Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "political-persecution"

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Family

With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts.

Director: David Yates | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Brendan Gleeson

Votes: 634,054 | Gross: $292.00M

2. Babylon 5 (1993–1998)

TV-PG | 45 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

In the mid 23rd century, the Earth Alliance space station Babylon 5, located in neutral territory, is a major focal point for political intrigue, racial tensions and various wars over the course of five years.

Stars: Mira Furlan, Richard Biggs, Stephen Furst, Andreas Katsulas

Votes: 34,647

3. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

R | 129 min | Drama, History, Thriller

The story of 7 people on trial stemming from various charges surrounding the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

Director: Aaron Sorkin | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Alex Sharp, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong

Votes: 193,584

4. Chaplin (1992)

PG-13 | 143 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama

An elderly Charlie Chaplin discusses his autobiography with his editor, recounting his amazing journey from his poverty-stricken childhood to world-wide success after the ingenious invention of the Little Tramp.

Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Geraldine Chaplin, Paul Rhys, John Thaw

Votes: 62,276 | Gross: $9.49M

5. Gandhi (1982)

PG | 191 min | Biography, Drama, History

The life of the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British rule through his philosophy of nonviolent protest.

Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi, Roshan Seth

Votes: 240,298 | Gross: $52.77M

6. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

PG-13 | 126 min | Drama, Thriller

An American POW in the Korean War is brainwashed as an unwitting assassin for an international Communist conspiracy.

Director: John Frankenheimer | Stars: Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Janet Leigh, Angela Lansbury

Votes: 79,900

7. Farewell My Concubine (1993)

R | 171 min | Drama, Music, Romance

Two boys meet at an opera training school in Peking in 1924. Their resulting friendship will span nearly 70 years and endure some of the most troublesome times in China's history.

Director: Kaige Chen | Stars: Leslie Cheung, Fengyi Zhang, Gong Li, You Ge

Votes: 33,203 | Gross: $5.22M

8. The Majestic (2001)

PG | 152 min | Drama, Romance

In 1951, a blacklisted Hollywood writer gets into a car accident, loses his memory and settles down in a small town where he is mistaken for a long-lost son.

Director: Frank Darabont | Stars: Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Bob Balaban, Jeffrey DeMunn

Votes: 57,701 | Gross: $27.81M

9. Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama, History

Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow looks to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Director: George Clooney | Stars: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels

Votes: 101,343 | Gross: $31.56M

10. Trumbo (2015)

R | 124 min | Biography, Drama

In 1947, Dalton Trumbo was Hollywood's top screenwriter, until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs.

Director: Jay Roach | Stars: Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane, Helen Mirren, Louis C.K.

Votes: 84,815 | Gross: $7.86M

11. Navalny (2022)

R | 99 min | Documentary, Biography

Follows the man who survived an assassination attempt by poisoning with a lethal nerve agent in August 2020. During his months-long recovery he makes shocking discoveries about the attempt on his life and decides to return home.

Director: Daniel Roher | Stars: Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, Christo Grozev, Dasha Navalnaya

Votes: 29,974

12. Taking Sides (2001)

Not Rated | 108 min | Drama, Music, War

After the end of World War II, a famous German conductor is accused of loyalty to the Nazi regime. He argues that art and politics are separate. An investigator thinks otherwise.

Director: István Szabó | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgård, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birgit Minichmayr

Votes: 3,830 | Gross: $0.19M

13. Sunshine (1999)

R | 181 min | Drama, History, Romance

The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.

Director: István Szabó | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle

Votes: 15,807 | Gross: $5.10M

14. GomBurZa (2023)

112 min | Action, Biography, Drama

Mariano Gomes, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora are three brave Filipino Catholic priests whose narrative is told in this stirring and inspirational historical drama.

Director: Pepe Diokno | Stars: Dante Rivero, Cedrick Juan, Enchong Dee, Piolo Pascual

Votes: 348

15. Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

R | 122 min | Documentary, Drama, War

Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after September 11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Director: Michael Moore | Stars: Michael Moore, George W. Bush, Ben Affleck, Stevie Wonder

Votes: 132,434 | Gross: $119.19M

16. Guilty by Suspicion (1991)

PG-13 | 105 min | Drama

Returning to Hollywood 1951 after working in France, a movie director meets McCarthyism head-on.

Director: Irwin Winkler | Stars: Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig

Votes: 9,582 | Gross: $9.48M

17. El Norte (1983)

R | 141 min | Adventure, Drama

After their family is killed in a government massacre, siblings Enrique and Rosa flee Guatemala and embark on a perilous journey to "El Norte": the United States.

Director: Gregory Nava | Stars: Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez, David Villalpando, Ernesto Gómez Cruz, Alicia del Lago

Votes: 5,597

18. Sometimes in April (2005 TV Movie)

TV-MA | 140 min | Drama, History, War

When the Hutu nationalists raised arms against their Tutsi countrymen in Rwanda in April 1994, the violent uprising marked the beginning of one of the darkest times in African history which resulted in the deaths of almost 800,000 people.

Director: Raoul Peck | Stars: Idris Elba, Carole Karemera, Pamela Nomvete, Oris Erhuero

Votes: 6,050

19. The Front (1976)

PG | 95 min | Drama

In 1953, a cashier poses as a writer for blacklisted talents to submit their work through, but the injustice around him pushes him to take a stand.

Director: Martin Ritt | Stars: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, Michael Murphy

Votes: 9,682

20. America America (1963)

Approved | 174 min | Adventure, Drama

A young Greek stops at nothing to secure a passage to America.

Director: Elia Kazan | Stars: Stathis Giallelis, Frank Wolff, Elena Karam, Harry Davis

Votes: 5,996

21. Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace (2000 TV Movie)

Not Rated | 88 min | Crime, Drama, History

The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German clergyman of great distinction, who actively opposed Hitler and the Nazis. His convictions cost him his life.

Director: Eric Till | Stars: Ulrich Tukur, Johanna Klante, Robert Joy, R.H. Thomson

Votes: 814 | Gross: $0.30M

22. The Young Karl Marx (2017)

Not Rated | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History

The early years of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Jenny Marx, between Paris, Brussels and London.

Director: Raoul Peck | Stars: August Diehl, Stefan Konarske, Vicky Krieps, Olivier Gourmet

Votes: 7,287 | Gross: $0.13M

23. Stalin (1992 TV Movie)

TV-MA | 172 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.

Director: Ivan Passer | Stars: Robert Duvall, Julia Ormond, Maximilian Schell, Jeroen Krabbé

Votes: 2,786

24. Romero (1989)

PG-13 | 102 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

The life and work of Archbishop Oscar Romero who opposed, at great personal risk, the tyrannical repression in El Salvador.

Director: John Duigan | Stars: Raul Julia, Richard Jordan, Ana Alicia, Eddie Velez

Votes: 2,454 | Gross: $1.32M

25. Sacco & Vanzetti (1971)

GP | 125 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

In 1920s Boston, Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are scrutinized for their anarchist beliefs while on trial for robbery and murder.

Director: Giuliano Montaldo | Stars: Gian Maria Volontè, Riccardo Cucciolla, Cyril Cusack, Rosanna Fratello

Votes: 3,734 | Gross: $0.19M

26. In the Time of the Butterflies (2001 TV Movie)

PG-13 | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Romance

In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government.

Director: Mariano Barroso | Stars: Salma Hayek, Lumi Cavazos, Edward James Olmos, Mía Maestro

Votes: 2,487

27. Charlatan (2020)

Unrated | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History

The life of successful Czech healer Jan Mikolasek, who diagnosed and healed people using his intuition and strong familiarity with plants, set against the background of the events of the totalitarian fifties.

Director: Agnieszka Holland | Stars: Ivan Trojan, Josef Trojan, Juraj Loj, Jaroslava Pokorná

Votes: 3,217

28. Rhino Season (2012)

88 min | Drama, Thriller

Kurdish-Iranian poet Sahel has just been released from a thirty-year prison sentence in Iran. Now the one thing keeping him going is the thought of finding his wife, who thinks him dead for over twenty years.

Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Behrouz Vossoughi, Monica Bellucci, Yilmaz Erdogan, Caner Cindoruk

Votes: 7,301

29. Rude Awakening (1989)

R | 100 min | Comedy

In the 1960s, two hippies go off into the jungle to evade the FBI. When they come back to New York in the 1980s, their fellow hippie friends have become rich yuppies.

Directors: David Greenwalt, Aaron Russo | Stars: Cheech Marin, Eric Roberts, Julie Hagerty, Robert Carradine

Votes: 1,478 | Gross: $3.17M

30. Citizen Cohn (1992 TV Movie)

R | 111 min | Biography, Drama

As lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn lies dying of AIDS in a private hospital room, ghosts from his past visit him as he reflects on his life and loves.

Director: Frank Pierson | Stars: James Woods, Joe Don Baker, Joseph Bologna, Ed Flanders

Votes: 1,517

31. Rosa Luxemburg (1986)

Not Rated | 122 min | Biography, Drama, History

After years of political agitation, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, and Leo Jogiches form a revolutionary German party, the Spartacists.

Director: Margarethe von Trotta | Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Daniel Olbrychski, Otto Sander, Adelheid Arndt

Votes: 1,923

32. The Day After Trinity (1981)

Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Biography

Scientists and witnesses involved in the creation and testing of the first ever atomic bomb reflect on the Manhattan project and its fascinating leader, J. Robert Oppenheimer, who upon ... See full summary »

Director: Jon Else | Stars: Hans Bethe, Holm Bursom, Haakon Chevalier, Stirling Colgate

Votes: 1,236

33. Career (1959)

Not Rated | 105 min | Drama

More than anything in the world, Sam Lawson wants to be a successful actor. Is he willing to sacrifice his wife, happiness and personal reputation to achieve his goal?

Director: Joseph Anthony | Stars: Dean Martin, Anthony Franciosa, Shirley MacLaine, Carolyn Jones

Votes: 708

34. The Master and Margaret (1972)

95 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

A writer and his assistant are working on a biblical story about Pontius Pilate who convicted Jesus of Nazereth, while the Satan (here called Woland) and his lieutenants are harassing the writer duo in various ways.

Director: Aleksandar Petrovic | Stars: Ugo Tognazzi, Mimsy Farmer, Alain Cuny, Velimir 'Bata' Zivojinovic

Votes: 792

35. Lumumba (2000)

Not Rated | 115 min | Biography, Drama, History

The true story of controversial leader of independent Congo Patrice Lumumba.

Director: Raoul Peck | Stars: Eriq Ebouaney, Alex Descas, Théophile Sowié, Maka Kotto

Votes: 2,083 | Gross: $0.68M

36. Hot Coffee (2011)

Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary

How the infamous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit and similar cases were exploited as part of a right wing crusade to weaken civil justice.

Director: Susan Saladoff | Stars: Chuck Allen, Judy Allen, Jay Angoff, David Arredondo

Votes: 4,016

37. China Cry: A True Story (1990)

PG-13 | 101 min | Biography, Drama, History

This is the true story of Sung Neng Yee, now known as Nora Lam, who fled from Communist China to Hong Kong for her palpably real Christian faith.

Director: James F. Collier | Stars: Julia Nickson, France Nuyen, James Shigeta, Russell Wong

Votes: 569 | Gross: $4.21M

38. Amin: The Rise and Fall (1981)

R | 91 min | Biography, Crime, Drama

The chronicle of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and his tyranic rule from 1971 to his overthrow in 1979.

Director: Sharad Patel | Stars: Joseph Olita, Thomas Baptiste, Leonard Trolley, Geoffrey Keen

Votes: 496

39. The War You Don't See (2010)

97 min | Documentary, War

Thought-provoking documentary on war propaganda: how governments manipulate the facts and how most media let them get away with it.

Directors: Alan Lowery, John Pilger | Stars: John Pilger, Stuart Ewen, Melvin Goodman, Dan Rather

Votes: 1,527

40. The Harmonists (1997)

R | 115 min | Biography, Drama, Music

The film chronicles the rise and fall of Germany's most famous a capella group, the Comedian Harmonists, in 1930s Germany.

Director: Joseph Vilsmaier | Stars: Ben Becker, Heino Ferch, Ulrich Noethen, Heinrich Schafmeister

Votes: 3,616 | Gross: $0.48M

41. The Appeared (2007)

TV-MA | 120 min | Adventure, Horror, Thriller

Malena and Pablo, two siblings on a trip through Argentina, find a diary describing crimes committed 20 years before. Then, they witness a family hunted down, tortured and murdered step by step following the facts described in the diary.

Director: Paco Cabezas | Stars: Ruth Díaz, Javier Pereira, Pablo Cedrón, Leonora Balcarce

Votes: 1,716

42. The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)

PG-13 | 99 min | Documentary, Biography, Music

A documentary on the life of John Lennon, with a focus on the time in his life when he transformed from a musician into an antiwar activist.

Directors: David Leaf, John Scheinfeld | Stars: John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Stew Albert, Tariq Ali

Votes: 5,689 | Gross: $1.10M

43. 1971 (2014)

Unrated | 79 min | Documentary, History, Thriller

The story of a notorious 1971 activist burglary of an FBI office that led to the Bureau's numerous abuses against dissidents being exposed.

Director: Johanna Hamilton | Stars: Bonnie Raines, John Raines, Bob Williamson, Keith Forsyth

Votes: 915

44. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)

Not Rated | 115 min | Documentary, History

This documentary tells the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party, one of the 20th century's most alluring and controversial organizations that captivated the world's attention for nearly 50 years.

Director: Stanley Nelson | Stars: Blair Anderson, Omar Barbour, Julian Bond, Elaine Brown

Votes: 2,146 | Gross: $0.48M

45. Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992)

60 min | Documentary

Filmed in wartime and edited under candlelight, Mikhail Vartanov's rarely-seen masterwork tells of his friendship with the genius Sergei Parajanov who was arrested by KGB, at the height of ... See full summary »

Directors: Mikhail Vartanov, Sergei Parajanov | Stars: Sergei Parajanov, Mikhail Vartanov, Sofiko Chiaureli, Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy

Votes: 227

46. The French Revolution (2005 TV Movie)

100 min | Documentary, History

Documentary about the bloody beginning, bloodier middle and unceremonious end of the French Revolution, an event that ended in blood the reign of kings in France and laid the foundation for a new - republican - system of government.

Director: Doug Shultz | Stars: Edward Herrmann, George Ivascu, Rodica Lazar, Tomi Cristin

Votes: 336

47. The Murder of Fred Hampton (1971)

Not Rated | 88 min | Documentary, Biography, Crime

A chronicle of Fred Hampton's revolutionary leadership of the Illinois Black Panther Party, followed by an investigation into his assassination at the hands of the Chicago Police Department.

Director: Howard Alk | Stars: Skip Andrew, Edward Carmody, James Davis, Rennie Davis

Votes: 555

48. Tomorrow We Are Free (2019)

96 min | Drama, History

Iran 1979. The true story of a young mother and her Iranian-born husband from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) who move to Iran with their little daughter in the wake of the Islamic ... See full summary »

Director: Hossein Pourseifi | Stars: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Katrin Röver, Damon Zolfaghari, Reza Brojerdi

Votes: 219

49. Polemic in 3 Voices (2011)

7 min | Short, Drama

In the nearby future, in a world that is in the grip of acid rain and general ecological disintegration, two people watch a pirate television broadcast from an environmental activist. One ... See full summary »

Director: Garth McCarthy | Stars: Conrad Alexander, Elisabeth Bosman, Sean Brebnor, Etienne Marais

50. Dirty Affair (1990)

TV-14 | 120 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A smitten young man helps the mistress of a corrupt politician to fight back and reveal the truth about the politician and his government.

Director: Lino Brocka | Stars: Christopher De Leon, Dina Bonnevie, Charo Santos-Concio, Bembol Roco

Votes: 48