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Movies Like Why I'm Alive

If you liked Why I'm Alive (2021), a history and drama movie directed by Villen Novak, 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. 1Where Hands Touch

    Where Hands Touch (2018)

    ★ 7.9/10Also drama and romance

    Germany, 1944. Leyna, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a white German mother and a black African father, meets Lutz, a compassionate member of the Hitler Youth whose father is a prominent Nazi soldier, and they form an…

  2. 2Firebird

    Firebird (2021)

    ★ 7.4/10Also drama and romance

    At the height of the Cold War, a troubled soldier forms a forbidden love triangle with a daring fighter pilot and his female comrade amid the dangerous surroundings of a Soviet Air Force Base.

  3. 3Summerland

    Summerland (2020)

    ★ 7.5/10Also drama and romance

    A woman during the Second World War opens her heart to an evacuee after initially resolving to be rid of him.

  4. 4Fiddler on the Roof

    Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

    ★ 7.7/10Also drama and romance

    In a pre-revolutionary Russia, a poor Jewish milkman struggles with the challenges of a changing world as his daughters fall in love and antisemitism grows.

  5. 5Taras Bulba

    Taras Bulba (1962)

    ★ 6.3/10Also romance and history

    Ukraine, 16th century. While the Poles dominate the Cossack steppes, Andrei, son of Taras Bulba, a Cossack leader, must choose between his love for his family and his folk and his passion for a Polish woman.

  6. 6Maria's Lovers

    Maria's Lovers (1984)

    ★ 6/10Also drama and romance

    A World War II prisoner returns home to his childhood sweetheart. However, back home, he discovers that he has to compete to win her love.

  7. 7Defiance

    Defiance (2008)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama and history

    Based on a true story, during World War II, four Jewish brothers escape their Nazi-occupied homeland of West Belarus in Poland and join the Soviet partisans to combat the Nazis. The brothers begin the rescue of roughly…

  8. 8The Edge of Love

    The Edge of Love (2008)

    ★ 6.2/10Also drama and history

    When the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his flirtatious wife Caitlin sweep into war-torn London, the last thing they expect is to bump into Dylan's childhood sweetheart Vera. Despite her joy at seeing Dylan after so many…

  9. 9Allied

    Allied (2016)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama and romance

    In 1942, an intelligence officer in North Africa encounters a female French Resistance fighter on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. When they reunite in London, their relationship is tested by the pressures of war.

  10. 10Goodnight, Mister Tom

    Goodnight, Mister Tom (1998)

    ★ 7/10Also drama and history

    A shy and quiet World War II evacuee is housed by a disgruntled old man, and they soon develop a close bond.

  11. 11The Invisible Woman

    The Invisible Woman (2013)

    ★ 5.9/10Also drama and history

    In 1857, at the height of his fame and fortune, novelist and social critic Charles Dickens meets and falls in love with teenage stage actress Nelly Ternan. As she becomes the focus of his heart and mind, as well as his…

  12. 12Their Finest

    Their Finest (2017)

    ★ 6.6/10Also romance and drama

    During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters who undertook…

  13. 13Ashes in the Snow

    Ashes in the Snow (2018)

    ★ 6.4/10Also drama and romance

    The coming-of-age tale of 16-year-old Lina Vilkas who is deported to Siberia amid Stalin's reign of terror in the Baltic region during WWII. An aspiring artist, she secretly documents her harrowing journey with her…

  14. 14Reds

    Reds (1981)

    ★ 6.9/10Also drama and history

    An account of the revolutionary years of the legendary American journalist John Reed, who shared his adventurous professional life with his radical commitment to the socialist revolution in Russia, his dream of…

  15. 15Mariana's Room

    Mariana's Room (2025)

    ★ 6.8/10Also drama and history

    In the darkest days of the Second World War, Yulia and Hugo, a Jewish mother and son, escape from a Ukrainian ghetto. Fearing for his safety, Yulia entrusts her boy to the care of her friend Mariana, a sex worker who…

  16. 16Anna Karenina

    Anna Karenina (1997)

    ★ 6.1/10Also drama and romance

    In Imperial Russia, Anna, wife of the officer Karenin, goes to Moscow to visit her brother. On the way, she meets charming cavalry officer Vronsky, to whom she's immediately attracted. But in St. Petersburg’s high…

  17. 17The Guide

    The Guide (2014)

    ★ 7.9/10Also history and drama

    American boy Peter and blind minstrel Ivan are thrown together by fate amidst the turbulent mid-30s Soviet Ukraine.

  18. 18Racing with the Moon

    Racing with the Moon (1984)

    ★ 6.3/10Also drama and romance

    In a small coastal California town, Henry and Nicky are pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. Henry begins romancing new-to-town Caddie Winger, believing her to be…

  19. 19The Exception

    The Exception (2017)

    ★ 6.9/10Also drama and romance

    Nothing is as it seems in this riveting World War 2 thriller as a wary soldier goes to investigate a mysterious German monarch at his secluded mansion, leading him into a web of deceit and a dangerous love affair with…

  20. 20Schindler's List

    Schindler's List (1993)

    ★ 8.6/10Also drama and history

    The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

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