20 best movies like East/West (1999)

1979: Cousins Carole and Jérôme go on an organized trip to Odessa, behind the Iron Curtain. During the day, posing as tourists celebrating their engagement, they visit monuments and museums. In the evening they slip away from the group and meet “refuseniks”, Jews persecuted by the Soviet regime for wanting to leave the country. While Carole is motivated by political commitment and a taste for risk, Jérôme’s motivation is Carole.

Sira Quiroga is a young Spanish dressmaker engaged to a solid suitor when a suave typewriter salesman upends her life. Spain is being upended by a civil war and the new regime's growing alliances with Nazi Germany. Sira, smart, gutsy and resourceful with a Scarlett O'Hara-like ability to whip up designer duds on a moment's notice, Sira has spunk. Sira gains and loses a small fortune, is dumped by her cad of a lover in Morocco, runs guns to get the cash to start her life anew and becomes couturier to the Nazi wives stationed in Madrid. Urged on by her friend, the real-life British spy Rosalinda Fox, Sira, too, aids the British cause.

This film finds Angélique in a North African Muslim kingdom where she is now part of the Sultan's harem. The first part of the film consist of her angrily refusing to be bedded as well as their trying to literally beat some sense into her. It all seems to go on too long and I was surprised that the Sultan simply didn't have her killed. Late in the film, she finally decides to escape with the help of two Christian prisoners.

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Carlos is the most prestigious tailor in Granada, but he's also a murderer in the shadows. He feels no remorse, no guilt, until Nina appears in his life and love awakens.

Covers the love affair between French actress Arletty and a high-ranking German officer during WWII in occupied France.

Set in the 1960s, the story of the Akarsu family includes Ali, Cemile and their four children: Berrin, a law student, Aylin and Mete, high school students, and 5 year old Osman. Ali begins an affair with Caroline, a Dutch woman, which leads to the disintegration of the family.

The new owner of a brilliant race horse finds love while carrying out his revenge on the man who murdered his father.

In 17th century Spain Diego Alatriste, a brave and heroic soldier, is fighting in his King's army in the Flandes region. His best mate, Balboa, falls in a trap and, near to death, asks Diego to look after his son and teach him to be a soldier.

A football team from Belgrade, former Republic of Yugoslavia gets a chance to go to the First World Football Championship, but things get complicated along the way.

A chronicle of Gertrude Bell's life, a traveler, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the twentieth century.

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. It tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope-fiber suspension bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge.[ A friar who has witnessed the tragic accident then goes about inquiring into the lives of the victims, seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1928.

In this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.

The love story who transformed Juana I de Castilla, Queen of Spain, into Juana "The mad". The tragic fate of a Queen madly in love to an unfaithful husband, Felipe el Hermoso, Archduke of Austria.

Sir Walter Scott's classic story of the chivalrous Ivanhoe who joins with Robin of Locksley in the fight against Prince John and for the return of King Richard the Lionheart.

A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria and her relationship with her slave Davus, who is torn between his love for her and the possibility of gaining his freedom by joining the rising tide of Christianity.

The story of the voyage of the "Mayflower" in its historic voyage across the Atlantic to the New World. The passenger list includes John Alden and Priscilla Mullins among those who made the 96-day storm-filled crossing. Along the way the Captain has an ill-starred romance with the wife of a religious fanatic that ends in a sudden, dramatic way off the coast of Cape Cod.

A gripping 18th century drama details the scandalous life of Lady Seymour Worsley, who dared to leave her husband and elope with his best friend, Captain George Bisset. Lady Seymour Worsley escapes her troubled marriage only to find herself at the centre of a very public trial brought by her powerful husband Sir Richard Worsley.

By miracle he avoided death and returns to the house where he was born. In the house now lives the love of his life. But the hope for happiness turns sour with a terrible discovery: his beloved is the daughter of his enemy.

Dardo, a Robin Hood-like figure, and his loyal followers use a Roman ruin in Medieval Lombardy as their headquarters as they conduct an insurgency against their Hessian conquerors.

A look at the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her readers during the final days of the French Revolution.

When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Caribbean of Buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor's pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight.

Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors.

Village of Artigat, southern France, summer 1542, during the reign of Francis I. Martin Guerre and Bertrande de Rols marry. A few years later, accused of having committed a robbery, Martin suddenly disappears. When, almost a decade later, a man arrives in Artigat claiming to be Martin, the Guerre family recognizes him as such; but doubts soon arise about his true identity.

Corey refuses to let his emotionally disturbed younger brother Jimmy be institutionalized, and the two run away together. They soon join forces with a resourceful girl, who notices that Jimmy has a special talent: he is a "wizard" at video games and can achieve the high score on absolutely everything he plays. Evading their parents and a sinister bounty hunter, the trio head for a climactic showdown at the national video game championships in California.

In 1915 a man survives the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, but loses his family, speech and faith. One night he learns that his twin daughters may be alive, and goes on a quest to find them.

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.