Best movies like The Gentle Pain

Essentially true story of how Spartan king Leonidas led an extremely small army of Greek Soldiers (300 of his personal body guards from Sparta) to hold off an invading Persian army now thought to have numbered 250,000.

Young teenager Bo is too sensitive for the hothouse atmosphere of a boarding school run by a cold, unfeeling would-be man of the cloth. Lonely and scared, he finds a soulmate in the headmaster's son Kim with whom he forms a bond of friendship... that slowly grows into something more.

A drama about a group of women preparing to give birth who meet and bond at the hospital. Based on the best-selling Danish novel by Dea Trie Moerch and directed by acclaimed Danish filmmaker Astrid Henning-Jensen, "Winterborn" was considered one of the best movies of the decade in Denmark.

An exploration of the appeal of horror films, with interviews of many legendary directors in the genre.

Looping, chugging and barreling by, the trains in Benning's latest monumental film map a stunning topography and a history of American development. RR comes three decades after Benning and Bette Gordon made The United States of America (1975), a cinematic journey along the country’s interstates that is keenly aware “of superhighways and railroad tracks as American public symbols.” A political essay responding to the economic histories of trains as instruments in a culture of hyper-consumption, RR articulates its concern most explicitly when Eisenhower's military-industrial complex speech is heard as a mile long coal train passes through eastern Wyoming. Benning spent two and a half years collecting two hundred and sixteen shots of trains, forty-three of which appear in RR. The locomotives' varying colors, speeds, vectors, and reverberations are charged with visual thrills, romance and a nostalgia heightened by Benning's declaration that this will be his last work in 16mm film.

An eight-hour contemplative epic, entirely starring sheep.

Sam Bass receives a summons to testify before a grand jury, and not realizing that the matter concerns sheep-stealing he assumes it to concern the murder of his brother, Will.

Mixing fiction and reality, filmmaker Mark Webber tells the story of a man who returns home from prison and attempts to rebuild his life in his impoverished Philadelphia neighborhood.

A documentary examining the decade of the 1970s as a turning point in American cinema. Some of today's best filmmakers interview the influential directors of that time.

Life is not easy for 11-year-old Allan living in South Jutland during the early 1970s. His mentally unstable father frequently threatens suicide and his mother has long since given up. It's up to Allan to keep the family together. When a rival family threatens his father's livelihood, Allan starts committing atrocious acts.

Sex is why we're all here. Power. Love. Sex. We're all looking for something. Ten characters each of whose lust sends them on a journey of discovery - sometimes decadent - spearhead the narrative threads in this unconventional American melodrama. The smart characterizations are counterbalanced by intense performances. From the virginal young man to the bored housewife a temptress and a womanizer with a dark secret In Search of Sex dramatizes situations where good people looking for short term solutions find themselves in bad circumstances with long term consequences

SACRED GROUND tells the fact-based story of a mountain man and his Indian wife who happen upon a partially built cabin and finish it for their own home, not realizing that they occupy a sacred burial ground. A Paiute burial party clashes with the couple and in the ensuing skirmish, the wife is critically wounded while in the middle of childbirth. Bitter over her loss and needing a wetnurse for his baby, he steals one of the Paiute woman who had just lost a baby. In this modern version of Helen of Troy, the battle is on, as he takes on the whole band in a desperate attempt to survive. Written by Dale Roloff

While confronting the disapproving father of his girlfriend Lola, Native American man Willie Boy kills the man in self-defense, triggering a massive manhunt, led by Deputy Sheriff Christopher Cooper.

On location in Portugal, a film crew runs out of film while making their own version of Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended (1956). The producer is nowhere to be found and director Munro attempts to find him in hopes of being able to finish the film.

Documentary in which filmmaker Jamie Kastner goes on a personal journey to find out what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. Along the way he meets anti-semitic politician Pat Buchanan, Israeli novelist AB Yehoshua, British anti-Israeli curmudgeon Richard Ingrams and Hasids in Brooklyn; he causes a near-riot in a Parisian suburb simply by asking what people think about Jews; and he meets the 'dominatrix' behind Berlin's largest memorial to dead Jews. (Storyville)

In his debut film, assembled entirely from home video footage which he and his partner Tracey shot over the course of a decade, Barker tells the fascinating story behind their journey to conceive.

This epic adventure-drama based on James Michener's best-selling novel concerns a young American embassy official who is sent into the Middle-Eastern desert to find the missing daughter of a US Senator. The young woman has left her husband, a Colonel in the Shadom - she was his number two wife - and has opted for the lifestyle of a nomadic tribe. When the diplomat locates the girl he joins the caravan and attempts to persuade the girl to return.

Following a terrible car accident, a child tells a lawman that the woman claiming to be her mother is an impostor.

A family decides to move to the most remote place they can find and live for as long as they can. This is the true story of a family living off the land in remote Alaska with no modern tools or 'luxuries' (except a movie camera!). This documentary is a year in their life.

In the second half of the 19th century, Eadweard Muybridge, the father of motion pictures, embarks on an obsessive project to record on film "the motion of life" in all of its abundance. His epic quest is eclipsed only by the depth of his jealousy over his beautiful, young wife Flora. As the project progresses, his paranoia over her fidelity consumes him, until questions arise about his son’s paternity, causing him to erupt.

Knut Hamsun is Norway's most famous and admired author. Ever since he was young he has hated the English for the starvation they caused Norway during WWI. When the Germans occupy Norway 9 April 1940 he welcomes them and the protection they can give from Great Britain. He supports the national socialist ideals, but opposes the way these ideals are turned into action - that Norwegians are jailed and executed. His wife Marie travels in Germany during the war as a sign of support from Knut and herself.

A drama documentary of the life and death of the poet Dylan Thomas, who died in New York 25 years ago at age 39. Alcohol and a doctor's injection of morphine were the immediate causes. Ever since his childhood in Wales his life was a spectacular attempt - comic at times, serious below the surface, tragic at the finish - to survive on his own bizarre terms as the poet to end all poets. By the 1950s, that first postwar decade of uneasiness and change, Dylan Thomas was a legend to his admirers but a burnt-out case to himself. As he tours America to read poetry to rapt audiences, his past crowds in on him, the fractured memories of a man at the end of his tether.

Almost four decades as the Princess of Pop, superstar Britney Spears, continues to be in the public eye on the brink of winning a legal battle with her father that would end a conservatorship and at long last give her control of her life.

This documentary for PBS by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin and narrated by Richard Gere, tells the story of the Buddha’s life, a journey especially relevant to our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion. It features the work of some of the world’s greatest artists and sculptors, who across two millennia, have depicted the Buddha’s life in art rich in beauty and complexity. Hear insights into the ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Join the conversation and learn more about meditation, the history of Buddhism, and how to incorporate the Buddha’s teachings on compassion and mindfulness into daily life.

In his home studio and revisiting old haunts in Shepherds Bush and Battersea, Pete Townshend opens his heart and his personal archive to revisit 'the last great album the Who ever made', one that took the Who full circle back to their earliest days via the adventures of a pill-popping mod on an epic journey of self-discovery. But in 1973 Quadrophenia was an album that almost never was. Beset by money problems, a studio in construction, heroin-taking managers, a lunatic drummer and a culture of heavy drinking, Townshend took on an album that nearly broke him and one that within a year the band had turned their back on and would ignore for nearly three decades. Contributors include: Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Ethan Russell, Ron Nevison, Richard Barnes, Irish Jack Lyons, Bill Curbishley, John Woolf, Howie Edelson, Mark Kermode and Georgiana Steele Waller.

A year ago, 36-year-old Jonny Kennedy died. He had a terrible genetic condition called Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) - which meant that his skin literally fell off at the slightest touch, leaving his body covered in agonizing sores and leading to a final fight against skin cancer. In his last months Jonny decided to work with filmmaker Patrick Collerton to document his life and death, and the result was a film, first broadcast in March, that was an uplifting, confounding and provocatively humorous story of a singular man. Not shying away from the grim reality of EB, the film was also a celebration of a life lived to the full.

The documentary traces Saint-Gaudens' life, both personally and professionally, from his birth in Dublin, Ireland to his work in New York City and Paris to his death in Cornish, New Hampshire. The film discusses how Saint-Gaudens' projects ranged in scope from large public monuments and portraits in relief to cameos and gold coins. The story of his personal life is woven around in-depth studies of six of his major works of art.

As Take That, one of Britain's most successful and best-loved bands, mark their 30th anniversary, they are celebrated in this special one-off programme. It features fans from all over the country, and beyond, sharing their stories of how the band touched their lives - and in some cases, changed their world completely. This most successful boy band in UK chart history are reunited, with Robbie Williams joining them to share favourite memories as they reflect on three decades in the spotlight. It also offers up candid, previously unseen material that they shot over the years. There is also a reunion for the boys' biggest fans of all - the five, proud Take That mums. The band takes us on a guided tour of significant Take That locations, with some memorable fan surprises along the way. With a glimpse of their preparations for their anniversary album, we also see them in the studio with Bee Gees legend Barry Gibb.

German businessman Carsten Neuer travels to Norway to finish the impossible translation of some Norwegian poems by Tarjei Vesaas into Chinese, a project of his late wife. He hires Niko, a down-on-his-luck tour guide, to drive him to the poet's home and places of inspiration to stimulate his own translation. On the road, the ghost of Carsten's wife appears to him, while Niko struggles with the sudden consequences of his girlfriend's pregnancy. On this journey, two very different men come to realize the transforming power of love, the limits of language, and the human need for friendship.

Adapting its title and theme from Thomas De Quincey's murder text, this long-overdue return to narrative cinema by the great British filmmaker Peter Whitehead is based around a mesmerizing psycho-geographical exploration of modern day Vienna. The film incorporates a record of the subversive underbelly of the city into a poetic meditation on conspiracy theory, ecoterrorism, time and cinema, retracing the story of The Third Man. Adapted from a trilogy of Whitehead's own Nohzone novels, the objective and subjective becomes blurred as the film director merges with the fictional detective in a journey into the murky activities of covert counter-insurgency groups. Kaleidoscopic in intent, the film mixes Noh theatre, Victorian novels, Vienna after the war, opium, domain names and Jacob's ladder "pitched twixt Heaven and Charring Cross".

So much more than simply the story of the Thanksgiving meal, the epic saga of the Pilgrims is one of the fundamental narratives of our nation. This ambitious documentary presents the definitive history of the Pilgrims and their journey to and colonization of the New World. A marriage of feature-film quality historical reenactments with the latest scholarship and analysis of original source material, this definitive look at the Pilgrims' progress will shed light on the reality of their experience.

Community-oriented film project following someone who thinks his name is Michael as he struggles with the pains and pleasures of waking up as different people everyday. Within an unexplained universe he searches for connection, purpose, and cigarettes, propelled all the while through the idiosynchratic narratives of different people's lives

A young man finds love and settles down, but when his young wife spirals into depression they both have decisions to make.

A thirty-something single man is afraid his latest romance will be over before it starts in this independent comedy from writer and director Bruce Sweeney. Eight years after his marriage ended in divorce, Kevin is doing well in his career as the owner of a successful golf course, but his personal life is another matter altogether. Kevin hasn't been on a date since he became single again, and his overbearing mother makes no secret of her concern that she'll never become a grandmother. Kevin's slacker brother Randy decides to step in and help, setting Kevin up on a date with Hayaam. To Kevin's surprise, Hayaam turns out to be attractive and fun to be with, and they quickly bond with one another. However, things become problematic when they move their relationship to the next level -- Kevin's nerves cause him to finish far too quickly in the bedroom, and though Hayaam wants to help, she's only willing to deal with his problem for so long.

Figures Don't Lie is a showcase for the physical charms of lovely Esther Ralston, who in one scene proves the accuracy of the title by donning a fetching one-piece bathing suit. The main story concerns wise-guy insurance salesman Richard Arlen, who through a combination of hard work and sheer gall lands a job as sales manager. But he can't land heroine Ralston, who has remained cool to his charms ever since he tried to make a play for her on the street.