, disillusioned by fascism, he is a fresh supplier for the Italian army. In the war years he is in Budapest for his business. He lives an easy life there, well introduced into the Hungarian high society, without any problem coming from the war situation. When the Nazi occupied Hungary, in 1944, instead to leave (Italy had already surrendered to the Allies) he escaped to the Spanish embassy in Budapest using his old safe conduct and becoming a Spanish citizen, changing name into Jorge Perlasca. He starts working as a diplomat here. When Sanz Briz (Geza Tordy), the Spanish consul, is removed, Perlasca immediately substitutes him, like if he was officially appointed from Spanish authorities... Written by 1felco.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 540
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, France, Sweden, Hungary
Duration: 197 min
Plot tags: disturbing, uplifting, serious, emotional, captivating, realistic, epic
Similar in 80%
The Last 4 Days (1974)
Plot Summary:
The true story of the greatest manhunt of the century!.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 842
Genere: Biography, Drama, History, War
Country: Italy
Duration: 126 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative, cult film, cult movie cast
Similar in 83%
The Ascent (1977)
Plot Summary:
Two Soviet partisans leave their starving band to get supplies from a nearby farm. The Germans have reached the farm first, so the pair must go on a journey deep into occupied territory, a voyage that will also take them deep into their souls.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Soviet Union
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: bleak, depressing, sincere, philosophical, political, sad, contemplative, black and white, existential, patriotic
Similar in 89%
The Winter War (1989)
Plot Summary:
Russia attacked Finland in late November 1939. This film tells the story of a Finnish platoon of reservists from the municipality of Kauhava in the province of Pohjanmaa/Ostrobothnia who leave their homes and go to war. The film focuses on the farmer brothers Martti and Paavo Hakala.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Finland
Duration: 199 min
Plot tags: realistic, epic, tense, bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, suspenseful, light, brutal
Similar in 82%
Freedomfighters (1996)
Plot Summary:
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the nun Maria is forced to flee her convent. She takes refuge in a brothel, until it is liberated by a woman's anarchist group. Maria joins the group and eventually goes to the front. The women's group faces the problems of fighting not only the nationalists, but also factions on the left seeking to impose a more traditional military structure. Written by Brian Rawnsley.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Spain, Italy, Belgium
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: political, social, sad, informative, epic, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 76%
Land and Freedom (1995)
Plot Summary:
The movie narrates the story of David Carr, an unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. In 1936 he decides to fight for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, an anti-fascist coalition of liberals, communists and anarchists. Similar to George Orwell's experiences documented in Homage to Catalonia, he joins the POUM worker militia and witnesses first hand the betrayal of the Spanish revolution by the Stalinists, loyal only to the dictat of Moscow.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: political, philosophical, social, sad, hispanic, informative, thought provoking, serious, captivating, emotional
Similar in 86%
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 81%
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 90%
Army of Crime (2009)
Plot Summary:
This gripping historical drama recounts the story of Armenian-born Missak Manouchian, a woodworker and political activist who led an immigrant laborer division of the Parisian Resistance on 30 operations against the Nazis in 1943. The Nazis branded the group an Army of Crime, an anti-immigrant propaganda stunt that backfired as the team's members became martyrs for the Resistance.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France
Duration: 139 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, disturbing, sincere, suspenseful, gloomy
Similar in 82%
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 89%
The Edelweiss Pirates (2004)
Plot Summary:
Im Kölner Stadtteil Ehrenfeld lebt eine Gruppe von Arbeiterkindern kurz vor Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs ihren ganz eigenen Alltag. Die selbsternannten „Edelweißpiraten“ träumen von einer gerechten Welt und sehnen sich nach der unbeschwerten Vergangenheit. Sie rebellieren gegen das Naziregime. (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edelwei%C3%9Fpiraten_(Film)).
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 565
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Germany, Netherlands
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, serious, independent film
Similar in 81%
Massacre in Rome (1973)
Plot Summary:
In the Nazi occupied city of Rome, an assault on an SS brigade draws retaliation from the military governship. "Massacre in Rome" is the true story of how this partisan attack led to the mass execution of Italian nationals under the orders of SS-Lieutenant Colonel Kappler.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing, contemplative
Similar in 88%
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 88%
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