Best movies like The Witness
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Known as the best satire about communism, banned for over a decade in Hungary. 'The Witness' has become a cult classic, well received by critics and general audiences when it was finally released outside of Hungary. 'The Witness' takes place during the height of the Rákosi Era, which was closely modeled after the ruthless and brutal Stalin regime. The film follows the life of an ordinary dike keeper, József Pelikán, who has been caught for illegally slaughtering his pig, Dezsõ. Instead of doing hard time for his "heinous" crime, Pelikán is elevated into an important position, generally reserved for the communist elite. His new benefactor, the mysterious Comrade Virág, is reluctant to reveal the real reason behind Pelikán's preferential treatment. Thus, begins Pelikán's hilarious adventure deep within the "sophisticated" communist society... Until one day, when he gets called for to return the "favour" by falsely testifying against his long-time friend in a mock-up show trial.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama, Comedy
Country: Hungary
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: satirical, parody, black comedy, cult classic, dark comedy, thought provoking, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like The Witness (1969):
Similar in 82%
Oh, Bloody Life (1984)
Plot Summary:
The Hungarian Oh, Bloody Life reflects on the heavy emotional toll taken by the repressive Stalin regime. Dorotya Udvaros plays a young actress from a high-born family. The government bias against persons of wealth threatens to destroy her career before it begins. As a final blow, she is threatened with deportation. The exasperation inherent in the film's title is only the tip of the iceberg.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 465
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 108 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
How to Get Rid of the Others (2007)
Plot Summary:
A satirical drama revealing the consequences of the Danish government's "New Copenhagen Criteria", a new policy aiming at securing the nation's survival. Citizens who fail to meet the criteria - those who have received more from society than what they have contributed - are eliminated.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi
Country: Denmark
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, thought provoking, suspenseful, semi serious
Similar in 75%
Pardon (2005)
Plot Summary:
Based on a true event, Pardon tells the tragicomic story of three friends who end up in prison when they are mistaken as members of a terrorist organization. Ibrahim's fear of uniforms makes him runaway whenever he sees one. Because of this, police mistakes him with a terrorist and takes him and his friend Muzo into custody. Fooled by the police during the interrogation they name another friend, Aydin, in hope of saving themselves. As they all end up in prison, they remember the families and lovers they left behind.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Turkey
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, humorous, cynical, dark comedy, comedy drama, realistic, semi serious, biting, black comedy
Similar in 78%
The Curse (1975)
Plot Summary:
It is the dawn of Senegal's independence from France, but as the citizens celebrate in the streets we soon become aware that only the faces have changed. White money still controls the government. One official, Aboucader Beye, known by the title "El Hadji," takes advantage of some of that money to marry his third wife, to the sorrow and chagrin of his first two wives and the resentment of his nationalist daughter. But he discovers on his wedding night that he has been struck with a "xala," a curse of impotence. El Hadji goes to comic lengths to find the cause and remove the xala, resulting in a scathing satirical ending.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Senegal
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: clever, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, sex comedy, suspense
Similar in 82%
The Professional (2003)
Plot Summary:
Till recently a University professor, a bohemian writer, a member of Belgrade's intellectual circles and a passionate opponent of the Milosevic's regime meets the man, unknown to him, but who knows every tiny detail of his life. Man tells him a story and plot unfolds unimaginably.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Serbia and Montenegro
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, clever, cult classic, humorous, realistic, semi serious, intellectual, black comedy, dark comedy
Similar in 84%
The Color of the Chameleon (2012)
Plot Summary:
In Emil Christov's über-stylish spy-movie pastiche, a charismatic schemer in an authoritarian police state, fired from his job as a secret-police informant, conjures up his own imaginary spy network and builds up an archive that he turns against his former masters. (TIFF).
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 445
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Country: Bulgaria
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, cynical, semi serious, biting, dark comedy, suspense
Similar in 78%
A Wonderful World (2006)
Plot Summary:
A fairy tale about the political and socioeconomic realities of Mexico.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: humorous, captivating, social, disturbing, dark comedy, fairy tale, realistic, semi serious, biting, neorealism
Similar in 81%
Early Works (1969)
Plot Summary:
Inspired by Karl Marx's "Das Kapital", three men and a girl named Jugoslava decide to wake up the conscience within the working class and peasants. Faced with the primitivism and a lack of morale, their revolution fails and the girl is one to be sacrificed as a witness of their unsuccessful attempt.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 468
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: black and white, sincere, humorous, realistic, semi serious, biting, sexual, sexy, suspense
Similar in 77%
Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998)
Plot Summary:
Military doctor General Klenski is arrested in Stalin's Russia in 1953 during an anti-Semitic political campaign accused of being a participant in so-called "doctors' plot".
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Russia, France
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, political, black and white, slow cinema, aesthetic, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic, witty
Similar in 76%
Balkan Spy (1984)
Plot Summary:
Balkanski špijun is a 1984 Yugoslav comedy/drama. Ilija Čvorović, a former Stalinist who spent several years in a prison on Goli otok, is contacted by the police to routinely answer questions about his tenant, Petar Markov Jakovljević, a businessman, who spent twenty years living in Paris, and now has returned to Belgrade to open a tailor shop. After only several minutes, Ilija is free to go, however, he is starting to suspect that his tenant might be a spy. As the movie goes on, his paranoia increases and more people gets involved: his wife, his daughter, his brother, Jakovljevic's friends.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: funny, black comedy, dark comedy, thought provoking, humorous, realistic, disturbing, semi serious
Similar in 88%
La chinoise (1967)
Plot Summary:
A small group of French students are studying Mao, trying to find out their position in the world and how to change the world to a Maoistic community using terrorism.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: political, philosophical, artsy, art house, cult classic, thought provoking, clever, humorous, realistic, talky
Similar in 89%
Critical Care (1997)
Plot Summary:
Werner Ernst is a young hospital resident who becomes embroiled in a legal battle between two half-sisters who are fighting over the care of their comatose father. But are they really fighting over their father's care, or over his $10 million estate? Meanwhile, Werner must contend with his nutty supervisor, who insists that he only care for patients with full insurance. Can Werner sidestep the hospital's legal team and do what's best for the patient?.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Australia, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: black comedy, humorous, cynical, dark comedy, independent film, clever, realistic, witty, semi serious, biting
Similar in 75%
Your Excellency (1967)
Plot Summary:
Lopitos, who is horribly inefficient but quick-witted, is invited (because of the current ambassador's superstition about 13 sitting down to a meal) to a banquet attended by the ambassadors of both superpowers. After the news of a series of coups d'état in Los Cocos arrives throughout the meal, Lopitos becomes the official ambassador. At a summit of world leaders, the representatives of the two world superpowers court the allegiances of third-world diplomats to tilt the balance of global power in their favor. The last diplomat to remain unaligned, Lopitos instead harangues the superpowers for infringing on the rights of developing countries to self determination, talking to them with his point of view as a citizen not as ambassador because he arranged his demise as ambassador one day before his speech.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 630
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 133 min
Plot tags: offbeat, humorous, realistic, cynical, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 82%
Dark Habits (1983)
Plot Summary:
A nightclub singer seeks refuge with gay nuns on dope in a Madrid convent.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Spain
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, erotic, social, surreal, manga, hispanic, clever, offbeat, humorous, realistic
Similar in 79%
All the Rage (1999)
Plot Summary:
A rich cross-section of urban USA find their lives changed when their fates collide at gunpoint.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: clever, melancholic, intense, satirical, realistic, independent film, offbeat, humorous, witty, semi serious
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Reality (2012)
Plot Summary:
A dark comedy centering on the lives of a Neapolitan based family whose father, a fish merchant, is so infatuated with the reality TV show "Grande Fratello" (the Italian version of "Big Brother") he starts living his life as if he were on it.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, humorous, cynical, semi serious, social, surreal, cult classic, clever, bleak, realistic
Similar in 83%
Hits (2014)
Plot Summary:
A talentless teen will do anything to get on TV's "The Voice." Meanwhile, her father, a municipal worker, creates an uproar when a video of his rants at City Hall goes viral.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: humorous, realistic, cynical, semi serious, black comedy, independent film, biting, suspense
Similar in 75%
The New Age (1994)
Plot Summary:
Peter and Katherine Witner are Southern California super-yuppies with great jobs but no center to their lives. When they both lose their jobs and begin marital infidelities, their solution is to start their own business together. In order to find meaning to their empty lives, they follow various New Age gurus and other such groups. Eventually, they hit rock bottom and have to make some hard decisions.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: satirical, melancholic, meditative, disturbing, humorous, cynical, realistic, witty, semi serious, cult classic
Similar in 83%
Water (1985)
Plot Summary:
Michael Caine stars as Baxter Thwaites, the laid-back Governor of the sleepy British colony of Cascara. But when American oil drillers accidentally strike a gusher of ultra-delicious mineral water, the forgotten Caribbean out-post becomes a global hotbed of political and economic chaos.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious, surreal, light, entertaining, political, black comedy, clever, realistic, witty
Similar in 90%
The Firemen's Ball (1967)
Plot Summary:
In Milos Forman's satire on Communism set in a small Czechoslovakian town in the 1960s, the local firemen decide to organize a ball, however the proceedings are dogged by difficulty at every step. They plan to organize a beauty pageant at the ball, yet struggle tremendously to find enough pretty contestants. A lottery is planned for later in the evening, but the guests begin stealing the prizes. Then, inevitably, there is a fire in the town... It seems that whatever can go wrong, does go wrong.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Czechoslovakia, Italy
Duration: 73 min
Plot tags: black comedy, dark comedy, surreal, cult classic, allegory, humorous, witty, biting, mind bending, thought provoking
Similar in 85%
Trial and Error (1962)
Plot Summary:
After nearly 40 years of waiting for his big chance, Wilfred Morgenhall (Sellers) is given the case of defending Herbert Fowle (Attenborough) who is accused of murdering his wife (Beryl Reid). Despite Fowle's insistence of guilt, Moregenhall will not let go of the opportunity to plead his client as innocent and be a star in the courtroom.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 597
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: black comedy, black and white, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, independent film
Similar in 87%
Embedded Live (2004)
Plot Summary:
Embedded is a ripped-from-the-headlines satire about the madness surrounding brave men and women on the front lines of a Middle East conflict. It skewers lapdog embedded journalists, scheming government officials and the media's insatiable desire for heroes. Beautifully captured (by 9 cameras) directly from the controversial Tim Robbins' play in New York City, Embedded Live puts the audience in the front-row to this thought-provoking and timely production.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 249
Genere: Comedy
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: realistic, disturbing, controversial, cynical, semi serious, suspense, thought provoking, clever, offbeat, humorous
Similar in 81%
The Perfect Dictatorship (2014)
Plot Summary:
TV MX, the most powerful Mexican Television Corporation, discloses a scandalous story involving Governor Carmelo Vargas in serious crimes and illicit business. Governor Vargas worried about his political future, decides to clean his image and negotiates a billionaire secret agreement with the owners of the TV Corporation. Carlos Rojo, an ambitious young news producer, and Ricardo Diaz, TV network star reporter, are responsible for making a dirty campaign to change the image the public has of the corrupt Governor and make him, at any cost, a political star and a great presidential candidate. Mexican Television believes that democracy is a farce and has already placed one President... Will they do it again?.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Mexico
Duration: 143 min
Plot tags: cynical, humorous, semi serious, realistic, dark comedy, political, political thriller, cult classic, biting, soap opera
Similar in 76%
The 92 Minutes of Mr. Baum (1997)
Plot Summary:
Balding advertising executive Mr. Baum spends more time on a new ad campaign for purple sunglasses than he does with his own family. But suddenly he is forced to reexamine his life after a doctor tells him that he has an 'aggressive' brain tumor and will die in 90 minutes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 183
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: dark comedy, thought provoking, clever, humorous, tragicomedy, realistic, surreal, contemplative, cynical, semi serious
Similar in 79%
The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque (1993)
Plot Summary:
The socialist mayor of a small village in France dreams of building an arts center but he runs up against some opposition.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: satirical, clever, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, suspense
Similar in 78%
The Second Civil War (1997)
Plot Summary:
When a planeload of Pakistani orphans are shipped to his state for permanent relocation, the governor of Idaho (Beau Bridges, who won an Emmy) defies the president (Phil Hartman) and closes the state's border. News Net Television, a cable news program that makes hay by reporting on political scandals, quickly spins the racist act into an overnight media sensation, creating a divide in national opinion over the issue.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: offbeat, humorous, futuristic, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, black comedy, suspense
Similar in 80%
Spinning Boris (2003)
Plot Summary:
Russian political elite hires American consultants to help with President Yeltsin's re-election campaign when his approval rating is down to single digits.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: clever, realistic, political, humorous, witty, talky, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Bob Roberts (1992)
Plot Summary:
Mock documentary about an upstart candidate for the U.S. Senate written and directed by actor Tim Robbins. Bob Roberts is a folksinger with a difference: He offers tunes that protest welfare chiselers, liberal whining, and the like. As the filmmakers follow his campaign, Robbins gives needle-sharp insight into the way candidates manipulate the media.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 16000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA, UK
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: mockumentary, political, witty, cynical, talky, humorous, funny, satirical, independent film, parody
Similar in 80%
The Falling (2010)
Plot Summary:
Natha a poor farmer from Peepli village in the heart of rural India is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid bank loan. A quick fix to the problem is the a government program that aids the families of indebted farmers who have committed suicide. As a means of survival Farmer Natha can choose to die. His brother is happy to push him towards this unique 'honour' but Natha is reluctant. Local elections are around the corner and what might have been another unnoticed event turns into a 'cause celebre' with everyone wanting a piece of the action. Political bigwigs, high-ranking bureaucrats, local henchmen and the ever-zealous media descend upon sleepy Peepli to stake their claim. The question on everyone's lips - "Will he or Won't he?" As the mania escalates, nobody seems to care how Natha really feels.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 13000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: India
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: black comedy, semi serious, offbeat, suspenseful, dark comedy, psychological, light, entertaining, satirical, social
Similar in 78%
Wag the Dog (1997)
Plot Summary:
During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 88000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: black comedy, political, talky, dark comedy, realistic, satirical, funny, melancholic, humorous, thought provoking