Movies like Kontakt! (1956)

For Sama (2019)

A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war

Notes on Blindness (2016)

After losing sight in 1983, John Hull began keeping an audio diary, a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, excavating the interior world of blindness. Following on from the Emmy Award-winning short film of the same name, Notes on Blindness is an ambitious and groundbreaking work, both affecting and innovative.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & documentary

Guerrilla Girl (1953)

During World War II, Helmut Dantine specialized in playing villainous Nazis in Hollywood melodramas. He offers a compelling performance in a variation of these earlier roles in this suspense filled and politically loaded tale of intrigue. The story opens in German-occupied Athens during the darkest hours of the war. Civilians are not allowed on the streets after dark.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

Saints and Soldiers (2003)

Five American soldiers fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama

Empire of the Sun (1987)

Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirit, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

Bloody Land (1976)

Film set in three different times. In the beginning, Miti is killed while defending his land. Then, the film focuses on his son Gjergji who fights against the Italian forces. In the end, the land is redistributed by the agrarian reform.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama

They Were Four (1977)

Four partisans are tasked with delivering a song to the Congress of Përmet.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

Charlotte (2022)

The true story of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted, she dreams of becoming an artist. Her first love applauds her talent, which emboldens her resolve. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs, she escapes to the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again, and finds new love. But her work is interrupted, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only an extraordinary act will save her, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

Children of the Blitz (2026)

During The Blitz, the British government had plans in place to evacuate approximately 3.5 million people, but only around 1.5 million left towns and cities for the countryside, with the majority of those being children. Children of the Blitz tells the stories of those who remained at home, often to help their families, or because their parents couldn’t bear to send them away. Through the eyes of survivors who were children at the time, the film will explore how The Blitz contributed towards our sense of national identity and how the ‘Blitz Spirit’ is still held up as a defining characteristic of Britishness today. The film will also examine the starker reality for children whose homes were destroyed, including those who lost parents, and some who were left to fend for themselves - many grew up with their stories unheard.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war

The Girls with the Red Ribbons (1978)

Jeta is a student who is a member of the illegals and tries to create a group of antifascist girls in her school.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war & drama

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

When a US Naval captain shows signs of mental instability that jeopardize his ship, the first officer relieves him of command and faces court martial for mutiny.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war

Joy Division (2006)

A teenage orphan fights against the Red Army at the end of WWII and in the aftermath is 'adopted' by a Commissar. Years later he is sent to London during the Cold war to work for the KGB, where he questions his life.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Autumn Milk (1989)

With the death of her mother, eight-year-old Anna ends her childhood: From now on, she has to look after the nine-member family. Deprivation-rich years, which also find no end when Anna marries: Her husband Albert must be a soldier in the Second World War, and the pregnant Anna has to work hard in the farm and care sick relatives. Lonely and exposed to the harassment of the tyrannical mother-in-law, she waits for Albert, with no certainty that he will ever return.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

A Foreign Field (1993)

Nostalgic comic drama in which Cyril and Amos, two veterans of the Normandy landings, return to France to visit the grave of their wartime buddy. They encounter Waldo, an American on a similar mission, and the meeting sparks memories of an old girlfriend from the past. With the mysterious American lady Lisa in their wake, Cyril and Waldo decide to try and track her down.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Wie konnte es geschehen? - Teil 1: "Deutschland erwache..." (1914 - 1938) (2006)

In 1945, 160 German cities lay in ruins and the loss of millions of lives, billions in material assets and countless cultural treasures was mourned throughout Europe... With the question “How could it happen?”, the film goes back to the year 1914, when the “primal catastrophe of the 20th century” took its course with the First World War.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Kokoda (2006)

A bitter battle is fought between Australian and Japanese soldiers along the Kokoda trail in New Guinea during World War II.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Pétain et les francs-maçons (2022)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Olympia 1936. Der verratene Traum (2016)

The film chronicles the story of how the Nazis and the IOC turned, to their mutual benefit, a small sports event into the modern Olympics. The grand themes and controversial issues from the 1936 Games have continued to this day: Monumentality, budget overruns, collusion with authoritarian regimes, corruption and sometimes even bribery.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

40-45 Spektakel-Musical (2022)

Set in wartime Belgium, two brothers—Staf (or Louis) and Dirk Segers—grow up inseparable, only to find their bond torn apart during WWII when one joins the Resistance and the other sides with the occupiers.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

All Against All (2019)

This richly illustrated historical documentary investigates the mechanism of nationalist feelings that radicalise. It shows how fascism was on the rise even a decade before the founding of the NSB, due to a number of anti-democratic initiatives led by a millionaire with a predilection for one-legged women, a market vendor, a cleric, and an artist. Historians, writers and collectors of fascist curios reveal how an initially marginal and fragmented movement grew into a radical populist party.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Cavewoman (2022)

During the Nazi invasion of Greece, a female resistance fighter embarks on a revenge operation to assassinate her own mother, in the name of God. Inspired by Euripides’s Electra.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Catch-22 (1970)

A WWII military pilot makes a valiant effort to be certified insane in order to be excused from flying missions. But there's a catch.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war