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Movies that feel like Balkan Line (2019)

If you loved Balkan Line, the closest films we have are Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), Stalingrad (2013) and Shadow (2018). All three share Balkan Line's kinetic and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 8 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV and MUBI and others, checked against today's data.

After the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the Yugoslav army pulls out of Kosovo region, leaving Serbian people at the mercy of the Albanian UCK. A small band of soldiers must take over the Slatina airport, and hold it until the Russian peacekeepers arrive.

6.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Andrey Volgincontemplativekineticbleak
Stream it:Prime Video
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If Balkan Line hit the spot, these will too

Uri: The Surgical Strike poster
Uri: The Surgical Strike
2019 · dir. Aditya Dhar
🍅 57%8.2action · drama · war

Contemplative and kinetic in the same breath

Following the roguish terrorist attacks at Uri Army Base camp in Kashmir, India takes the fight to the enemy, in its most successful covert operation till date with one and only one objective of avenging their fallen heroes.

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Stalingrad poster
Stalingrad
2013 · dir. Fyodor Bondarchuk
🍅 51%5.7war · action · drama

Drama with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

A band of determined Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to a Russian woman who has been living there.

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Shadow poster
Shadow
2018 · dir. Zhang Yimou
🍅 94%7action · war

Both lean on momentum more than on action

The difference: None of the stillness Balkan Line is built on

In a kingdom ruled by a young and unpredictable king, the military commander has a secret weapon: a shadow, a look-alike who can fool both his enemies and the King himself. Now he must use this weapon in an intricate plan that will lead his people to victory in a war that the King does not want.

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Sobibor poster
Sobibor
2018 · dir. Konstantin Khabenskiy
🍅 73%6.4war · drama

Contemplative war in both cases

The film is based on a real story that happened in 1943 in the Sobibor concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. The main character of the movie is the Soviet-Jewish soldier Alexander Pechersky, who at that time was serving in the Red Army as a lieutenant. In October 1943, he was captured by the Nazis and deported to the Sobibor concentration camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers. But, in just 3 weeks, Alexander was able to plan an international uprising of prisoners from Poland and Western Europe. This uprising resulted in being the only successful one throughout the war, which led to the largest escape of prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp.

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Beanpole poster
Beanpole
2019 · dir. Kantemir Balagov
🍅 93%7.2drama · war

Drama built on bleakness, twice over

1945, Leningrad. World War II has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Two young women, Iya and Masha, search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins.

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Persian Lessons poster
Persian Lessons
2020 · dir. Vadim Perelman
🍅 80%7.4war · drama

Contemplative war, and it commits to that

Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch.

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A War poster
A War
2015 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 90%7drama · war

Bleak action in both cases

Company commander Claus Michael Pedersen and his men are stationed in Helmand, Afghanistan. Meanwhile back in Denmark, with a husband at war and three children missing their father, everyday life is a struggle for Claus' wife Maria. During a routine mission, the soldiers are caught in heavy Taliban crossfire. In order to save his men, Claus makes a decision that ultimately sees him return to Denmark accused of a war crime.

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Greyhound poster
Greyhound
2020 · dir. Aaron Schneider
🍅 77%7war · action · drama

Kinetic drama, and it commits to that

A first-time captain leads a convoy of allied ships carrying thousands of soldiers across the treacherous waters of the "Black Pit" to the front lines of WWII. With no air cover protection for 5 days, the captain and his convoy must battle the surrounding enemy Nazi U-boats in order to give the allies a chance to win the war.

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Red Cliff II poster
Red Cliff II
2009 · dir. John Woo
7.5action · adventure · drama

Both play action straight

The difference: Leans harder into adventure than Balkan Line does

The battle of Red Cliff continues and the alliance between Xu and East Wu is fracturing. With Cao Cao's massive forces on their doorstep, will the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu survive?

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In Darkness poster
In Darkness
2011 · dir. Agnieszka Holland
🍅 88%7.3drama · war

Both know what they want from war

A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied city of Lviv. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lviv (formerly Poland).

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Civil War poster
Civil War
2024 · dir. Alex Garland
🍅 81%7war · action · drama

The drama is handled with the same confidence

In the near future, a group of war journalists attempt to survive while reporting the truth as the United States stands on the brink of civil war.

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Red Cliff poster
Red Cliff
2008 · dir. John Woo
🍅 89%7.3adventure · drama · history

Action of the same temperament

In 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty, shrewd Prime Minster Cao convinced the fickle Emperor Han the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the west and East Wu in the south. Thus began a military campaign of unprecedented scale. Left with no other hope for survival, the kingdoms of Xu and East Wu formed an unlikely alliance.

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In the mood for more contemplative?

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The best-reviewed films that share Balkan Line’s defining feeling.