Best movies like The Man Who Defied Beijing

China would like the world to forget his name

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like The Man Who Defied Beijing Starring Perry Link, Hao Jian, Jean-Philippe Béja, Xu Youyu, and more. If you liked The Man Who Defied Beijing then you may also like: The Wife, Radioactive, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, The Angel 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.

A portrait of Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo (1955-2017), a witness of the Tiananmen Square massacre (1989), a dissident, a woodpecker who tirelessly pecked the putrid brain of the Communist regime for decades, demanding democracy loudly and fearlessly. Silenced, arrested, convicted, imprisoned, dead. Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2010, alive forever. These are his last words.

selected filters: Sort: Default

You may filter the list of movies on this page for a more refined, personalized selection of movies.

Still not sure what to watch click the recommend buttun below to get a movie recommendation selected from all the movies on this list

Know any good movies to watch like The Man Who Defied Beijing 2019. With a similar plot or stoyline. Suggest it.

The Wife

A wife questions her life choices as she travels to Stockholm with her husband, where he is slated to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Radioactive

The story of Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie and her extraordinary scientific discoveries—through the prism of her marriage to husband Pierre—and the seismic and transformative effects their discovery of radium had on the 20th century.

Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower

When the Chinese Communist Party backtracks on its promise of autonomy to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong decides to save his city. Rallying thousands of kids to skip school and occupy the streets, Joshua becomes an unlikely leader in Hong Kong and one of China’s most notorious dissidents.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.

The Angel

True story of Ashraf Marwan, who was President Nasser's son-in-law and special adviser and confidant to his successor Anwar Sadat - while simultaneously Israeli Intelligence's most precious asset of the 20th century. Based on NYT bestselling book 'The Angel: The Egyptian Spy Who Saved Israel' by Uri Bar-Joseph.

The Death of Stalin

When dictator Joseph Stalin dies, his parasitic cronies square off in a frantic power struggle to become the next Soviet leader. As they bumble, brawl and back-stab their way to the top, the question remains — just who is running the government?

Fight for Us

Set during the post-Marcos regime in a remote village of Dolores, chronicles the life of Jimmy Cordero, a political prisoner who have just been freed from prison after the decline of the Marcos dictatorship. From his revolutionary past, he got himself into human rights activism following his prison release. He and his wife’s brother once conducted a fact-finding mission to Dolores only to find out the terror brought about to its residents by the Orapronobis, a government backed anti-communist paramilitary troop deployed in the town of Dolores.

The Gate

Two decades after forging an unlikely alliance in Pol Pot's Cambodia, a French ethnologist and a former Khmer Rouge official meet again after the latter is arrested for crimes against humanity.

The Great Game

Pierre Blum, 40, is a writer who had his time of glory in the early 2000s. One evening, on a casino terrace, he meets Joseph Paskin. This mysterious man, charismatic and manipulative, is influential in the world of politics and persuades Pierre to take on a strange mission that takes him back to a past he’d prefer to forget, and puts his life in danger. In the middle of all this, Pierre falls in love with Laura, a young extreme-left activist. But in this world of subterfuge, who can really be trusted?

He Named Me Malala

A look at the events leading up to the Taliban's attack on the young Pakistani school girl, Malala Yousafzai, for speaking out on girls' education and the aftermath, including her speech to the United Nations.

In the Time of the Butterflies

Based on the book by Julia Alvarez. Three sisters become activists during the Dominican Republic's Trujillo regime when members of their family are killed by the government's troops.

The Lady

The story of Aung San Suu Kyi as she becomes the core of Burma's democracy movement, and her relationship with her husband, writer Michael Aris.

Life is Cheap... But Toilet Paper is Expensive

A man is hired by a group of people he believes to be gangsters to escort a briefcase from America to Hong Kong. When he arrives, however, his contact is nowhere to be found. With no further instructions, he decides to take in the sights of Hong Kong, which consist of him taking part in a great deal of blood, sex and general weirdness, all while wearing a briefcase handcuffed to his arm.

The Missing Picture

Rithy Panh uses clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.

The Postman

Simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet; he uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.

The Prize

A group of Nobel laureates descends on Stockholm to accept their awards. Among them is American novelist Andrew Craig, a former literary luminary now writing pulp detective stories to earn a living. Craig, who is infamous for his drinking and womanizing, formulates a wild theory that physics prize winner Dr. Max Stratman has been replaced by an impostor, embroiling Craig and his chaperone in a Cold War kidnapping plot.

Southside with You

Chronicles a single day in the summer of 1989 when the future president of the United States, Barack Obama, wooed his future First Lady on an epic first date across Chicago's South Side.

The Square

The Square looks at the hard realities faced day-to-day by people working to build Egypt’s new democracy. Cairo’s Tahrir Square is the heart and soul of the film, which follows several young activists. Armed with values, determination, music, humor, an abundance of social media, and sheer obstinacy, they know that the thorny path to democracy only began with Hosni Mubarak’s fall. The life-and-death struggle between the people and the power of the state is still playing out.

Bethune: The Making of a Hero

True story of Norman Bethune, a medical doctor who fought for justice in China during Mao's rise to power.

The Dissident

When Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappears after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, his fiancée and dissidents around the world are left to piece together the clues to a brutal murder and expose a global cover up perpetrated by the very country he loved.

Mother Teresa

We follow the daily activities of Mother Teresa and her nuns, in service to the poor of India and the world. Mother Teresa attends to the basic needs of her nuns and the poor, while at the same time, balances her role as world-recognized leader. Throughout the film, we witness personal and "behind-the-scenes" events, including the blessing ceremony of a nun becoming part of Mother Teresa's "Sisters of the Poor" convent.

Marie Curie

The most turbulent five years in the life of a genius woman: Between 1905, where Marie Curie comes with Pierre Curie to Stockholm to be awarded the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the radioactivity, and 1911, where she receives her second Nobel Prize, after challenging France's male-dominated academic establishment both as a scientist and a woman.

Stephen King: A Necessary Evil

The US writer Stephen King (Portland, Maine, 1947) has been one of the world's best-selling authors for decades. How can the overwhelming success of his numerous works be explained? Perhaps by the boundless inventiveness of his literature? And what else is behind the longevity of his astonishing career?

Hamsun

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.

The Afternoon of a Torturer

A young journalist interviews a man who was a torturer during the early days of the communist regime in Romania.

Sakharov

Biography of Russian physicist & dissident Andrei Sakharov focuses on his first acts in his civil rights.

Catherine Deneuve, belle et bien là

Catherine Deneuve couldn’t care less about being a celebrity, but fame made her an icon long ago and she occupies a special place in our imagination. The star is not one to let others get too close, but when she gives you her confidence, she keeps her word. If Deneuve’s career covers a half-century of cinema, it also bears witness to the force of a generation that experienced the deepest transformation of mores. This portrait reflects her entirely. The story of a mystery and an adventure.

Winston Churchill: A Giant in the Century

A new look at the public and private life of one of the most important statesmen in the history of Europe: Winston Churchill (1874-1965), soldier, politician, writer, painter, leader of his country in the darkest hours, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a myth, a giant of the 20th century.

MCAINE: An Anagram of Cinema

Legendary British actor Michael Caine, who began his brilliant career on stage during the 1950s, talks about his private life, his work in film and the books he has written.

Salman Rushdie: Death on a Trail

An intimate portrait, in his own words, of the Indian writer Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses (1988), thirty years after the fatwa uttered by the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini: his youth in multicultural Bombay, his life in England, his many years of forced hiding, his thoughts on President Trump's United States of America.

Trintignant by Trintignant

A portrait of a man of rare elegance and enigmatic charm, versatile and successful: Jean-Louis Trintignant, one of the most critically acclaimed French actors of the last sixty years, known for his numerous roles on stage and screen.

André Malraux: Writer, Politician, Adventurer

Writer, journalist, explorer, filmmaker, communist militant, freedom fighter. Truths and lies. A plot twist. Politician. General De Gaulle's shadow. Overwhelmed by the weight of power. The numerous exploits of André Malraux (1901-1976).

Sting: Beyond The Police

The personal life and professional career of music superstar Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, universally known as Sting, who became passionate about music at a very early age and founded the trio The Police in 1977 with Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers, achieving an immediate success.

King

Forty years after Martin Luther King s assassination, HISTORY, with newsman Tom Brokaw, takes viewers through the extraordinary life and times of America's civil rights visionary. KING goes beyond the legend to portray the man, the questions, the myths and, most importantly, the relevance of Dr. King s message in today s world. Includes a rare interview with his son, Martin Luther King III, as well as associates from the civil rights campaigns and contemporary figures such as former President Bill Clinton, Condaleezza Rice, Bono, Forest Whitaker, Chuck D and others.

I Invite You to My Execution

As Russian writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) thinks it is impossible that his novel Doctor Zhivago is published in the Soviet Union, because it supposedly shows a critical view of the October Revolution, he decides to smuggle several copies of the manuscript out of the country. It is first published in 1957 in Italia and the author receives the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, which has consequences.

Toni Morrison: Black Matter(s)

Toni Morrison (1931-2019), first black woman writer being awarded the Nobel Prize of Literature, was a critic, a book editor, a college professor, and a creative author of novels, poems and essays. She claimed the invention of a black writing and brought the light on what had kept silenced since the days of the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation: the black people history.

Marie Curie, au-delà du mythe

From her birth in Warsaw to her entry into the Pantheon, Marie Curie's work and career is a myth. Honored throughout the world and embodying a model of excellence, its history and life remain unknown in France. An intimate portrait of an exceptional scientist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 100 years ago.

Carl von Ossietzky

The film chronicles the last ten years in the life of Nobel Peace Prize recipient Carl von Ossietzky (1889-1938).

Billy Wilder Speaks

In 1988, German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff sat down with legendary director Billy Wilder (1906-2002) at his office in Beverly Hills, California, and turned on his camera for a series of filmed interviews. (A recut of the 1992 TV miniseries Billy, How Did You Do It?)

Decade

Interviews with personalities including John Mellencamp, Spike Lee, Lou Reed, Roseanne Barr, David Byrne, George Michael and more, as they reflect on the 1980s.

Louis de Funès Forever

A moving and very funny portrait of the personal and professional life of the magnificent French comedian Louis de Funès (1914-83), as well as a detailed analysis of his masterful acting technique.

From Hiroshima to Fukushima

The Fukushima nuclear disaster is seen trough the eyes of the charismatic and commited doctor Hida. Essential witness of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, he has been the doctor of irradiated people for more than 60 years. At the age of 96, he keeps fighting for a fairer world, putting trust in the future, using humour and provocation to denounce the official attitude. His association, Hidankyo has been nominaded twice for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Life and Fate by Vassili Grossman

The convoluted and moving story of Russian writer Vassili Grossman (1905-64) and his novel Life and Fate (1980), a literary masterpiece, a monumental and epic account of life under Stalin's regime of terror, a defiant cry that the KGB tried to suffocate.

Forever, Chinatown

Forever, Chinatown is a story of unknown, self-taught 81-year-old artist Frank Wong who has spent the past four decades recreating his fading memories by building romantic, extraordinarily detailed miniature models of the San Francisco Chinatown rooms of his youth.

Arthur Miller: A Man of His Century

An unparalleled portrait of Arthur Miller (1915-2005), a major writer who left an indelible mark on the world. Miller's life is intimately connected with the great themes that marked the 20th century. Glamour, fame, social criticism and Marilyn Monroe.

Glory Enough For All

Glory Enough for All is the 1988 television movie depicting the discovery and isolation of insulin at the University of Toronto by Frederick Banting and Charles Herbert Best. It won the 1989 Gemini award for best miniseries.

The Delegation

In 1990, a European delegation comes to Tirana to monitor the reforms of the communist regime. A government official is sent on a mission to a faraway prison in order to bring an important dissident back to the capital.

Mireille

In 2009, Frédéric Mistral’s tale of love and loss in Provence came to the Opéra de Paris with a new production of Gounod’s 1864 opera Mireille. Nicolas Joel’s naturalistic staging frames the accomplished performances of Albanian soprano Inva Mula as Mireille and American tenor Charles Castronovo as her ardent country lover Vincent.

Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp

After getting kicked out of the forest, Woody thinks he's found a forever home at Camp Woo Hoo — until an inspector threatens to shut down the camp.

More related lists

Sort results by:

X close
Default
Clear filters
...