Political prisoner movies and TV shows

The list contains the best, new and most relevant political prisoner movies ordered by relevance. The recommendation service has sorted out captivating, realistic, suspense, tense, disturbing and serious films and TV shows about / with political prisoner, society, politics, political unrest, prison, prisoner, biopic, family relations, murder and escape plots mostly in Drama, Thriller and Biography genres shot in USA, UK, Germany and other countries.
political prisoner
 147
political prisoner movies
TOP 10 movies tagged as political prisoner: Septembers of Shiraz (2015), Escape From Pretoria (2020), A Twelve-Year Night (2018), Gandhi (1982), Ghoul (2018), Nowhere (2002), The Perez Family (1995), Coming Home (2014), All Three of Us (2015), Duck, You Sucker (1971).

List of political prisoner movies

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The Reports on Sarah and Saleem (2018)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, War
Country: Germany, Netherlands, Mexico
Duration: 127 min.
Story: The affaire of a married Palestinian man and a married Israeli woman in Jerusalem takes a dangerous political dimension when they are spotted in the wrong place at the wrong time leaving them to deal with more than their broken marriages.
Style: tense, disturbing, suspenseful, captivating, enigmatic ...
Plot: sex scene, moral dilemma, political prisoner, arrest, pregnant wife, pregnancy, violence, hot and sexy, danger, encounter, couples, friendship ...
Time: 21st century
Place: palestine, middle east
Is relevant ?
Septembers of Shiraz (2015)
Genre: Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min.
Story: In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Style: suspense, captivating, tense, psychological, period piece ...
Plot: political prisoner, revolution, danger, society, party, couples, family relations, friendship, rivalry, fleeing, judaism, jewish family ...
Time: year 1979
Place: tehran iran, iran
Is relevant ?
Escape From Pretoria (2020)
Genre: Biography, Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, Australia, USA, South Africa, Germany
Duration: 106 min.
Story: South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison…
Style: political, suspense, tense, atmospheric, dramatic ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: prison escape, apartheid, prison, political activism, escape, political prisoner, prison break, human spirit, human rights, freedom, political activist, politics ...
Time: 70s, year 1979
Place: south africa, africa, cape town south africa, australia, south australia ...
Is relevant ?
A Twelve-Year Night (2018)
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Crime, Drama, History
Country: Uruguay, Spain, Argentina, France, Germany
Duration: 122 min.
Story: Uruguay, 1973. Having been crushed by the military dictatorship, surviving members of the Tupamaro guerillas are imprisoned and tortured. They must find a way to endure the coming 12 years.
Style: captivating, psychological, realistic, tense, informative ...
Plot: military dictatorship, prison, politics, dictatorship, dictator, released from prison, political prisoner, violence, biopic, rivalry, society, criminal justice ...
Time: 80s, 70s, year 1973
Place: south america, uruguay, latin america
Is relevant ?
 8.0
 240K
Gandhi (1982)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: UK, India, USA, South Africa
Duration: 191 min.
Story: In the early years of the 20th century, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a British-trained lawyer, forsakes all worldly possessions to take up the cause of Indian independence. Faced with armed resistance from the British government, Gandhi adopts a policy of ...
Style: epic, spiritual, inspirational, political, uplifting ...
Audience: kids, teens
Plot: protest, biopic, idealism, life philosophy, politics, independence, freedom, british empire, leadership, human spirit, religious intolerance, indian history ...
Time: 1930s, 1920s, 19th century, victorian era, 1940s ...
Place: india, south africa, britain, los angeles, new delhi ...
Is relevant ?
 7.0
 15K
Ghoul (2018)
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi
Country: India
Duration: 45 min.
TV show
Story: A newly minted military interrogator arrives at a covert detention center to discover that some of the terrorists held there are not of this world.
Style: political, suspense, demonic, neo noir, psychological ...
Plot: demon, political prisoner, female protagonist, interrogation, demonic possession, terror, islam, revenge, military prison, investigation, danger, prison ...
Time: near future
Is relevant ?
 5.6
 220
Nowhere (2002)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: Italy, Spain, Argentina
Duration: 100 min.
Story: In a country (alluded to be Chile) under dictatorship, a police night raid comes up with a few usual anti-regime suspects. They are sent to a camp in the middle of nowhere. Their friends on the outside start to plan their escape.
Style: realistic, semi serious, humorous, captivating
Plot: politics, society, escape, dictator, political prisoner, isolation, rebelliousness, abduction, kidnapping, friend, night, police ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: italy, latin america, chile
Is relevant ?
The Perez Family (1995)
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 113 min.
Story: In the midst of the Mariel boat lift -- a hurried exodus of refugees from Cuba going to America -- an immigration clerk accidentally presumes that dissident Juan Raul Perez and Dorita Evita Perez are married. United by their last name and a mutual ...
Style: light, sweet, touching, sentimental, humorous ...
Plot: immigration, mistaken identity, political prisoner, prostitute, family relations, society, human nature, politics, indians, immigrant, prison, dysfunctional family ...
Time: 80s
Place: cuba, miami, usa, florida, latin america
Is relevant ?
 7.2
 7K
Coming Home (2014)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Country: China
Duration: 109 min.
Story: Lu and Feng are a devoted couple forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. He finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife no longer remembers him.
Style: serious, emotional, realistic, touching, atmospheric ...
Plot: labor camp, amnesia, political prisoner, love and romance, hopes, political unrest, couples, crime and punishment, breakup, family problems, state affairs, cultural revolution ...
Time: 20th century, year 2014
Place: china, east asia
Is relevant ?
All Three of Us (2015)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Country: France
Duration: 102 min.
Story: An Iranian family survives the shah and the ayatollah and moves to France. This story follows the family through it all. Despite the politics, revolution, prison, beatings, assassinations and suicides this is a comedy.
Style: humorous, captivating, touching, realistic, tear jerker
Plot: political prisoner, migrant, large family, political oppression, marriage, social worker, nurse, wedding, couples, family relations, friendship, society ...
Time: year 2015, 70s, 80s, 1950s
Place: iran, france, middle east
Is relevant ?
Duck, You Sucker (1971)
Genre: Drama, War, Western
Country: Italy
Duration: 157 min.
Story: At the beginning of the 1913 Mexican Revolution, greedy bandit Juan Miranda and idealist John H. Mallory, an Irish Republican Army explosives expert on the lam from the British, fall in with a band of revolutionaries plotting to strike a national ...
Style: atmospheric, spaghetti western, intense, epic, exciting ...
Audience: boys' night
Plot: mexican revolution, friendship, rape, cowboy, culture clash, redemption, chase, rebellion, cynicism, haunted by the past, two man army, motorcycle ...
Time: 1910s, year 1971, 20th century
Place: mexico, ireland, northern ireland, latin america, mexico city
Is relevant ?
 7.1
 382K
Die Hard 2 (1990)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 124 min.
Story: John McClane is an off-duty cop gripped with a feeling of déjà vu when on a snowy Christmas Eve in the nation's capital, terrorists seize a major international airport, holding thousands of holiday travelers hostage. Renegade military ...
Style: suspense, suspenseful, exciting, action packed, tense ...
Audience: boys' night, chick flick, manly
Plot: gunfight, christmas, airplane, fight scenes, airport, one man army, police, hostage, terrorism, lone hero, chase, commando ...
Time: 90s, 20th century, year 1990, 80s
Place: washington d.c., washington state, virginia, los angeles, usa
Is relevant ?
A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, Hungary
Duration: 98 min.
Story: Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClane, finds himself for the first time on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack - unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons ...
Style: tense, melancholic, realistic, rough, suspenseful ...
Audience: boys' night, teens
Plot: father son relationship, tough cop, two man army, bomb, car chase, cia agent, 007, terrorism, spy, violence, agent, american abroad ...
Time: year 2013, 2010s, 21st century
Place: russia, seattle, new york, langley virginia, moscow russia ...
Is relevant ?
The Last Emperor (1987)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: China, Italy, UK, France
Duration: 163 min.
Story: A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation ...
Style: visually stunning, epic, political, breathtaking, visually appealing ...
Plot: childhood, world war two, biopic, chinese history, revolution, empress, prison, drug addiction, emperor, interrogation, politics, eunuch ...
Time: 1950s, 1930s, 1920s, 1940s, 1910s ...
Place: china, beijing china, asia, japan, east asia
Is relevant ?
The Eleventh Hour (2008)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min.
Story: An ex-Navy SEAL, Michael Adams, (Matthew Reese) was captured during a raid to free Japanese prisoners from a North Korean prison camp. He endures the North Koreans torture for three years -- seen only as flashbacks -- then released back into ...
Style: suspense, exciting, disturbing, thought provoking, tense ...
Plot: secret service agent, female agent, vendetta, violence, political prisoner, tragic hero, conspiracy, chase, husband wife relationship, tragic past, female assassin, dark hero ...
Time: 2000s
Place: korea, north korea
Is relevant ?
 5.8
 229
Story of Judas (2015)
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 99 min.
Story: A man ascends a barren summit. It is Judas, come to collect Jesus and carry him down the mountain on his back, joking and panting as he does so. After bathing in the river and taking part in a henna ceremony, Jesus leaves for Jerusalem. Judas is ...
Style: serious, atmospheric, captivating, biblical, realistic
Plot: jesus, betrayal, clergy, bible, rivalry, dishonesty, religions or cults, society, desert, friendship, ancient history, bible story ...
Time: 1st century
Place: holy land
Is relevant ?
Infinity Chamber (2016)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 103 min.
Story: A man trapped in an automated prison must outsmart a computer in order to escape and try and find his way back to the outside world that may already be wiped out.
Style: suspense, captivating, tense, touching, disturbing ...
Plot: artificial intelligence, time paradox, subconscious, escape attempt, mind game, man versus machine, father son relationship, prisoner, computer, political prisoner, mistaken identity, plot twist ...
Time: near future
Is relevant ?
The Chronicles of Melanie (2016)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: Latvia, Czech Republic, Finland
Duration: 120 min.
Story: The 14th of June 1941, Soviet-occupied Latvia: Without warning, the authorities break into the house of Melanie and her husband Aleksandr and force them to leave everything behind. Together with more than 15 000 Latvians, Melanie and her son get ...
Style: rough, suspense, disturbing, bleak, black and white
Plot: deportation, world war two, gulag, survival, labor camp, grief, cruelty, politics, political prisoner, life is a bitch, mother son relationship, post soviet ...
Time: 1940s, year 1957, 1950s, year 1941
Place: latvia, soviet union, russia, siberia
Is relevant ?
Related movie lists
My Tehran for Sale (2009)
Genre: Drama
Country: Australia, Iran
Duration: 101 min.
Story: Marzieh is a young female actress living in Tehran. The authorities ban her theatre work and, like all young people in Iran, she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically. At an underground rave, she meets Iranian born ...
Style: captivating, serious, disturbing, realistic, islamic ...
Plot: state affairs, rebellion, government agency, family relations, gender, life is a bitch, against the rules, mother daughter relationship, political prisoner, suicide, love, iranian ...
Time: 21st century
Place: iran, tehran iran, australia
Is relevant ?
Forest of the Gods (2005)
Genre: Biography, Drama, War
Country: Lithuania, UK
Duration: 120 min.
Story: The story about one man - an artist and an intellectual - who was imprisoned by two brutal regimes, the Nazis and the Soviets. 'The Professor' is a man who lives by his own personal version of the Ten Commandments. After miraculously ...
Style: compassionate, captivating, disturbing, suspense
Plot: nazi, world war two, life is a bitch, scientist, artist, performer's life, writer's life, society, suppression, life turned upside down, totalitarian state, state affairs ...
Place: ussr
Is relevant ?
 5.9
 1K
Guerrilla (2017)
Genre: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 60 min.
TV show
Story: Set against the backdrop of one of the most explosive times in U.K. history, Guerrilla tells the story of a politically active couple whose relationship and values are tested when they liberate a political prisoner and form a radical underground ...
Style: tense, captivating, disturbing, suspense, interesting
Plot: political activist, political prisoner, activist, resistance, civil rights, political unrest, society, resistance fighter, political intrigue, espionage, organized crime, blaxploitation ...
Time: 70s, 20th century
Place: london
Is relevant ?
Within the Whirlwind (2009)
Genre: Biography, Drama
Country: Germany, Poland, Belgium
Duration: 90 min.
Story: During Stalin's reign of terror, Evgenia Ginzburg, a literature professor, was sent to 10 years hard labor in a gulag in Siberia. Having lost everything, and no longer wishing to live, she meets the camp doctor and begins to come back to life.
Style: captivating, psychological, suspense, disturbing, historical drama
Plot: political repression, jailed, male female relationship, gulag, political prisoner, political persecution, political unrest, love story, relationships, love affair, wartime, wartime life ...
Time: year 1934
Place: siberia, ussr, soviet union
Is relevant ?
 6.7
 85
Preso No. 1 (2019)
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: Mexico
TV show
Story: The story of a humble farmer who becomes President of Mexico. When he is falsely accused of fraud and incarcerated, he must fight back against the corrupt system behind the scheme and clear his name for the sake of his country and family.
Style: disturbing, captivating, tense, telenovela
Plot: political persecution, political repression, president, jailed, jail, politician, political prisoner, political unrest, confined, prisoner, political leader, politics ...
Place: mexico
Is relevant ?
Related movie lists
He Who Has Been Through the Fire (2011)
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Country: Ukraine
Duration: 110 min.
Story: The Hero of the Soviet Union becomes a GULAG prisoner and then an Indian Chief.
Style: realistic, serious, suspenseful, touching
Plot: pow, war criminal, treason, escapades, soldier, captivity, danger, society, chases and races, native american, prisoner of war camp, manhunt ...
Time: 20th century
Place: ukraine
Is relevant ?
 8.4
 4K
The Octopus (1984)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
Country: Italy, Austria, France, UK, Germany, Spain, Sweden
Duration: 402 min.
TV show
Story: Corrado Cattani is a police inspector whose life is devoted to fighting the Italian mafia (known here as "La Piovra" or "The Octopus").
Style: serious, tense, suspenseful, bleak, realistic ...
Plot: cosa nostra, mafia, murder, law enforcement, society, fighting crime, family relations, police investigation, family life, organized crime, smuggling, gangster ...
Time: 20th century, 80s
Place: sicily, italy, palermo italy, europe, southern italy
Is relevant ?
An Irrepressible Woman (2019)
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 103 min.
Story: 1940, Jeanne Reichenbach turns her back on a peaceful life to link her destiny to Léon Blum. She's been loving him since her teenage years, and is ready to sacrifice her freedom to mary him at Buchenwald, where he's held prisoner. They ...
Style: disturbing, captivating, psychological, suspense
Plot: romantic relationship, lovers apart, love interest, couple relations, age difference, older man younger woman relationship, politician, love and romance, political prisoner, love story, social problems, male female relationship ...
Is relevant ?
 7.6
 180
Usavich (2006)
Genre: Animation
Country: Japan
Duration: 1 min.
TV show
Story: Putin and Kirenenko are two odd inmates stuck in a bizarre Russian prison. Being confined to their small cell does not prevent them from causing a lot of trouble.
Style: anime, entertaining, allegory, feel good, thought provoking ...
Audience: kids
Plot: prison, rabbit, anthropomorphism, police, absurdism, political satire, animal, political prisoner, politics, animal life, anthropomorphic animal, absurd humor ...
Is relevant ?
The Wolf House (2018)
Genre: Animation, Drama, Horror
Country: Chile, Germany
Duration: 75 min.
Story: María, a girl from Colonia Dignidad, in Chile —a kind of sectarian community, tyrannically mastered by the ruthless Paul Schäfer, a German madman, religious fanatic and child predator, who would end up turning the place into a torture center at ...
Style: disturbing, surreal, adult animation, captivating, suspenseful ...
Plot: stop motion, military dictatorship, wolf, fleeing, colony, political persecution, running for your life, political prisoner, runaway, political unrest, toys, xmas ...
Place: chile, germany
Is relevant ?
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
Genre: Drama, History, Thriller
Country: USA, UK, India
Duration: 129 min.
Story: What was intended to be a peaceful protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention turned into a violent clash with police and the National Guard. The organizers of the protest — including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale ...
Style: political, factual, suspense, historical drama, serious ...
Audience: adult
Plot: courtroom drama, activist, hippie, injustice, riot, political repression, political protest, courtroom, jury, political persecution, court, legal ...
Time: 60s, year 1969, 2020s, 2010s, 20th century ...
Place: chicago, ohio, mississippi, oakland california, washington d.c. ...
Is relevant ?
Gandhi, My Father (2007)
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
Country: India, UK, South Africa, USA
Duration: 136 min.
Story: With Gandhi My Father, producer Anil Kapoor and director Feroz Abbas Khan have shed light onto Gandhi the person, rather than Gandhi the icon. Using Gandhi’s political career as a canvas, the film paints a picture of his intricate, complex, and ...
Style: uplifting, emotional, sincere, touching, captivating ...
Plot: father son relationship, racism, tragedy, rebellion, fighting the system, rebelliousness, human spirit, rise to the top, state affairs, life is a bitch, society, redemption ...
Time: 1940s, 1930s, 1910s, 1920s
Place: india, africa, south africa, asia
Is relevant ?
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