World War II on Film

Directed by Max Färberböck.
125 minutes; released 1999.
Two women — one Jewish and the other German — begin a torrid love affair in World War II Germany. In German with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Matej Minac.
91 minutes; released 1999.
A Czech-Jewish family must decide whether or not to hand over their son to an English stockbroker in the early days of World War II. In Czech with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Costa-Gavras.
130 minutes; released 2002.
A German chemist and a Jesuit priest try to tell the world about German use of the gas Zyclon B to exterminate Jews and political undesirables. When their story falls on deaf ears, they find themselves joining ranks with Roman Jews being rounded up by Nazi forces in occupied Italy. Adapted from the stage drama "The Representative."

Directed by Robert Dornhelm.
189 minutes; released 2001.
A dramatization of the life of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in the Netherlands. Based on the book by Melissa Müller.

Directed by Peter Cohen.
119 minutes; released 1989.
Looks at the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany from the perspective of Hitler's use of the arts in Nazi policy and propaganda. In German with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
103 minutes; released 1958.
A young Polish nationalist assassin attempts to deal with post-war life. In Polish with English subtitles.

Directed by Alexander Ramati.
115 minutes; released 1985.
Italian clergy and laity struggle to save several hundred Jews from Nazi execution following the German occupation of Italy in the Second World War.

Directed by Grigori Chukhrai.
88 minutes; released 1959.
During World War II, a 19 year old soldier gets a medal as a reward for a heroic act at the front. Instead of this medal he asks for a few days leave to visit his mother and repair the roof of their home. On the train eastwards he meets Shura who is on her way to her aunt. In those few days traveling together they fall in love. In Russian with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Veljko Bulajić.
165 minutes; released 1969.
Yugoslav partisans trick the Germany army in 1942 by building a bridge across the River Neretva. In Serbian.

Directed by Eric Till.
90 minutes; released 2000.
This film dramatizes the last years of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran minister who spoke out against Hitler, participated in the German resistance, and paid for his convictions when the Nazis hanged him in 1945. Starring Ulrich Tukur and R.H. Thomson. In English, Spanish, Portuguese and German with optional English subtitles. See also the documentaries: Hanged on a Twisted Cross and Bonhoeffer.

Directed by Kon Ichikawa.
116 minutes; released 1956.
A Japanese soldier is nursed back to health by a Buddhist monk, then devotes himself to searching the jungle battlefields for the abandoned remains of dead soldiers to give them a decent burial.

Directed by Michael Curtiz.
103 minutes; released 1942.
When his café in Casablanca becomes a center for war refugees awaiting visas for America, its owner abandons his cynicism to help his ex-girlfriend escape the Nazis with her underground leader husband.

Directed by Mike Nichols.
121 minutes; released 1970.
An anti-war satire revolving around a group of American pilots and flyers in the Mediterranean in World War II. Based on the novel by Joseph Heller.

Directed by Jeremy Paul Kagan.
108 minutes; released 1982.
Two young Jewish men living in the United States - one Hasidic, the other Reformed - find themselves both united and divided by their faith during World War II.

Directed by Vincent Minnelli.
91 minutes; released 1945.
A young couple scramble to get married in two days during wartime New York.

Directed by Rachid Bouchareb.
125 minutes; released 2006.
A unit of Algerian soldiers fights prejudice in the Free French army in the middle of World War II. In French, with optional English subtitles.

Directed by George Stevens.
180 minutes; released 1959.
A dramatization of the life of Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who hid from the Nazis in the Netherlands. Based on the play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

Directed by John N. Smith.
180 minutes; released 1993.
Dieppe dramatizes the high-level political machinations that led to the decision to mount the attack of Dieppe. For nearly 3000 Canadian soldiers, the war ended in the battle of August 19, 1942.

Directed by Alfréd Radok.
98 minutes; released 1950.
Shot shortly after WWII, this is one of the first films to deal with the Holocaust. The story follows Dr. Hannah Kaufmann and her family from the time of the Nazi Occupation of Prague through her experiences in the transit camp of Theresienstadt (modern Terezin). Audiotrack in Czech with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Jan Hrebejk.
122 minutes; released 2000.
A Czechoslovakian couple decides to hide a young Jewish neighbour in their home from the Nazis. In Czech with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel.
155 minutes; released 2004.
This Oscar-nominated feature plunges the viewer into the claustrophobic world of Hitler's bunker during his final days in power. In German with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Edward Dmytryk.
105 minutes; released 1955.
A man has an affair with a married woman who abruptly and mysteriously breaks off their relationship. Set in London in 1939. Based on the novel by Graham Greene.

Directed by Andrzej Munk.
80 minutes; released 1958.
This feature is an example of a farse on the Polish myth of romantic heroism. The Warsaw Uprising is looked at through the eyes of a drunken marketeer. In Polish with English subtitles.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland.
114 minutes; released 1990.
In this harrowing true story, a young German Jew takes on various identities during the Second World War in order to hide his Jewish heritage. In German and Russian with English, French or Spanish subtitles.

Directed by Claude Chabrol.
110 minutes; released 1993.
A compilation of archival film footage which documents French collaboration with the Nazis during World War II.

Directed by Kon Ichikawa.
104 minutes; released 1959.
In this Japanese anti-war film, acts of cannibalism bring home the terrifying brutality of war. Based on the novel by Shohei Ooka. In Japanese with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Neal Slavin.
106 minutes; released 2001.
A New York man and woman are mistaken for being Jewish during World War II. Based on the novel by Arthur Miller.

Directed by René Clément.
85 minutes; released 1952.
Orphaned by an air raid in 1940s France, a young girl befriends a peasant boy in the family that takes her in. Based on the novel by Francois Boyer. In French or English (dubbed) with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Michael Powell.
123 minutes; released 1941.
A Nazi submarine crew is stranded in Canada and tries to cross the border into the still-neutral United States.

Directed by James Moll.
54 minutes; released 2004.
In 1943, a Catholic priest, Jewish rabbi, and two Protestant ministers were aboard the U.S.A.T. Dorchester when it was hit by a German torpedo. The four chaplains gave up their life preservers to save others, and spent their last moments praying together as the ship sank beneath the waves.

Created by Anthony Horowitz.
100-minute episodes; released 2002.
A police detective investigates crimes in the English seaside town of Hastings during World War II.

Directed by Vittorio De Sica.
94 minutes; released 1970.
A wealthy Jewish family face the rise of Fascism in pre-World War II Italy. In Italian with English subtitles.

Directed by Andrzej Wajda.
83 minutes; released 1955.
First film in Wajda's trilogy of war films. A group of young Poles help escapees during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Black and white. In Polish with English subtitles.

Directed by Roberto Rossellini.
71 minutes; released 1948.
Set in the years following World War II, Germany Year Zero depicts the devastation of postwar Berlin through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy as he tries to help his family survive.

Directed by Elia Kazan.
118 minutes; released 1947.
A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and soon discovers what it is to be a victim of religious intolerance.

Directed by Andy de Emmony.
86 minutes; released 2008.
A group of Auschwitz prisoners begins to ask how God could allow so much suffering, and then decide to put God on trial for abandoning His chosen people.

Directed by Kjell Grede.
115 minutes; released 1990.
The story of Swedish businessman Raoul Wallenberg who helped Hungarian Jews obtain Swedish passports to escape the Holocaust. In Swedish, German and Hungarian, with English subtitles.

Directed by Louis Malle.
101 minutes; released 1987.
A Jewish boy is hidden from the Nazis in a French Catholic boarding school. In French with English subtitles.

Directed by Charlie Chaplin.
120 minutes; released 1940.
A satire about Nazi-Germany in which a Jewish barber takes the place of the Führer.

Directed by John Sturges.
172 minutes; released 1963.
A high-security German prisoner-of-war camp in 1942 holds only known troublemakers and risk-takers, all of whom are determined to pull off the war's most daring escape.

Directed by Tim Blake Nelson.
108 minutes; released 2001.
Based on real-life events, this compelling and harrowing film chronicles a unit of Auschwitz's Sonderkommando, a special squad of Jewish prisoners, who staged the only armed revolt that would ever take place at Auschwitz.

Directed by Stanisław Lenartowicz.
95 minutes; released 1964.
In this comedy set in German-occupied Poland during World War II, Maria, a fearless Polish girl, unwillingly brings an Italian soldier and deserter of the Eastern front into her Warsaw apartment. In Polish with English subtitles.

Directed by John Huston.
108 minutes; released 1957.
A nun is marooned with a Marine sergeant on a South Pacific island occupied by Japanese troops. Based on the novel by Charles Shaw. Starring Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum.

Directed by Edgar Reitz.
925 minutes; released 1984.
This 11-part saga tells the story of the village of Schabbach, Germany, from 1919 to 1982. It follows ordinary people as they cope with World War I, economic hardship, Nazism, and the postwar era. In German with English subtitles.

Directed by James F. Collier.
145 minutes; released 1975.
The true story of a Dutch family who helped to save Jews during World War II.

Directed by Alain Resnais.
90 minutes; released 1959.
During the filming of an anti-war film in Japan, a French actress falls in love with a Japanese architect. They share their memories of a war experienced at opposite sides of the world. In French with English subtitles.

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi.
205 minutes; released 1959.
A pacifist civilian's humane treatment of mine workers and Allied prisoners of war angers the Japanese authorities during World War II. Based on the novel by Junpei Gomikawa. In Japanese with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi.
177 minutes; released 1959.
Tells the story of Kaji, who is sent to the front in the horrible final days of World War II as punishment for treating Chinese prisoners humanely. Based on the novel by Junpei Gomikawa. In Japanese with optional English subtitles.

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi.
186 minutes; released 1961.
Tells the story of Kaji, who awakens to a world ravaged by war. Starved and pursued by guilt and fear, he escapes into Siberia. Based on the novel by Junpei Gomikawa. In Japanese with optional English subtitles.