Best movies like Witnesses
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like Witnesses (2003):
Similar in 84%
The Living and the Dead (2007)
Plot Summary:
In 1943, group of Croatian soldiers overtake a strategically important point in western Bosnia with a goal to destroy a group of communist partisans. On the way they met some supernatural phenomena, and the action itself went very badly because the partisans ambushed them. The main character Martin inherits silver cigarette case from a dying soldier. This act connects to the story in 1993 when we meet Martins grandson Tomo. He is one of six soldiers of the Croatian army who have come to the same place in Bosnia to meet the same phenomena and similar fate.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 984
Genere: Fantasy, War, Horror
Country: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, bleak, stylized, mind bending, islamic, thought provoking, serious, captivating
Similar in 87%
ZOS: Zone of Separation (2009)
Plot Summary:
ZOS: Zone of Separation is a Canadian television drama mini-series, co-executive produced by Paul Gross. It is an eight-part Canadian original drama mini-series about the life and death struggle to enforce a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in the fictional, Sarajevo-like town of Jadac.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 177
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration:
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, rough, bleak
Similar in 77%
Cup Final (1991)
Plot Summary:
An Israeli soldier is taken hostage by a small PLO squad in Lebanon. The soldier planned to go on vacation and to fly to the world final soccer cup, he and his capturers share the love to soccer and toward the (not so happy) end a relationship is made.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 204
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 85%
Warriors (2002)
Plot Summary:
A tense drama that revolves around a platoon of Spanish soldiers, following the innocent young men as they step from the training field into a hell for which nothing could have prepared them.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, War
Country: Spain
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, tense, captivating, hispanic, bleak
Similar in 80%
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 85%
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 87%
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 83%
Time to Kill (1989)
Plot Summary:
1936, Italian army is invading Ethiopia. Lieutenant Silvestri suffering toothache decides to reach the nearest camp hospital. But the lorry has an accident and stop near a rock, so Silvestri continues by walk. On his way he meets and rapes a wonderful young Ethiopian. He also wound her when he shot to a wild animal, and later kills her to avoid further pain. When he finally reaches the hospital, he realizes he gets probably leprosy. Trying to escape from Ethiopia Silvestri will kill again. But surprises aren't still over.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 943
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, disturbing, historical drama, suspenseful
Similar in 79%
The Last Winter (1983)
Plot Summary:
Tells the story of two women seeking leads to their missing husbands after the end of the Yom Kippur War (1973). A relationship builds between them when each identified her husband in the same blurred image of a foreign newsreel.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA, Israel
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, captivating, emotional, realistic, disturbing, gloomy
Similar in 86%
Afghan Luke (2011)
Plot Summary:
Disheartened when his story about Canadian snipers possibly mutilating corpses in Afghanistan is buried, Luke (Nick Stahl) quits his job but is even more determined to return to Afghanistan to get the real story. With his offbeat buddy, Tom (Nicolas Wright), tagging along, Luke returns to Afghanistan and intends to gather enough evidence to get his old story into print. But he soon finds that the country is an even more dangerous place than when he left. To make matters worse, his old friend and fixer, Mateen (Stephen Lobo) has been hired away by Luke's journalistic nemesis, Imran Sahar (Vik Sahay). Soon the trip for Luke and Tom in Afghanistan turns into a surreal and perilous adventure, a journey into an alternate reality, filtered through a haze of gun smoke.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 811
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: realistic, tense, thought provoking, captivating, psychological, rough, serious, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Kippur (2000)
Plot Summary:
The film takes place in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War in which Egypt and Syria launched attacks in Sinai and the Golan Heights. The story is told from the perspective of Israeli soldiers. We are led by Weinraub and his friend Ruso on a day that begins with quiet city streets, but ends with death, destruction and devastation of both body and mind. Various scenes are awash in the surreal, as Weinraub's head hangs out over a rescue helicopter's open door, watching with tranquil desperation as the earth passes beneath, the overpowering whir of the blades creating a hypnotic state. It is not a traditional blood, guts and glory film. There are no men in battle, only the rescue crew trying to pick up the broken pieces.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Israel, France
Duration: 117 min
Plot tags: tense, disturbing, rough, serious, realistic, atmospheric, bleak, gloomy
Similar in 88%
The Melon Route (2006)
Plot Summary:
The journey of a Chinese woman and her fellow countrymen as they travel in search of a better place to live, only to end up struggling for survival in the Balkans.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 507
Genere: Drama
Country: Croatia
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: emotional, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing, bleak, serious
Similar in 75%
The Winston Affair (1964)
Plot Summary:
In a remote jungle outpost in the Far Eastern theater of World War II, a hotheaded American soldier murders an allied British sergeant in cold blood. Stalwart American Lt. Colonel Barney Adams (Mitchum) is dispatched to defend him in the ensuing court martial. But when Lt. Adams starts encountering roadblocks in his search for evidence, and his key witnesses start disappearing one after another, he soon realizes he's merely a pawn in a mysterious conspiracy that could extend to the highest levels of military power.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 805
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, captivating, suspenseful, independent film, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 88%
A Soldier's Sweetheart (1998)
Plot Summary:
An Army medic brings his girlfriend to stay with him at an out of the way Vietnam outpost in 1967, the woman disappears one day and he begins searching for her.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 655
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: sex comedy, psychological, atmospheric, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 80%
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 89%
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 83%
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 89%
The Situation (2006)
Plot Summary:
The first U.S.-made film drama set during the Iraq war, THE SITUATION chronicles the tragic death of an Iraqi teenager at the hands of U.S. soldiers. The incident sets off an "investigation," a cover-up, and complications involving Iraqi mayor Sheikh Tahsin (Saïd Amadis), who has a complex relationship with the Americans.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 885
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, rough, realistic, extraordinary
Similar in 83%
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 78%
Rose (2011)
Plot Summary:
This harrowing tale of survival centers on Rose, a Masurian woman, whose German soldier husband was killed in the war, leaving her alone on their farm. A single woman had no defense against Russian soldiers who raped as a form of revenge, nor against plundering Poles who found themselves in desperate straits. Help arrives for Rose in the form of Tadeusz, a former officer in the Polish Home Army who deserted after he saw his wife raped and murdered by Russian troops and is attempting to hide his identity.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, tense, captivating, psychological, bleak, serious, emotional
Similar in 75%
Pastorale 1943 (1978)
Plot Summary:
In a Dutch village during the German occupation, a small group of badly organized resistance fighters attempt to assassinate a collaborator.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 477
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: suspenseful, psychological, factual, rough, disturbing, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Bridges of Sarajevo (2014)
Plot Summary:
Thirteen European directors explore the theme of Sarajevo; what this city has represented in European history over the past hundred years, and what Sarajevo stands for today in Europe. These eminent filmmakers of different generations and origins offer exceptional singular styles and visions.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 387
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Bulgaria, Germany
Duration: 114 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, anthology, bleak
Similar in 89%
The Skin (1981)
Plot Summary:
Naples, year 1943, in the middle of World War II. The city has just be liberated by American troops in an era in which nobody knows just when the war or where begins the peace; winners and losers face.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 131 min
Plot tags: controversial, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing, masterpiece
Similar in 81%
Behind Enemy Lines (1985)
Plot Summary:
Professor-turned-spy Col. Calvin Turner and his associate, workaholic Lt. Shelley Flynn, plan a daring rescue behind enemy lines in World War II German-occupied Norway of a brilliant scientist who may or may not be aiding the Germans.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 80
Genere: Drama, War
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: exciting, rough, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, cult film
Similar in 79%
A Little Pond (2009)
Plot Summary:
The Korean war does not start well for the US. They are being routed by the North Koreans and In July 1950, the early stage of the Korean War, at the Jugok Village in the middle of the Korean Peninsula, Chang-yee and his friends grow excited over the amateur singing contest knowing nothing about what is going on around them. At the time, the US Army keeps losing and are pushed back to the village, evacuating all villagers to head south. The villagers took refuge like going on a picnic believing that the US Army is protecting them, they just follow their orders moving south bound.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 286
Genere: Drama, War
Country: South Korea
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, bleak, captivating
Similar in 78%
The Hanoi Hilton (1987)
Plot Summary:
Lionel Chetwynd's film documents the horrific struggles that faced American POWs held in the North Vietnamese prison Hoa Lo -- more infamously known as the Hanoi Hilton -- between 1964 and 1975. Williamson (Michael Moriarty) leads a group of American servicemen who are prisoners at the detention camp. He assumes command after Cathcart (Lawrence Pressman) is dragged off to be tortured.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: political, grindhouse, independent film, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Stones for the Rampart (2014)
Plot Summary:
To be defeated and not be - a victory. This is the motto that life is guided by three young friends: Alek, Sophy and Rudy. Scouts, high school graduates high school in Warsaw drifting ambitious plans for the future broken through September 1939. Entering adulthood in a very dramatic times, which puts them a choice - to survive at any cost, or to join the fighting for a free homeland, risking everything. The boys brought up in patriotic homes, shaped by the ideals of scouting, they decide to fight. They become soldiers, and although every scrape with death, they can live a full life.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Poland
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 84%
Company K (2004)
Plot Summary:
Based on the popular World War I novel by author William March, director Robert Clem's COMPANY K follows a veteran of the first great conflict as he finishes a book about his wartime experiences and reflects on how a man's true character is revealed through his actions on the battlefield. From the German soldier who visits him in dreams to the camaraderie that is forged by fighting together and the true gravity of laying down your life for a greater cause, World War I veteran Joe Delaney will attempt to exorcise his demons through writing while struggling to readjust to small-town life following the trauma of war.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 339
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: psychological, epic, serious, captivating, disturbing, bleak, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
The Iron Triangle (1989)
Plot Summary:
Based on the diary of an unknown Viet Cong soldier, this film provides a sympathetic look at a Viet Cong soldier who protected a captured American soldier whom he believed did not kill him when the American had the opportunity. Written by John Sacksteder.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 532
Genere: Drama, War
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: rough, realistic, suspenseful, exciting, serious, independent film, bleak, captivating, cult film
Similar in 85%
Fires on the Plain (2014)
Plot Summary:
In the final days of World War II, occupying Japanese forces in the Philippines face resistance from the local population and the American offensive. The dwindling Japanese soldiers attempt to survive through the horrors of war.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 831
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Japan
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, atmospheric, realistic, captivating, rough, bleak, serious, gloomy, cult film