20 best movies like Paper Soldier (2008)

During WWII a Soviet artillery unit is fighting Nazis while trying to do everything to save lives of a group of deaf children near their position.

Three different love stories, set in three consecutive decades, in two neighbouring Balkan villages burdened with a long history of inter-ethnic hatred: this is a film about the dangers – and the enduring strength – of forbidden love.

As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Fellers is tasked with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. Influencing his ruling is his quest to find Aya, an exchange student he met years earlier in the U.S.

The popular rapper comes on tour in St. Petersburg. His fans adore and wait, he is at the peak of fame, he is confident in himself. Together with the star, his manager, musicians and a girl come. Suddenly an attempt is made on a musician. He miraculously manages to escape death, but his manager decides to hire a security guard. It turns out that the guard is ... a girl. She is a professional in her field, but in the brutal world of rap, a woman has a difficult time.

A French policeman, a wine grower from Georgia, a couple of young actors in London, an Italian priest. Four stories of change in people through the prism of a drink that accompanies human passions for 8000 years.

The film guides us behind the scenes of the theatre and film productions. The film and theatre actors live the lives of the made up characters on stage and on camera, while also living to the fullest off-stage. Some episodes from their real lives are funny, some are scary, but all of them are exciting to witness.

Elderly Aleksandra visits her Russian soldier grandson, Denis, at the Chechen war front, providing comfort as she tours his army. All the while, Denis ponders the reason for her unexpected appearance.

A saleswoman from the fish store Polina Schukina is going through a difficult life period. By the grace of an extravagant grandmother, she finds herself in the fairy-tale world of princesses, where, as it turns out, everything is subordinated to bureaucracy, and in a lot of echoing corridors and government offices there are queues of girls eager to discover the princess. Pauline has to go through a series of tests that will reveal her personal qualifications in a very competitive profession.

Antonina, an artist from Saint Petersburg, follows her husband, a political prisoner, to the deep north province of Russia. As she starts teaching art in a local school, she finds herself opposed by a twelve-year-old boy, Misha, whose brother is a feared local gang leader.

Since early childhood Peter has been obsessed with the world of puppets, but his greater obsession is with a real girl, Lisa. He crafts his perfect woman out of her. But Lisa isn't a docile marionette. She's a living human being and she rebels against her creator. Based on the critically-acclaimed, brilliant and poignant novel by one of the best contemporary Russian writers, Dina Rubina, "Petrushka Syndrome" is a multidimensional metaphor, where a sense of duality pervades everything. People and dolls, life and art, the Creator and the creation depend on one another. And where does one draw the line between them?

Ivan Lashin, a young man who lives with his mother in the country and works at home, met director Vitaly Suslin. The young man told the director about his life, they wrote a script together and thus the feature film "Head. Two Ears" was born, in which Ivan played himself as the main character. Russia’s most important festival Kinotavr declared it the best script and the film also received the award of the Russian Film Critics Guild. Now, a few years later, Vitaly and Ivan have made a new film which talks about Ivan’s life after festivals: has he changed, what is he dreaming about?

Immigrants from around the world enter Los Angeles every day, with hopeful visions of a better life, but little notion of what that life may cost. Their desperate scenarios test the humanity of immigration enforcement officers. In Crossing Over, writer-director Wayne Kramer explores the allure of the American dream, and the reality that immigrants find – and create -- in 21st century L.A.

September of 1944, a few days before Finland went out of the Second World War. A chained to a rock Finnish sniper-kamikadze Veikko managed to set himself free. Ivan, a captain of the Soviet Army, arrested by the Front Secret Police 'Smersh', has a narrow escape. They are soldiers of the two enemy armies. A Lapp woman Anni gives a shelter to both of them at her farm. For Anni they are not enemies, but just men.

Sergei and Kira were considered the most beautiful bohemian couple among cinema lovers of Saint Petersburg in the early 90’s. Their fantastic love affair ended with Kira leaving town, fleeing for new life, new relationship. Sergei has died shortly after. Only after a few years does Kira realize that she never stopped loving Sergei. And that she’s doomed to stay in a neverending dialogue with a dead lover.

Two young men are seriously affected by the Vietnam war. One of them has always been obsessed with birds - but now believes he really is a bird, and has been sent to a mental hospital. Can his friend help him pull through?

Igor, a Russian oligarch gets into a heated argument with Eva, his estranged daughter whilst traveling on his private jet. Igor orders the plane to land. As the plane touches down Eva disappears into the Goan jungle. Thus begins Igor's desperate search for his only daughter. A search that will bring him and Eva into contact with various characters who in turn are trying to find their own paths through life. Makar, a guy from Novosibirsk, who is desperately searching for enlightenment. Alexey and Kristina are ending their marriage here, while Dimon and Lenya are raising hell and pushing Goa to its partying limits. Kosmos the Guru ("just don't call him that") dispenses the chemicals that in a bat of an eyelid will take you to an alternate reality. There are different destinies here. There are a myriad of people. But all of them have one Motherland, which is easy not to love as long it is close to you

This film presents a contemporary view on modern Russian upper-class youth. The film genre is a social drama. The main five characters of the movie are financially secured and socially successful - producing, managing and hosting a popular TV show. They are beautiful, happy and satisfied with their lives. They are good friends to each other and the others. The glass world they surrounded themselves by is full of love and smiles... Until one day something happens to the leading character and suddenly they all face the real world. The glass shatters. Their lives are changed forever. They will never be the same

In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man's Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood.

The story of Aung San Suu Kyi as she becomes the core of Burma's democracy movement, and her relationship with her husband, writer Michael Aris.

A story of a young girl Claudia who works as a security guard on a slowly dying metal plant.

The wife of a Marine serving in Vietnam, Sally Hyde decides to volunteer at a local veterans hospital to occupy her time. There she meets Luke Martin, a frustrated wheelchair-bound vet who has become disillusioned with the war. Sally and Luke develop a friendship that soon turns into a romance.

The fates of two people - adult and teenager - are crossing paths when both of them are on a crossroads of their lives.

A lonely Russian man is trying to see his doughter who lives with her mother far away in the USA.

Beirut, 1982: a young Palestinian refugee and an Israeli fighter pilot form a tentative bond in their attempt to make their way across war-torn Lebanon back to their home.

Germany, Baltic Sea coast, May 1945, a few days before the end of World War II. A small Soviet patrol arrives at an isolated house where an elderly baroness gives shelter to a group of orphan girls and a boy who is determined to continue the fight.

Judas, a seasoned thief, finds himself in the market square where Christ is giving a sermon and his apostles are collecting alms. He follows them and steals their money, only to be caught red-handed. Nevertheless, the Teacher forgives him. What is more, He invites the thief to become one of His followers and offers him a position as the group’s treasurer. Shocked by Christ’s unexpected offer, Judas decides to join the apostles, if only to figure out what is going on. He gradually starts to comprehend Christ’s message, but feels that the apostles are blindly following their teacher. Judas argues with them, and tries to defend his right to divine the truth of God. But when he fails to make them understand, he realizes that Christ’s teachings may sink into oblivion without benefiting humanity. His solution is to betray Christ. “By killing a man, have I not saved a God?”

A famous movies director tries to understand why his life started to change so drastically.

A chance meeting between Nicolai and Nina, a friend from the past, makes Nicolai return to an abandoned hotel in which, many years ago, he experienced his only love, full of tragedy and an overwhelming feeling.

A biopic of Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has become one of top scientists in humane livestock handling.

Three years after his wife, acclaimed photographer Isabelle Reed, dies in a car crash, Gene keeps everyday life going with his shy teenage son, Conrad. A planned exhibition of Isabelle’s photographs prompts Gene's older son, Jonah, to return to the house he grew up in - and for the first time in a very long time, the father and the two brothers are living under the same roof.

Elena Mihailovna, having worked all her life in the only school of a provincial town, lives modestly in retirement. Unexpectedly she learns of a fatal diagnosis, which can at any moment end her life. Instead of an unbearable anticipation, she resolutely begins the preparation for her own death, in order to simplify the procedure for her son. She has not seen her only son for over five years because he worrks in the capital. Oleg is constantly busy, and he does not have time for his lonely mother. At the same time with all the new problems, the heroine receives as a gift a huge carp, which changes her life.

Alevtina Romanova is a warden in the woman's colony, and the only thing that is different from her «iron lady» image is her voice - a voice which even a notable opera diva would envy. However, Alevtina has been ashamed of her talent since the times she was a kid and nowadays, preliminarily making sure no one's around, she rarely sings for herself. Despite the fact that Alevtina is trying to stay invisible, one of the prisoners secretly records her singing on video by a cellphone and puts it online. The tape becomes a real sensation, and soon Alevtina is invited to Moscow to participate in the main singing show on national television. A sincere desire to change her life awakens inside Alevtina but she's not ready to compete in the show at all. The only person who could train her voice and prepare her for the performance is that very prisoner, who recorded the video, who turns out to be a singer in the past.

Before Dawn charts the years of exile in the life of famous Jewish Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, his inner struggle for the "right attitude" towards the events in war torn Europe and his search for a new home.

Benny, a college freshman at the University of Akron, Ohio meets and falls for fellow freshman Christopher at a football game. With the support of their families and friends they embark on a new relationship. But a tragic event in the past involving their mothers soon comes to light and threatens to tear them apart.

When Ross is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given six weeks to live, his newly engaged older brother Seth offers to spend his $50,000 wedding fund on a final trip of a lifetime. Their plans are complicated when Ross invites a call girl to join the group and Seth’s uptight fiancée insists on tagging along. This raucous road trip comedy features hip-hop star Asher Roth.

An astronaut travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his father and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of our planet. He uncovers secrets which challenge the nature of human existence and our place in the cosmos.

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Rakshan Banietemad ends her eight-year hiatus from feature filmmaking with this ingenious, mosaic-like narrative, which knits together the stories of seven characters to create a microcosm of Iranian working-class society.

There was once a young girl named May who felt alienated from everyone around her. May is worried about her mother and father, whose marriage is on the rocks, and she yearns to return to the woods where her grandfather lives. One day, May befriends a boy as lonely as she is. When reality catches up, they run away to a beautiful world that belongs only to them. Both imaginatively escapist and heartbreakingly realistic, their journey speaks to kids and adults alike with the pain of solitude, the sorrow of loss, and the warmth of hope.

A Russian mother flees to Uzbekistan in WWII where she and her children are taken in by a local family.

A story about an awesome devil named German and his visit to Moscow.

The coach of a women's swim team parlays her success into an opportunity to build her school's men's golf team.

Friends and family of Cory, a young man who has died of an overdose, gather at a Baltimore-area karaoke bar for his wake and compare stories about him. Gradually, as it becomes clear that there are many holes in their recollections about Cory, they fill in the blanks by talking about things that reveal aspects of their own lives. Among those mourning him and searching for meaning are his cousin Jenny, his sister Zoe and his brother James.

Talent can only get you so far. For golfer Luke Chisholm, that turns out to be Utopia, Texas -- where he's left stranded after blowing his pro debut.

Katya, a young girl from a good family, a student of philology is awarded a grant to study archives in Paris but instead of heading to Paris she travels to the Arab Emirates to start international modeling career…

After learning that her missing son is dead, a woman kidnaps a terminally ill boy from a hospital.

The principal of an elementary school calls a special parents meeting after it’s alleged that the seemingly empathetic and kindly-looking teacher Mrs. Drazděchová uses her students to manipulate their parents.

Interwoven stories of what it is to be a mom seen through the lens of photographer Rigby Gray.

Based on a true story. 16-year old Steffi just graduated from high school and is very much looking forward to her class trip to Paris where she has promised her boyfriend Fabian the romantic night that she has kept him waiting for since they started dating. Her lifelong plan to join the police forces is already set up which means her adult life is right around the corner. At a routine health check-up, just before the trip to Paris, Steffi and her parents are faced with a shattering diagnosis: Incurable cancer with a life expectancy of less than a year. While her mother Eva immediately tries to helplessly protect Steffi from everything, let alone a school trip to Paris and her father Frank, a protestant priest, questions everything he ever believed in, but Steffi is determined to shake off her doomed destiny.

What happens when a 30-something woman allows life's "what ifs" to overwhelm her appreciation for what life actually is. Disregarding her current obligations, she digs into her romantic past in hopes of invigorating her present.

Tells the incredible true story of Amberley Snyder, a nationally ranked rodeo barrel racer who defies the odds after barely surviving a car accident that leaves her paralyzed from the waist down.