Best movies like Paljas
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Paljas Starring Marius Weyers, Aletta Bezuidenhout, Liezel van der Merwe, Larry Leyden, and more. If you liked Paljas then you may also like: Water for Elephants, O'Shaughnessy's Boy, At the Circus, Big Top Bunny, Big Top Pee-wee and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Follows the deterioration of an Afrikaner family isolated and shunned in the small community of Toorwater. Nothing seems to happen. Then a circus train loses its way and comes to rest in Toorwater, and a mysterious clown brings fresh magic to the stagnating family, but he also poses a threat to the rest of the community.
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O'Shaughnessy's Boy
A circus wild animal trainer searches for the son who was taken away from him by a meddling relative years earlier.
At the Circus
Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10,000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter lets his accomplices steal the money, so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.
Big Top Bunny
Bugs Bunny is hired to perform in Colonel Korny's Circus alongside Bruno the Magnificent, the Slobokian Acrobatic Bear, but Bruno doesn't want to share the limelight.
Big Top Pee-wee
Paul Reubens stars as Pee-wee Herman in his second full-length film about a farmer who joins the circus after a storm drops a big tent in his front yard. Pee-wee, along with an outlandish cast of animals and circus performers, puts on the best show ever.
Big Top Scooby-Doo!
When Scooby and the gang hear of a werewolf plaguing a traveling circus, they go undercover as circus performers to get to the bottom.
Laugh, Clown, Laugh
A despairing clown suffering a broken heart and a self-indulgent count who uncontrollably laughs learn to help each other with their problems, but both fall in love with the same young woman.
The Greatest Show on Earth
To ensure a full profitable season, circus manager Brad Braden engages The Great Sebastian, though this moves his girlfriend Holly from her hard-won center trapeze spot. Holly and Sebastian begin a dangerous one-upmanship duel in the ring, while he pursues her on the ground.
Merry Andrew
When eccentric English teacher Andrew Larabee needs a raise in order for his fiancée to marry him, his interest in archaeology leads him to an ancient statue's burial site. But when he finds a traveling circus directly above the statue's location, he accidentally becomes part of the act. With a newfound passion for performance and an attraction to the beautiful acrobat Selena, Andrew must decide what is truly important to him.
Polly of the Circus
When Polly Fisher, a circus aerialist, is hurt while performing, she is taken to the house of a nearby minister, John Hartley. As she recuperates, they fall in love with each other and secretly marry. But when the truth leaks out , John's congregation rebels at having a circus woman as their minister's wife, and he is fired. Polly decides to leave John in hopes of giving back to him the calling that means so much to him. But fate steps in and rearranges all plans.
Bopha!
In this story of a black policeman during South African apartheid, Danny Glover plays the cop, who believes he's trying to help his people, even while serving as a pawn of the racist government. When his son gets involved in the anti-apartheid movement, he finds himself torn between his family and what he believes is his duty.
Circus Shadows
A phoney "psychic" ring tricks a pretty young circus performer into working for them.
Sophie & Sheba
Growing up at a zoo, young ballet dancer Sophie always loved animals - but none as much as her pet elephant Sheba. When her parents are forced to sell Sheba to a travelling circus, Sophie has no choice but to runaway and join him on the road to get him back.
Balloon Animal
Poppy Valentine, a young circus performer who has grown up in her family's traveling circus, has never dreamed of what life would be like outside of its fences. However, now in her mid-20s and with more unwelcomed responsibility weighing her down, she's desperate to figure out if this life is for her.
The Circus Clown
A man who wants to join the circus against the wishes of his ex-circus clown father.
The Big Circus
A circus owner tries to keep his financially troubled circus on the road, despite the efforts of a murderous saboteur who has decided that the show must not go on.
The Amazing Dobermans
An ex-con man and his five trained Dobermans help a Treasury Dept. agent stop a racketeer and his gang.
Ava's Magical Adventure
Eddie is a 10-year-old girl who runs away from home with her best friend Ava, a 2-ton circus elephant. They are pursued by everyone from the police to the circus' owner
A Summer to Remember
Silent since losing his hearing to meningitis, young Toby Wyler takes a bitter stance against the world and his family, refusing to accept his new stepfather. But when a highly trained orangutan named Casey is thrown from a truck near Toby's home, the boy soon has a secret friend he can communicate with via sign language.
Little Big Top
An aging out of work clown returns to his small hometown, resigned to spend the rest of his days in a drunken stupor. But when his passion for clowning is reawakened by the local amateur circus he finds his smile.
Dead Clowns
The residents of Port Emmett prepare for a hurricane that will churn up a 50-year-old secret, awakening an army of zombie clowns. Left to die after a circus train accident, the clowns rise from their muddy graves to get revenge. The guilty can run, but they can't hide from the truth -- or the undead.
King of the Jungle
A white youth raised in the jungle by animals is captured by a safari and brought back to civilization as an attraction in a circus.
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
A frontier huckster, Colonel Ryder, and a young orphan, Davey, operate a travelling tent show. They are loaned an elephant by an old friend, Molly, who is also a rival circus owner. Davey trains the elephant and the two soon become inseparable. When the Colonel loses the elephant in gambling, Davey steals the elephant and begins a 20-mile search for Molly, the rightful owner.
Van der Merwe
Van der Merwe, a bumbling farmer from a traditional Afrikaans family, struggles to keep his family together when his daughter returns from England with her British fiancé and family.
The Return Of Peter Grimm
The ghost of a recently deceased family patriarch tries to help his surviving relatives, in part by preventing a marriage that he knows will go wrong.
Carnivals
Filmed across the eastern half of North America in the 1970's, CARNIVALS is an homage to Speedy, Yak-Yak, Obie, Lobster Boy, and all the other carnies who lived and worked on Amusements of America. Theirs was a world within a world, traveling through the chaos of post-Viet Nam America as a community of freaks, strippers, clowns and bosses. To them, there world was sane; it was the rest of America that was crazy. In an era when Viet Nam madness was still tearing at the country the carnival was their refuge, their home.
Faan's Train
Faan se Trein is about a simple-minded man living in a tiny Karoo community. When his father dies, leaving all his possessions to Faan and the church, greed rears its head and divides the community... Until love restores their sanity.
The Candidate
This multi-faceted drama, which depicts a group of intellectual Afrikaners struggling with pertinent moral, ethical and racial issues in apartheid South Africa, is widely acknowledged as one of Jans Rautenbach’s finest films.
Santa's Christmas Circus
TV's Whizzo the Clown entertains a group of kids by hosting a pretend circus show, and takes them out on a trip to see Santa Claus at the North Pole.
The Magic Flame
The Magic Flame (1927) is a feature film directed by Henry King, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and based on the play Konig Harlekin by Rudolph Lothar. George Barnes was nominated at the 1st Academy Awards for Best Cinematography. The film promoted itself as the Romeo and Juliet of the circus upon its release.
Water for Elephants
In this captivating Depression-era melodrama, impetuous veterinary student Jacob Jankowski joins a celebrated circus as an animal caretaker but faces a wrenching dilemma when he's transfixed by angelic married performer Marlena.