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The Champion poster

Movies that feel likeThe Champion (2021)

It is 1940. The first transport of prisoners arrives at the newly created concentration camp Auschwitz. One of them is Tadeusz “Teddy” Pietrzykowski, pre-war boxing champion of Warsaw. The camp officers force him to fight in the ring for his and other prisoners’ lives. However, his every win strengthens the hope that Nazis are not invincible. Auschwitz officers notice the growing resistance. The confrontation with the authorities of the camp becomes inevitable.

If you loved The Champion, the closest films we have are The Zone of Interest (2023), Flame & Citron (2008) and Katyn (2007). All three share The Champion's contemplative and epic feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is A War (2015).

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If The Champion hit the spot, these will too

The Zone of Interest poster
The Zone of Interest
2023 · dir. Jonathan Glazer
🍅 93%★ 7.3drama · history · warRent or buy

One thread runs through both: concentration camp

The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

Flame & Citron poster
Flame & Citron
2008 · dir. Ole Christian Madsen
🍅 86%★ 7.2drama · history · war

Contemplative where it counts, epic underneath

Gunman Flame and his partner Citron assassinate Nazi collaborators for the Danish resistance. Assigned targets by their Allies-connected leader, Aksel Winther, they relish the opportunity to begin targeting the Nazis themselves. When they begin to doubt the validity of their assignments, their morally complicated task becomes even more labyrinthine.

Katyn poster
Katyn
2007 · dir. Andrzej Wajda
🍅 91%★ 7drama · history · war

Drama with a pulse of bleakness, in both cases

On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invades Poland, unleashing World War II. On September 17th, the Soviet Red Army crosses the border. The Polish army, unable to fight on two fronts, is defeated. Thousands of Polish men, both military and government officials, are captured by the invaders. Their fate will only be known several years later.

The Shadow in My Eye poster
The Shadow in My Eye
2021 · dir. Ole Bornedal
★ 7.3war · drama · historyNetflix

History built on stillness, twice over

On March 21st, 1945, the British Royal Air Force set out on a mission to bomb Gestapo's headquarters in Copenhagen. The raid had fatal consequences as some of the bombers accidentally targeted a school and more than 120 people were killed, 86 of whom were children.

The Captain poster
The Captain
2018 · dir. Robert Schwentke
🍅 83%★ 7.3war · drama · historyPrime Video

Epic war, and it commits to that

Germany, 1945. Soldier Willi Herold, a deserter of the German army, stumbles into a uniform of a Nazi captain abandoned during the last and desperate weeks of the Third Reich. Newly emboldened by the allure of a suit that he has stolen only to stay warm, Willi discovers that many Germans will follow the leader, whoever he is.

9th Company poster
9th Company
2005 · dir. Fyodor Bondarchuk
🍅 69%★ 7.1war · drama · history

Both lean on bleakness more than on drama

Russian army recruits complete training and take their posting in late 1980s Afghanistan, where the insurgents are slowly gaining the upper hand.

Kalashnikov AK-47 poster
Kalashnikov AK-47
2020 · dir. Konstantin Buslov
★ 6.6war · history · dramaPrime Video

Contemplative history in both cases

A Russian military propaganda film about the tank commander Kalashnikov, severely injured in battle in 1941. The accident leaves him incapacitated and unable to return to the front line. While recovering in the hospital, he begins creating the initial sketches of what will become one of the world’s most legendary weapons. A self-taught inventor is only 29 when he develops the now iconic assault riffle — the AK-47. Shot in occupied Crimea.

Sobibor poster
Sobibor
2018 · dir. Konstantin Khabenskiy
🍅 73%★ 6.4war · dramaPrime Video

Both are built on the same subject: concentration camp

The difference: Trades the scale of The Champion for an angle of its own

The film is based on a real story that happened in 1943 in the Sobibor concentration camp in German-occupied Poland. The main character of the movie is the Soviet-Jewish soldier Alexander Pechersky, who at that time was serving in the Red Army as a lieutenant. In October 1943, he was captured by the Nazis and deported to the Sobibor concentration camp, where Jews were being exterminated in gas chambers. But, in just 3 weeks, Alexander was able to plan an international uprising of prisoners from Poland and Western Europe. This uprising resulted in being the only successful one throughout the war, which led to the largest escape of prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp.

T-34 poster
T-34
2018 · dir. Alexey Sidorov
★ 6.8drama · history · warPrime Video

War with a pulse of scale, in both cases

In 1944, a courageous group of Russian soldiers managed to escape from German captivity in a half-destroyed legendary T-34 tank. Those were the times of unforgettable bravery, fierce fighting, unbreakable love, and legendary miracles.

Persian Lessons poster
Persian Lessons
2020 · dir. Vadim Perelman
🍅 80%★ 7.4war · drama

Bleak drama in both cases

Occupied France, 1942. Gilles is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids sudden execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch, who dreams of opening a restaurant in Iran once the war is over. Through an ingenious trick, Gilles manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch.

Warsaw 44 poster
Warsaw 44
2014 · dir. Jan Komasa
★ 6.6drama · history · war

History of the same temperament

City of Warsaw, Poland, August 1st, 1944. Citizens have experienced inhuman acts of terror and violence during five long years of Nazi occupation. As the Soviet Army relentlessly approaches, the youngest and bravest among them rise up as one and face tyranny fighting street by street, but the price to pay will be high and hard the way to freedom…

A War poster
A War
2015 · dir. Tobias Lindholm
🍅 90%★ 7drama · war

The war is handled with the same confidence

Company commander Claus Michael Pedersen and his men are stationed in Helmand, Afghanistan. Meanwhile back in Denmark, with a husband at war and three children missing their father, everyday life is a struggle for Claus' wife Maria. During a routine mission, the soldiers are caught in heavy Taliban crossfire. In order to save his men, Claus makes a decision that ultimately sees him return to Denmark accused of a war crime.

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The best-reviewed films that share The Champion’s defining feeling.