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The Pianist poster

Movies that feel likeThe Pianist (2002)

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

If you loved The Pianist, the closest films we have are The Counterfeiters (2007), Unbroken (2014) and In Darkness (2011). All three share The Pianist's contemplative and bleak feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is A War (2015).

🍅 95% Rotten Tomatoes★ 8.5 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Roman Polanskicontemplativebleak
10 of 12 streaming nowNetflix · HBO Max · Amazon Prime Video

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If The Pianist hit the spot, these will too

The Counterfeiters poster
The Counterfeiters
2007 · dir. Stefan Ruzowitzky
🍅 93%★ 7.5drama · war

Survival by rare skill — a Jew kept alive by what his hands can do

The difference: A camp-bound moral thriller — tighter and pulpier than Polanski's restraint

The story of Jewish counterfeiter Salomon Sorowitsch, who was coerced into assisting the Nazi operation of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during World War II.

Unbroken poster
Unbroken
2014 · dir. Angelina Jolie
🍅 52%★ 7.2drama · warNetflix

Another true story of a man enduring war one indignity at a time

The difference: Glossier Hollywood survival arc — inspiration where Polanski kept distance

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

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

Occupied Poland again, survival measured in hiding places and silence

The difference: Grimmer and more claustrophobic — the sewers offer no music at all

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).

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

Staying alive by being useful to the enemy, one day at a time

The difference: Built on a high-concept lie — more contrivance, less documentary chill

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.

Jarhead poster
Jarhead
2005 · dir. Sam Mendes
🍅 60%★ 7drama · warNetflixStarz

War as waiting and slow erosion rather than combat heroics

The difference: Ironic Gulf War malaise — nothing here is a matter of survival

Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.

Sobibor poster
Sobibor
2018 · dir. Konstantin Khabenskiy
🍅 73%★ 6.4war · dramaPrime Video

A death camp answered with organized revolt instead of lone endurance

The difference: Far more graphic, and blunter filmmaking than Polanski's control

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.

Rome, Open City poster
Rome, Open City
1945 · dir. Roberto Rossellini
🍅 100%★ 8drama · warMax

Occupation filmed by people who had just lived it — rubble as fact, not set

The difference: Rough 1945 neorealism — grain, dubbing and datedness ask patience

During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.

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

Contemplative and bleak in the same breath

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.

Apocalypse Now poster
Apocalypse Now
1979 · dir. Francis Ford Coppola
🍅 91%★ 8.4drama · warParamount+

Contemplative drama, and it commits to that

The difference: Made in the 1970s, in a different era of the craft

At the height of the Vietnam war, Captain Benjamin Willard is sent on a dangerous mission that, officially, "does not exist, nor will it ever exist." His goal is to locate - and eliminate - a mysterious Green Beret Colonel named Walter Kurtz, who has been leading his personal army on illegal guerrilla missions into enemy territory.

All Quiet on the Western Front poster
All Quiet on the Western Front
2022 · dir. Edward Berger
🍅 90%★ 7.8war · dramaNetflix

War with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

Paul Baumer and his friends Albert and Muller, egged on by romantic dreams of heroism, voluntarily enlist in the German army. Full of excitement and patriotic fervour, the boys enthusiastically march into a war they believe in. But once on the Western Front, they discover the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

Beanpole poster
Beanpole
2019 · dir. Kantemir Balagov
🍅 93%★ 7.2drama · warRent or buy

Contemplative drama in both cases

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.

Grave of the Fireflies poster
Grave of the Fireflies
1988 · dir. Isao Takahata
🍅 100%★ 8.5animation · drama · warNetflix

Civilians starving in war's margins, watched with the same unblinking calm

The difference: An animated Japanese home front — and it spares you even less

In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.

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