This is more of a question for the forum than TG, hence why I’m not putting it under out of the foxholes, but what’s a great non-Hollywood WW2 film that you would recommend? Doesn’t matter the country, is it well made, is it historically accurate, is it laughably inaccurate but still a good watch? I wanna know. From all over the world, let’s hear them.
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Here is one: Une longue dimanche de fiançailles, a very long engagement on the craziness of World War 1. Great camerawork and would never have made it in Hollywood.
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Couple of Finnish movies. Though from both the miniseries (5 or so hour versions) are far better than the movies (3 hour version), let alone the even shorter ‘international theatrical releases’ (2 hour versions)…
Talvisota (The Winter War) - Talvisota - 4K Restoration Official Trailer - YouTube
Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier), the 2017 version - Unknown Soldier – Official Trailer - YouTube && Unknown Soldier - Official trailer 2 - YouTube
EDIT: added links to trailers
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One I really liked is „Generation War“, about 5 Young germans and their stories throughout it. Isn‘t a movie but a miniseries, but it does show a lot of different situations from the german side.
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stalingrad 1993 would another great movie.
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There’s a Hungarian film called “Death Match” that supposedly inspired “The Longest Yard” and “Mean Machine” movies.
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A French Village
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Invasion Quartet with Spike Milligan.
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La vita e bella or life is beautiful is one of best I ever saw and very special. It is very touching. It won the 1998 Cannes festival!
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A Soviet 1949 propaganda film on the battle of Stalingrad. There are no individual heroes etc but it is still interesting to watch as was filmed a few years after the war. Unsurprisingly comrade Stalin is the hero with Chuikov as the excellent executioner of his orders. (Appearantly Zhukov was politically too dangerous!)
It is still powerful as a propaganda film and also the Soviets like the British Empire used the Napoleonic wars as a beacon of hope. In both cases the darkest days were followed by victory.
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if you are speaking about laughably historically inaccurate, I would recommend the oscar worthy masterpiece 7 Man Army.
Here is a “trailer”.
Oh also, the IMDb page says that it got nominated for best feature film though it didn’t win.
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certain parts of this remind me of Jojo rabbit.
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An absolutely devastating film is the Russian film “Come and see”, about the invasion of Belarus. It is absolutely gut wrenching in it’s depictions, and highly accurate in uniforms, weaponry and behaviour of the combatants. It’s a war film, but focuses on the personal experiences of the characters. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091251/
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Another, which has become somewhat of a meme because of mock-subtitling the incredible performance of the great German actor Bruno Ganz as Hitler, is Downfall, documenting the battle of Berlin, as seen from the perspective of one of Hitler’s secretaries, who actually survived the war, and the film is an adaptation of her memoirs.
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“The Three Reservists” is about three different people who are assigned to the Bulgarian army to fight in Hungary. The three come from different backgrounds but still form a friendship among themselves and with their comrades.
The final act - the battle of Drava - is stylistically filmed in black and white to mimic WW2 footage.
Everyone speaks their proper language. Soldiers speak Bulgarian. Germans speak German. Hungarians speak Hungarian.
Some flaws are the very low budget for battle scenes, compared to the big WW2 spy series at the time. Also the comically blatant communist propaganda:
Soldier: I am a religious man, comrade. I cannot kill another man.
Officer: How are you going to fight a war if you don’t kill anyone? Do you know that refusing to fire at the enemy is considered treason and punishable by death? You will be shot, understand?
Soldier: That can’t be true, comrade. Only evil regimes shoot their own people. Our regime is not like theirs. Our regime is just.
Officer: * smug laughter *
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Das Boot (U-boat not 
;))
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Land of mine https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3841424/
How Denmark used Young german POW to clean minefields after the war. Based on a real story
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An excellent movie with fantastic camera work, made just after the war! It is a very touching movie and feels in the end like another WAH episode!
Die Morder sind unter uns 1946 Murderers are among us Wolfgang Staudte, DEFA - YouTube
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If You really want to se something so tragic is almost make me sick, look at how the russian treated the polish POW at Katyn. The polish people took such a beating during the war and ended up on the wrong side of the iron curtain. Thank God they are now back in the European family https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0879843/
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French film: La Bataille du Rail (1946)
A well known scene is a train derailing:
It was filmed with a REAL train.
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