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Movies Like Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story

If you liked Escape to Life: The Erika and Klaus Mann Story (2001), a documentary and drama movie directed by Wieland Speck and Andrea Weiss, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

  1. 1Van Gogh: Painted with Words

    Van Gogh: Painted with Words (2010)

    ★ 7.3/10Also drama and documentary

    A drama-documentary presented by Alan Yentob, with Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role. Every word spoken by the actors in this film is sourced from the letters that Van Gogh sent to his younger brother Theo, and of…

  2. 2Heart of a Dog

    Heart of a Dog (2015)

    ★ 6.5/10Also documentary

    Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.

  3. 3In the Realms of the Unreal

    In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)

    ★ 7.2/10Also documentary

    In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along…

  4. 4Come See Me in the Good Light

    Come See Me in the Good Light (2025)

    ★ 7.1/10Also documentary

    In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.

  5. 5Cameraperson

    Cameraperson (2016)

    ★ 6.7/10Also documentary

    As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What…

  6. 6I Am Ali

    I Am Ali (2014)

    ★ 6.7/10Also documentary

    Unprecedented access to Muhammad Ali's personal archive of "audio journals" as well as interviews and testimonials from his inner circle of family and friends are used to tell the legend's life story.

  7. 7Maidentrip

    Maidentrip (2014)

    ★ 7.1/10Also documentary

    14-year-old Laura Dekker sets out on a two-year voyage in pursuit of her dream to become the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone.

  8. 8Feminists: What Were They Thinking?

    Feminists: What Were They Thinking? (2018)

    ★ 7.5/10Also documentary

    In 1977, a book of photographs captured an awakening - women shedding the cultural restrictions of their childhoods and embracing their full humanity. This documentary revisits those photos, those women and those times…

  9. 9Love, Marilyn

    Love, Marilyn (2013)

    ★ 6.5/10Also documentary

    Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses…

  10. 10Salinger

    Salinger (2013)

    ★ 6.4/10Also documentary

    An in-depth investigation into the private world of the American writer J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), who lived most of his life behind the impenetrable wall of a self-imposed seclusion: how his dramatic experiences…

  11. 11Deliver Us from Evil

    Deliver Us from Evil (2006)

    ★ 7.2/10Also documentary

    Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a…

  12. 12McQueen

    McQueen (2018)

    ★ 7.4/10Also documentary

    Alexander McQueen's rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic. Mirroring the savage beauty, boldness and vivacity of his design, this documentary is an intimate revelation of McQueen's own…

  13. 13Disclosure

    Disclosure (2020)

    ★ 7.8/10Also documentary

    An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.

  14. 14Welcome to Chechnya

    Welcome to Chechnya (2020)

    ★ 7/10Also documentary

    This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a…

  15. 15Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee

    Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee (2016)

    ★ 6.6/10Also documentary and drama

    The strange story of John McAfee, who went from millionaire software mogul to yogi, Kurtz-like jungle recluse to potential murderer, and most recently a prospective presidential candidate for the American Libertarian…

  16. 16Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction

    Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013)

    ★ 6.9/10Also documentary

    An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.

  17. 17As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty

    As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)

    ★ 7.8/10Also documentary

    A compilation of over 30 years of private home movie footage shot by Lithuanian-American avant-garde director Jonas Mekas, assembled by Mekas "purely by chance", without concern for chronological order.

  18. 18Fuck

    Fuck (2006)

    ★ 6.4/10Also documentary

    A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.

  19. 1928 Up

    28 Up (1985)

    ★ 7.5/10Also documentary

    Just two years away from turning 30, participants in Michael Apted's documentary series are facing serious questions of identity and purpose, wondering whether they've found their place in the world.

  20. 20The Last Repair Shop

    The Last Repair Shop (2024)

    ★ 7.5/10Also documentary

    In a warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind. Meet four…

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