Movies like My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985)
The best movies like My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985) are Taurus (2001), Khrustalyov, My Car! (1999) and Morphine (2008). If My Friend Ivan Lapshin hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Fool (2014)7.8/10 from 350 votes
- NewestThe Coach (2018)Released 2018
Taurus (2001)
Unfolding over two days in 1924, the film depicts the dying Lenin, world revolutionary and father of the USSR, now powerless and isolated at his Gorki estate. Cared for by his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaia, sister Maniasha, his German doctor and several attendants, Lenin raves about his diminishing faculties, discusses the deaths of great figures (including Marx), rides a car to a picnic in a meadow and ponders his historic legacy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Khrustalyov, My Car! (1999)
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".
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMorphine (2008)
The year is 1917. We are in the Russian countryside. It is the middle of freezing winter. A pale young, newly educated doctor arrives. Having to deal with one medical challenge after another he soon becomes the center of everyone's attention. To soothe the impressions of human suffering he turns to morphine.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSilent Souls (2010)
Miron Alekseevich, director of a paper and pulp mill, goes to bury his wife Tanya in the place where they once spent their honeymoon. He goes not alone, but with a photographer named Stork, to whom he tells touching details of his life with Tanya. The narrative weaves together the memories of the characters, as well as the rituals and beliefs of the Meri people, a small Finnish tribe that once lived in the Northern Volga region and dissolved among the Russians.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Postman's White Nights (2014)
The film represents life in a godforsaken Russian village. The only way to reach the mainland is to cross the lake by boat and a postman became the only connection with the outside world. A reserved community has been set up here. Despite the modern technologies and a spaceport nearby the people of the village live the way they would in the Neolithic Era. There is neither government nor social services or jobs. The postman's beloved woman escapes the village life and moves to the city. Postman's outboard engine gets stolen and he can no longer deliver mail. His normal pattern of life is disrupted. The postman makes a decision to leave for the city too but returns before long with no certain reason. The script is based on real characters' stories. People from the village play their own parts in the film. The search for the protagonist lasted for over a year.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Edge (2010)
The action takes place shortly after the end of the Second World War in the Siberian hinterland, among Russians and Germans with damaged personal stories and a strange transformation: the victors seem to be crawling into the skins of the defeated, and vice versa. Ignat, is the embodiment of the larger-than-life image of the Soviet victorious warrior who, in fact, proves to be shell-shocked, sick and broken, although not completely destroyed. Trains become fetish for the heroes of the film, and speed becomes a mania; they virtually become one with their steam engines, while the machines take on human names. The heroes set up an almost fatal race in the Siberian forest, risking their own lives and those of others.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Red Snowball Tree (1974)
A thief named Egor, having served a term in prison, goes to the country to meet his pen-friend Lyuba, a kind genial village woman. Egor comes to love Lyuba sincerely. Now he has friends, work and a beloved woman, he decides to break with his criminal past and start a new life. However, his former criminal associates interfere brutally.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDays of Eclipse (1988)
This bleak late soviet-era drama follows the career of Malyanov, a young medical school graduate who has been sent to work in Turkmenia. Here he runs into a hodge-podge of people of differing ethnicities, all of them victims of the government's earlier mania for relocating and eliminating whole ethnic groups and classes of people. These desperately unhappy people are unable to find any pleasure in this diverse companionship, but instead are antagonistic to it, and often resort to desperate measures in their doomed attempts to ease their pain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Freeze, Die, Come to Life (1990)
Stuck in a mining town near Vladivostok in 1947 amongst Soviet exiles and Japanese POWs (Japanese prisoners remained in Siberia for years after the war had ended), the kids have to come up with something to keep them busy. Two friends, Valerka and Galia, play some peculiar, very dangerous games of their own amid the man-made wasteland of Suchan.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Hard to Be a God (2014)
A group of scientists is sent to the planet Arkanar to help the local civilization, which is in the Medieval phase of its own history, to find the right path to progress. Their task is a difficult one: they cannot interfere violently and in no case can they kill. The scientist Rumata tries to save the local intellectuals from their punishment and cannot avoid taking a position.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCloud Heaven (1990)
In this gentle comedy, an unpopular resident in a Russian village has his life completely changed when he announces, entirely on a whim and just to upset things a bit, that he's moving to the Pacific coast.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Burnt by the Sun (1994)
Russia, 1936: revolutionary hero Colonel Kotov is spending an idyllic summer in his dacha with his young wife and six-year-old daughter Nadia and other assorted family and friends. Things change dramatically with the unheralded arrival of Cousin Dmitri from Moscow, who charms the women and little Nadia with his games and pianistic bravura. But Kotov isn't fooled: this is the time of Stalin's repression, with telephone calls in the middle of the night spelling doom - and he knows that Dmitri isn't paying a social call...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrial on the Road (1986)
Shot in 1971 but banned until 1986, this distinctly Russian war story takes place in 1942 behind enemy lines. A regiment of partisans captures former Red Army lieutenant Lazarev who is dressed in a German uniform. He’s a Nazi defector and collaborator but now desires to switch back and fight with Russian partisans.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOno (1989)
The bureaucratic epos on the dialogues and plots of Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin "The History of a Town". In a metaphorical and grotesque form, the film conveys the history of Russia from the calling of the Varangians until the end of the 20th century. The film traces the change of the “chiefs” of the county town of Glupov, which differ in varying degrees of tyranny and the corresponding total number of “killed” city residents. The heads of the city easily guess the former heads of the Russian state and the USSR.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Of Freaks and Men (1998)
St. Petersburg, early 20th century. The handsome and secretive Johann specializes in shooting erotic pictures depicting the floggings of bare-bottomed women. With the help of his assistants, the photographic creations gradually penetrate the peaceful households of two upper-class Russian families.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFarewell (1983)
Matyora is a small village on a beautiful island with the same name. The existence of the village is threatened with flooding by the construction of a dam. This is the story of the inhabitants of Matyora and their farewell to their homeland.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Mimino (1977)
Local Georgian pilot Mimino dreams of flying airplanes for major international airlines. To realize his aspirations, he goes to Moscow where he encounters a fellow comrade from the Caucasus, the Armenian Rubik. Many misadventures ensue.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Asthenic Syndrome (1989)
In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher of epicly indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Garage (1979)
An automotive highway is scheduled to be built through the territory of a garage cooperative. A special meeting of the cooperative takes place to reduce the number of garages. As all was already decided and arranged by the chairholder and the board, the decision passes easily at the meeting. But one unexpected event happens - the meeting room's entrance has been locked by an anonymous member and the key is missing...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRepentance (1987)
The day after his funeral, the corpse of Varlam Aravidze, the mayor of a small Georgian town, turns up in his son's garden. Although it is secretly reburied, the corpse keeps returning until the police capture the local woman who is responsible. This woman says that Varlam should never be laid to rest since his Stalin-like reign of terror led to the disappearance of her family and friends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZerograd (1988)
Going on a business trip, the hero of the film suddenly finds himself in a fantastic city. It is very similar to our world, only the hidden absurdity of everyday life here has become apparent.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe General Line (1929)
100.000.000 peasants – illiterate, poor, hungry. There comes a day when one woman decides that she can live the old life no longer. Using ways of new Soviet state and industrial progress, she changes the lives and labours of her village.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCargo 200 (2007)
While returning to Leningrad from a visit to his brother, Professor Artyom's car breaks down and he finds assistance at an isolated farmhouse occupied by Alexey, his wife, a Vietnamese laborer, and a stranger who wanders around the farm. When his car is repaired, Artyom leaves, drunk on moonshine, and students Valera and Angelika arrive. After Valera gets drunk, the stranger abducts Angelika.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fool (2014)
The Fool is a movie about a simple plumber. An honest man, he is up against an entire system of corrupted bureaucrats. At stake are the lives of 800 inhabitants of an old dorm that is at risk of collapsing within the span of the night.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Driver for Vera (2004)
The film is set during 1962 in Sevastopol, Crimea, then a secret Navy Base in the Soviet Union. General Serov hires Viktor, a cadet from the Kremlin Guard to work as his private chauffeur. In a jet-black "ZIM" limo, Viktor is chauffeuring the General's disabled daughter Vera. Viktor is oblivious to the hidden agenda of the KGB agent Saveliev, who manipulates everyone behind the scenes in the old rivalry between the Army and KGB.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPeculiarities of the National Hunt (1995)
A Finn preparing a work on the Russian hunting traditions and customs, comes to Russia to collect materials and is invited to take part in a hunting party. His flamboyant companions include an Army general, with more than a passing resemblance to Aleksander Lebed, a police detective, local forest ranger (a devotee of Zen Buddhism) and some big-city types from St. Petersburg. Inevitably, their good intentions soon give way to endless drinking, visits to local farm girls and much else besides.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSiberia, Monamour (2011)
Siberia. Late autumn. In taiga, in the deserted village there lives an old man Ivan & his seven-year-old grandson Leshia. A pack of feral dogs devours everything alive in the neighborhood. One of these dogs is Leshia's best friend. Sometimes their relative uncle Yuri brings food to them. Once on his way back from Ivan's village uncle Yuri is attacked by dogs & perishes. Ivan & Leshia stay without supply. Once Leshia witnesses Ivan shooting at 'his' dog & runs away. The old Man finds him in a dry well, but he fails to get him out on his own. Ivan sets out through taiga in search of help. Now the dogs are hunting him... And the boy is waiting for his father...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Visit (1964)
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Coach (2018)
Contemporary Russia. After he flubs a penalty kick, a humiliated national soccer player quits the game. He flees to a small town, where he decides to coach their local team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like My Friend Ivan Lapshin?
The closest matches to My Friend Ivan Lapshin are Taurus (2001), Khrustalyov, My Car! (1999) and Morphine (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after My Friend Ivan Lapshin?
People who watched My Friend Ivan Lapshin most often go on to Taurus (2001), Khrustalyov, My Car! (1999) and Morphine (2008).
What is the highest-rated movie like My Friend Ivan Lapshin?
The Fool (2014), rated 7.8/10 by 350 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like My Friend Ivan Lapshin?
The Coach (2018) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to My Friend Ivan Lapshin chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside My Friend Ivan Lapshin, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.