Best movies like The Manakia Brothers: Diary of a Long Look Back

In an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, a young feral witch accidentally kills a peasant. She assumes the peasant's shape to see what life is like in her skin, igniting a deep seated curiosity to experience life inside the bodies of others.

An exiled filmmaker finally returns to his home country where former mysteries and afflictions of his early life come back to haunt him once more.

Dreaming of the West, Boryana is determined not to have a child in communist Bulgaria. Nonetheless, her daughter Viktoria enters the world in 1979, curiously missing a belly button, and is declared the country’s Baby of the Decade. Pampered by her mother state until the age of nine, Viktoria’s decade of notoriety comes crashing down with the rest of European communism. But can political collapse and the hardship of new times finally bring Viktoria and her reluctant mother closer together

A young female character, Nikki Douka, from Samothraki, is sailing to the U.S. to fulfill a marriage contract and save her family honor. Her skills as a seamstress keep her busily sewing throughout the voyage to alter wedding dresses for the third-class voyagers. But along the way, she meets a young American photographer who is returning from the Middle East where he was snapping shots of the war in Smyrna, 1922. Her honesty, pride, and beauty attract the attention of the American who falls in love with her. Tribulations abound during the voyage, following the dramas of several unfortunate young women upon whom nasty characters preyed, as Nikki struggles with her feelings for the photographer.

Deserted by their mother, a young boy and his sister discover the true meaning of family while living with their grandfather.

A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America.

Bari, a city caught in the relentless economic crisis. Ivo is an agronomist, but the lack of opportunities pushes him to accept a job in the fertile region of Banat in Romania. Clara has just ended a relationship and is about to lose her job at the Bari harbor. Ivo and Clara meet by chance and seem to immediately understand each other. They spend only one night together before Ivo's departure, but that is enough to create a bond and wanting to meet again. When Clara visits him in Romania, they fall in love. But is exile their only way to happiness?

The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during the war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.

A Japanese businessman travels to Iceland and has a series of misadventures while venturing to a remote area to perform a traditional burial ritual where his parents died several years back.

Roman returns to the land near the Ukrainian border he has just inherited from his grandfather. Fully decided to sell this vast but desolate property, he is warned by the local cop that his grandfather was a local crime lord and his men will not let go of the land - and their smuggling business - without a fight.

A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.

Actor Ned Beatty hosts a look at the genre known as "exploitation" films. Interviews with some of the producers and directors of these films are shown, along with scenes from and trailers for some of these films.

Based on Anne Holm's acclaimed young adult novel North to Freedom, I Am David chronicles the struggles of a 12-year-old boy who manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own -- through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark and a compass to help get him there.

Set on a lush Greek island, the story concerns a sister (Bo Derek) and brother (Peter Hooten), who return home after years abroad. Falling under the island's erotic spell, the girl and boy discover that their love goes beyond filial. The incestuous nature of the story evaporates when it is discovered that the two aren't actually related after all.

Hidden camera footage augments this perilous high-stakes journey as we embed with families attempting to escape oppression, ultimately revealing a world most of us have never seen.

Set in early 19th century Wallachia, Romania, a policeman, Costandin, is hired by a nobleman to find a Gypsy slave who has run away from his estate after having an affair with his wife.

American professor Robert Traum embarks on an adventurous and amusing journey through Bucovina to find Sami the projectionist, the only person alive that can tell him anything about his Romanian Jewish descent. His symbolic journey is filled with danger, the unknown and the surreal, but finally rewarded with a double love: on the one hand he finds romantic love, on the other the passion for old cinema, nomad, popular, naive and generous.

A Macedonian military deserter and his Italian blood-brother are searching for a dead grandmother wrapped up in a stolen carpet, all over the Balkan's criminal underworld.

A tabloid photographer is given the assignment to follow a politician suspected to have sexual relations with an underage girl.

Baklava is a fairy tale about a country in the heart of the Peninsula and two brothers, separated by the timelessness of the Transition. Djore is 26, dresses in black, listens to drum & bass and does graffiti. Kotze is 9, wears a silver chain, steals, fights and loves pop folk. Their journey in search of a buried treasure introduce us in an end neighborhood populated with weird characters, dark dreams and child's fantasies.

Tracy and Nick agree to set aside work to make time for a long overdue honeymoon to Greece. However, they soon find themselves confronting life choices when they get stranded on a secluded island.

A concert to celebrate Bulgaria joining the EU is being planned at the Embassy in London and it is the job of VARADIN, the new ambassador, to ensure the Queen attends. But with corrupt staff, criminal gangs operating out of the kitchen, falling in love with a stripper and a little misunderstanding with a PR firm that provides look-alike royalties - his simple task turns into a chaotic nightmare.

A documentary chronicle of one of our greatest directors.

Toni Caramusat, a famous film director, is fascinated by the idea of finding the 13th fundamental truth about the Aromanians. According to a myth, this truth is held by Armanamea, the last descendant of this people. Toni goes on dates with young women from all over the world, in hope of finding both the truth and his soul mate. Will he ever find them and, if so, at what cost?

Vassil (41) is a documentary film director who has not achieved the success he dreams of. He puts all his energy filming the broken relationship between a monk and his mother. Meanwhile Vassil's wife and their 14-year-old daughter take second place in his life. The director learns that the monk is in a psychiatry while his mother will have to undergo a cancer surgery. To bring them together to forgive each other is Vassil's long awaited finale of his film. He faces a dilemma to shoot "life as it is" or show human compassion and empathy.

Two Albanian brothers migrate to Greece and try, each in his own way, to integrate into their host country by following two different lifestyles.

Based on a true story. 1996, open sea. During his shift on a transatlantic ship’s deck, Joel, a religious Filipino sailor, discovers Dumitru, a Romanian stowaway hidden between some containers. If he is spotted by the Taiwanese officers running the vessel, Dumitru is at risk to be thrown overboard. Joel decides to hide him, as a sign of his gratitude towards God. Soon, a dangerous cat and mouse game begins. When his crew, his own friends, even God itself start to turn their backs on him, Joel learns that he has to face his cruel destiny alone.

A small-town labour union turns to the dark arts for empowerment against the corrupt forces in their community in Mladen Đorđević’s timely and disturbing socio-horror satire.

Under the hot Greek sun, animators at an all-inclusive island resort prepare for the busy tourist season. Kalia is the group leader. Paper decorations, glossy costumes and dance shows fill the stage. As summer intensifies and the work pressure builds up, their nights become violent and Kalia's struggle is revealed in the darkness. But when the spotlights turn on again, the show must go on.

An historical film that follows the life of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian king that united all ancient Greek tribes and led them against the vast Persian Empire. Alexander conquered most of the then-known world and created a Greek empire that spanned all the way from the Balkans to India.

When his wife leaves him, struggling Bulgarian photographer Zack sets out on a wild trip from London to Berlin. It is a journey that reveals the truth about his lost love - and ultimately to uncomfortable discoveries about himself.

In 1877 during the Russo-Turkish war the Kingdom of Romania joins the war on Russia's side and declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Six year old Azad (a Kurd from Iraq) was engaged to his cousin Vian but after that the two kids were separated due to the political situation. At 19, Azad accidentally witnessed the murder of Vian's father and had to leave the country. On board the ship to Europe he met a beautiful girl and fell in love with her without recognizing that she was his fiancée Vian. Vian, on her part, did not reveal herself to him because she thought he had been involved in the murder of her father and she tried to suppress her feelings towards Azad.

A documentary that chronicles the extraordinary odyssey of NBA mega-star Giannis Antetokounmpo from an impoverished childhood in Greece as the son of Nigerian immigrants to the very top of the basketball world.

This documentary goes beneath the surface of our favorite films, seeking to better understand the way we view love, relationships, and romance. From clumsy meet cutes to rain-soaked declarations of love, these films reflect our experiences but are often just as problematic as they are comforting. Helped by a chorus of critics, actors, and filmmakers, and original songs by her band Summer Camp, director Elizabeth Sankey embarks on a journey of investigation and self-discovery.