Movies like Ermak (1997)
The best movies like Ermak (1997) are Tsar (2009), Adventures of a Mathematician (2021) and Oranges and Sunshine (2010). If Ermak hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedKalashnikov AK-47 (2020)7.6/10 from 419 votes
- NewestPrizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022)Released 2022
Tsar (2009)
In 16th-century Russia in the grip of chaos, Ivan the Terrible strongly believes he is vested with a holy mission. Believing he can understand and interpret the signs, he sees the Last Judgment approaching. He establishes absolute power, cruelly destroying anyone who gets in his way. During this reign of terror, Philip, the superior of the monastery on the Solovetsky Islands, a great scholar and Ivan's close friend, dares to oppose the sovereign's mystical tyranny. What follows is a clash between two completely opposite visions of the world, smashing morality and justice, God and men. A grand-scale film with excellent leading roles by Mamonov and Yankovsky. An allegory of Stalinist Russia
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdventures of a Mathematician (2021)
The warmhearted story of Polish immigrant and mathematician Stan Ulam, who moved to the U.S. in the 1930s. Stan deals with the difficult losses of family and friends all while helping to create the hydrogen bomb and the first computer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOranges and Sunshine (2010)
The story of Margaret Humphreys, a social worker from Nottingham, who uncovers one of the most significant social scandals in recent times – the forced migration of children from the United Kingdom to Australia and other Commonwealth countries. Almost singlehandedly, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOslo (2021)
The true story of negotiations between implacable enemies — the secret back-channel talks, unlikely friendships and quiet heroics of a small but committed group of Israelis, Palestinians and one Norwegian couple that led to the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKalashnikov AK-47 (2020)
A Russian military propaganda film about the tank commander Kalashnikov, severely injured in battle in 1941. The accident leaves him incapacitated and unable to return to the front line. While recovering in the hospital, he begins creating the initial sketches of what will become one of the world’s most legendary weapons. A self-taught inventor is only 29 when he develops the now iconic assault riffle — the AK-47. Shot in occupied Crimea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPanther (1995)
In this sprawling, fictionalized history of the Black Panthers, 1960s Oakland becomes a war zone as the Panthers battle for the right to exist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Pilot: A Battle for Survival (2021)
December of 1941, Northwestern Front. A German tank column is moving towards Moscow. During a mission to stop the enemy advance, Nikolai Komlev's IL-2 is shot down. Komlev manages to crash-land his plane in a remote forest clearing. He's alive, but far from friendly territory. Ahead of him is a relentless trial of severe physical and mental endurance. After battling hunger and extreme cold, evading packs of wolves and detachments of Nazi soldiers, the wounded Komlev finally makes it back to safety. But there he faces another challenge, the most life-changing of them all.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisField of Lost Shoes (2015)
A group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuffragette (2015)
Based on true events about the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Pentagon Papers (2003)
This compelling political drama is based on the true story of high-ranking Pentagon official Daniel Ellsberg, who, during the Nixon era, strove to preserve American democracy by leaking top-secret documents to the New York Times and Washington Post. The documents in question would eventually become famous as the Pentagon Papers, which revealed the true reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Conquest of Siberia (2019)
Ivan Demarin, a young officer of Peter the First’s new guards, follows the Tsar’s order and goes to the frontier town of Tobolsk, deep in the Siberian forest. There Ivan falls in love for the first time and he and his regiment happen to be involved in conspiracy of local princes who hunt for gold in the town of Yarkand. His fort is surrounded by hordes of wild Dzungars and there is no one to call for help…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this7 Women (1965)
In a mission in China in 1935, a group of women are preyed on by Mongolian bandits, led by Warlord chief Tunga Khan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022)
At the turn of the 19th century, Pugilism was the sport of kings and a gifted young boxer fought his way to becoming champion of England.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Frontier (2020)
The story of the Podolsk cadets’ heroic stand outside Moscow in October 1941. Cadets were sent to the Ilyinsky line, fighting alongside units from the Soviet 43rd Army to hold back the German advance until reinforcements arrived. Hopelessly outnumbered, young men laid down their lives in a battle lasting almost two weeks to obstruct the far superior German forces advancing towards Moscow. Around 3,500 cadets and their commanding officers were sent to hold up the last line of defense outside Moscow. Most of them remained there for eternity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFanny Lye Deliver'd (2019)
On an isolated English farm in 1657, Fanny lives a quiet life with her oppressive husband John and their young son. One day their life is rocked with the arrival of young couple Thomas and Rebecca who claim to have been robbed and need a place to stay. But are these strangers really who they say they are?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like this9th Company (2005)
Russian army recruits complete training and take their posting in late 1980s Afghanistan, where the insurgents are slowly gaining the upper hand.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnforgiven (2018)
Based on true and tragic events in the life of Vitaly Kaloyev, an architect and family man. In 2002, his wife and children die in a mid-air collision along with 70 other people, mostly children. Vitaly is one of the first people to discover the bodies of his family at the site of the crash. The blame is put on the company responsible for monitoring the air space, as well as the lone air traffic controller on duty at the time. Two years later, after much obstructed efforts to get apologies and answers, Vitaly flies to Switzerland to obtain justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlan A (2021)
Germany 1945, Max, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, meets a radical group of Jewish resistance fighters, who, like him, lost all hope for their future after they were robbed of their existence and their entire families were killed by the Nazis. They dream of retaliation on an epic scale for the Jewish people. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Max starts identifying with the group's monstrous plans...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Kill Team (2019)
When Andrew Briggman — a young soldier in the US Army during the invasion of Afghanistan — witnesses the murderous behavior of fellow soldiers, under the direction of a malevolent Sergeant, he faces a moral dilemma. His increasingly-violent platoon becomes suspicious that someone in their ranks has turned on them, and Andrew begins to fear for his safety. A fictionalized dramatization based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParmanu: The Story of Pokhran (2018)
A look at India's second confidential nuclear test series at Pokhran lead by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, during the time of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cruel Sea (1944)
It is 1921 and a town has a newspaper which prints urgent bulletins as required. The Washington-based CITES treaty, in which Japan participates, puts a limit on the number of warships any country can possess. As a result, Japan has to decommission a ship to its makers' disappointment. An institute of technology's laboratory designs a new ship. Due to less ships, sailors have to retire and are also disappointed. The laboratory's manager and an admiral are visiting a patient at a hospital and meet coincidentally. The former has a daughter who worries about her father's workload. She asks him to accompany her to a concert. Father has little time, but is convinced for her sake. He is inspired for a ship's design at the performance. The film is inspired by the life of Jo Hiraga.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Savage Fire (2017)
In the city of Cajamar, in the middle of ruined nature, lonely characters deal with the police, rodeos and mysterious fires.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sindoor (1987)
Laxmi is half of a famous singing couple when both her relationship and career are destroyed by the jealous plotting of her husband , Vijay. Years later, Laxmi is widowed and raising a stepdaughter, Lalita, when Vijay returns to the scene to meddle in her new family's affairs and once again threaten her domestic happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Shesha Drushti (1997)
Kedar Babu is a freedom fighter since the days of Mahatma Gandhi's call for a Civil Disobedience Movement. Kedar Babu lost his wife at an early stage of his marriage. Since then, he has brought up his only son Sangram with all paternal affection. In town, Sangram stays in the house of a landlord, Bahadur Suryakant Singh, where there is a gradual moral decline. This puts him in a state of dilemma and delusion. In the last encounter with his father. Sangram experiences a new perception of life, illuminated with anxiety.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kalsandhya: Twilight of Death (1997)
Ranjit is an educated and unemployed young man, desperately looking for a job. He is taught to use a gun by people who promise to show him a new way of life and lead him to a better future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Massey Sahib (1986)
In a small, tribal district town of Central India in 1929, Francis Massey is the 'English Type Babu' at the Deputy Commissioner's office. Massey believes that because he is Christian and can speak English, he is a cut above other Indians and not very different from the white sahibs he serves. For a man of lowly birth, Massey has risen to a dizzying height. On the other hand, he acknowledges no realistic limits to his own free spirit. Whenever the real world fails him, he improvises - boldly, imaginatively. Alas, the unsmiling, implacable machinery of the Raj has no room for Massey Sahib, the travelling salesman, road foreman and entertainer. Right up to the bitter end, Massey believes that Deputy Commissioner Adam Sahib will step in and save him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Boys On Film 16: Possession (2017)
Golden boys, teen lust, self-conscious dolls, chance encounters, a vengeful creature, holiday romance, hidden sexuality — Boys On Film celebrates it's (not so) sweet sixteen with an astonishing selection of the latest international gay short films. Volume 16: Possession features ten complete films: Kai Stänicke's "Golden" with Christian Tesch and Maximilian Gehrlinger; Christopher Manning's "Jamie" starring Sebastian Christophers and Raphael Verrion; Kai Stänicke's "B." starring Susanne Bormann and Andreas Jähnert; Blake Mawson's "PYOTR495" starring Alex Ozerov; Charlie Francis's "When A Man Loves A Woman" starring Tommy Jay Brennan, Jemima Spence, and Diane Brooks Webster; Anthony Schatteman's "Follow Me" starring Ezra Fieremans and Maarten Ketels; Jake Graf's "Chance" starring 'ABS' and Clifford Hume; Andrew Keenan-Bolger's "Sign" starring John McGinty and Preston Sadleir; Oliver Mason's "Away With Me" starring Chris Polick and Lee Knight; and "We Could Be Parents" by Björn Elgerd.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Wolf and the Ballerina (2014)
The Wolf and the Ballerina is a short film about a hardened survivalist protecting the only water source for miles. When he catches a starving, 11-year old, deaf girl stealing water, he reluctantly takes her in. Together they must survive the harsh, dry climate as well as those who would threaten their water supply.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fanney Khan (2018)
The journey of a struggling singer 'Fanney Khan' who aspires to make his daughter a big name in the music world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ermak?
The closest matches to Ermak are Tsar (2009), Adventures of a Mathematician (2021) and Oranges and Sunshine (2010). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ermak?
Start with Tsar (2009), the closest match to Ermak.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ermak?
Kalashnikov AK-47 (2020), rated 7.6/10 by 419 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ermak?
Prizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Ermak chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ermak, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.