Best movies like Following the Unreturned Soldiers: Malaysia

Renowned filmmakers D A Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus follow determined animal rights activist Steven Wise into the courtroom for an unprecedented battle that seeks to utilize the writ of habeas corpus to expand legal “personhood” to include certain animals. Wise’s unusual plaintiffs—chimpanzees Tommy and Kiko, once famed showbiz stars—are now living in filth, struggling to survive. Wise and his impassioned legal team take us into the field, revealing gripping evidence of such abuse and plunging us into the intricacies of their case as they probe preconceived notions of what it means to be a non-human animal.

This documentary tells the personal story of filmmaker Jari Osborne's father, a Chinese-Canadian veteran. She describes her father's involvement in World War II and uncovers a legacy of discrimination and racism against British Columbia's Chinese-Canadian community. Sworn to secrecy for decades, Osborne's father and his war buddies now vividly recall their top-secret missions behind enemy lines in Southeast Asia. Theirs is a tale of young men proudly fighting for a country that had mistreated them. This film does more than reveal an important period in Canadian history. It pays moving tribute to a father's quiet heroism.

Special ops interrogation officer Jimmy Vickers tracks down a gang who slaughtered his parents while at the same time avoiding being tracked down by his old unit and the cops. With police closing in and his old unit on his trail, he has to evade capture long enough to complete his gruesome crusade.

Hailed as one of the most innovative and intimate documentaries of all time, experience Kurt Cobain like never before in the only ever fully authorized portrait of the famed music icon. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen expertly blends Cobain's personal archive of art, music, never seen before movies, animation and revelatory interviews from his family and closest friends.

In an old Hollywood mansion, the spirit of an old family retainer inhabits an old grandfather clock. When a movie company uses the mansion for a film, the spirit inhabits the body of an alien and persuades the two filmmakers to track down an old house that will resolve a family scandal.

A Chinese general's daughter tracks her father to a slave-labor tyrant's jungle empire.

A Man Vanishes examines the concept of Johatsu, tackling the phenomenon of people missing in Japan over the years. It picks one such person from the list, someone who had seemed to disappear from the face of the earth due to embezzlement from his company, and the filmmakers begin an investigative documentary into the reasons behind and attempt at tracking him down.

The world is cloaked in winter. Christian Adkins is a Renegade soldier longing for peace and the son of the famed Liberator. Jen is an orphaned nurse desperately trying to save children. When the two soul mates are trapped together at the end of World War III, their lives are forever entwined.

A compilation featuring comedic stars of the silent era including Fatty Arbuckle, Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Charley Chase, and Laurel and Hardy.

First-time filmmaker Jason Schneider confronts the stigma of disability while coming to terms with his own limb difference in this documentary film.

As the muse of Hal Hartley’s indie classics and as writer/director of the critically acclaimed Waitress, Adrienne Shelly was a shining star in the indie film firmament. A devoted young mother, her life was right on track until her husband found her dead. Filmmaker Andy Ostroy has been fighting to discover the truth about his wife’s death ever since.

An elite group of American soldiers are in a race against time in this action thriller from director Cirio H. Santiago. Stacy Keach stars as the general in charge of the team tasked with infiltrating a terrorist organization and saving an American politician before the bad guys kill him. When Eagles Strike also stars Christian Boeving and Davee Youngblood.

Based on the true story of the only homicide committed on the famed San Francisco Military base. A military Criminal Investigations Officer goes beyond his orders to get to the facts behind what appears to be a robbery-motivated killing. What he finds may well unravel his damaged mental health.

The Ties That Bind is an experimental documentary about the filmmaker's mother, who was born and lived in southern Germany from 1920-1950. Through a mixture of personal anecdote and social history, she describes the rise of Nazism, the war years, and the Allied occupation, during which she met her future husband, an American soldier. The Ties That Bind breaks with the usual format of war documentaries, thus allowing a different portrait of the individual to emerge, while it reflects on the current political situation in America and the filmmaker's activities in relation to those issues.

On the invitation of her childhood best friend Patsy McCann née Willets, famed opera singer Francesca Prine - whose real name is Marie Beck - returns to Marmora, Ontario to sing in a benefit concert. Patsy and Marie were best friends from the time Marie and her family arrived in Marmora when she was ten years old to the time she left Marmora at age fifteen, which was thirty years prior. With the exception of Don Rayford on who Marie had a crush, Patsy was shy Marie's only friend in Marmora. However, Marie and Patsy have not been in touch since due to issues that drove Marie out of town at the time. Those issues include Marie being physically abused by her alcoholic mother, but most specifically what happened the evening of the Sadie Hawkins dance - where Don accompanied Marie - and post dance down by the railroad tracks. Marie and Patsy's reunion may not be able to endure the thirty years of silence and the events of that night.

World World II: Shortly after D-Day, three American soldiers and two Army Corps nurses are stranded behind enemy lines. They take a high-ranking German officer as their prisoner and try to orchestrate an escape.

An ex-Boer war guerrilla in New Zealand is sent out to bring back a Maori accused of killing a British soldier. Gradually they grow to know and respect one another but a posse, led by the British Commanding officer is close behind and his sole intention is to see the Maori hang. Written by Filmfinders 1903. A guerilla fighter from the South African Boer war called Arjan (Winstone) takes on a manhunt for Maori seaman Kereama (Morrison), who is accused of murdering a British soldier. What follows is a cat and mouse pursuit through the varied landscape of NZ with both hunter and huntee testing their bushcraft and wits against that of the other. Written by Anonymous

Following his kidnapping, Kyle must escape the forest before he’s killed by a vicious serial killer in a game of cat and mouse. After receiving a mysterious call about the disappearance of her brother, Anna must track him down before it's too late.

Famed highway robber Dick Turpin finds himself on the run in the English countryside having accidentally kidnapped the Earl of Pembroke's feisty daughter, Elizabeth. As her fiance Winthroppe attempts to track them down, Elizabeth begins to fall for the dashing highwayman, leaving Turpin with no choice but to face off against Winthroppe in a fight for Elizabeth's heart - and her fortune.

Two Foreign Legion soldiers, Jean (Dennis O'Keefe) and Andre (Jean Pierre Aumont), accidentally discover the famed lost continent of Atlantis. Bewitched by the sultry, beauty of the Queen of Atlantis (Maria Montez) the two men vie for her affections; little realising that her previous lovers have been embalmed into statues that line the passages of her kingdom.

Biopic of the famed stuntman Evel Knievel.

Amy and Mike unearth a centuries-old curse when they decide to watch an exclusive film reel. The duo must track down an infamous filmmaker and navigate a town of hungry zombies to save the world.

A soldier is forced to prolong his stay at a rural spa when he accidentally cuts his foot on an object, and soon enough, he tracks down its lovely owner and finds himself smitten.

Famed crime photographer Arthur Fellig, nicknamed Mr. Wee Gee, stars as himself in this pseudo-documentary that begins when he falls in love with a store window dummy and tracks "her" to London, England, then meets up with a beautiful ghost in a haunted house and finally winds up in Paris, where he meets other beautiful women and ends up being chased onto the Eiffel Tower.

On the surface, they appear to be ordinary dogs, but these canines have a secret identity. They are the Pentagon's stealth warriors, with specialties in explosives detection, tracking, laser target acquisition and bite work. Meet the U.S. Navy SEALs' latest recruits, four-footed soldiers called to duty to save soldiers' lives. SEAL Dog is an intimate look at one of these astonishing animals, Chopper, his partner, American war hero Trevor Maroshek, and the unbreakable bond they formed, on and off the battlefield.

The events of the hajj have long remained veiled from non-Muslims, who are forbidden even to enter the holy city of Mecca. A team of Muslim filmmakers gained access to Islam's holiest place at the peak of the pilgrimage to document the holy event for National Geographic Television.

On the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park is Paradise Valley, Montana, home to bears, wolves, elk, and an animal so secretive, few ever get to see it: the mountain lion. Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson became one of those lucky few after following the tracks of the elusive cat from his backyard into the world of a mother and her three cubs. It was the beginning of what would become a remarkable relationship that gave Casey a rare glimpse into the life of a mountain lion family and a new understanding of an animal we know so little about.

Ten families read letters from their loved ones killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom in this powerful and moving HBO documentary by Oscar and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Bill Couturie (Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam). Photos of the soldiers in military and civilian life are shown as family members read the final correspondence received from Iraq and share their thoughts and memories about the fallen troops and the realities of war.

1939: Rome stands on the brink of World War II. In the midst of this political and social tension famed producer Davide Rieta is making a major film. The two lead actors, the German woman Kristina Baumgarten and the English man James Clavel ace each others' initial antagonism and eventually fall in love. Meanwhile the fascist police are looking for an excuse to arrest the Jewish filmmaker and any other potential "troublemakers." The producer and his crew decide to make one final extraordinary effort to complete the film - against all odds.

Tourists, foreigners and outcasts converge on the streets of Osaka in this sprawling ensemble drama by Japan-based, Malaysia-born filmmaker Lim Kah Wai. His eighth feature explores the lesser-known aspects of the Asian melting pot city through the eyes and experiences of a dozen characters who struggle to find their place in society: among them a Nepali refugee with dreams of opening a restaurant, a Burmese student struggling to make ends meet while working two jobs, and a Taiwanese sex tourist who travels to meet his favorite adult video actress.

’Distance’ is an award-winning, independent feature film exploring the distance between men and women through the intertwined stories of two couples. Made by the filmmaker while he was still in his 20s, ‘Distance’ features Oscar-nominee James Woods in his first leading role.

A documentary filmmaker follows two homicide detectives as they track down a voyeuristic serial killer.

A grieving mother hires a filmmaker and a tracker to help document her search in the Florida wilderness, as she hunts a cult she believes murdered her daughter.

A hilarious and affectionate look at the path to stardom inside the competitive world of opera. Filmmakers Allie Light and Irving Saraf relegate the divas to the background and focus on a limelight-craving group of "choristers" -- the seldom-noticed singers who stand behind the soloists portraying peasants, soldiers and slaves.

Famed Canadian-American leftist documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife was one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam. Now in his late seventies, Fife is dying of cancer in Montreal and has agreed to a final interview in which he is determined to bare all his secrets at last, to demythologize his mythologized life.