Skip to content
East, West, East: The Final Sprint poster
Recommendations based on

East, West, East: The Final Sprint

2009 Movie Drama Comedy

An amateur cycling team from Albania heads to France to take part in a tournament only to discover on the way that revolution has broken out back home.

Same cast & genre

19 Shares actors and at least one genre with this title
Agia poster
FILM

In the 1990s, Albania's totalitarian regime is coming to an end. Agia, a young woman in a remote village still ruled by rigid codes of honour and silence, is barred from learning her family's craft. In her first act of defiance, she secretly begins mastering the tradition reserved for men. When this plunges her into a wider world, Agia dares to assert not only work and visibility, but also her own desires. Her belated coming of age becomes a quiet rebellion, mirroring that of a nation struggling to redefine itself.

Agia

2026 Drama
Hostage poster
5.6 FILM

Inspired by the real-life story of a bus hijacking in Northern Greece, HOSTAGE explores the sensitive issue of Greek-Albanian relations through a young Albanian who takes over an intercity bus. Upon hijacking the bus, he takes the seven passengers hostage and demands a ransom of half and million euro, and safe passage to his homeland of Albania. Surrounded by police, the bus trundles towards the Albanian border and the tension mounts until the final harrowing conclusion.

Hostage

2005 Crime
The Albanian Virgin poster
7.5 FILM

Albania, 1958. Luana, the daughter of a well respected man in the village, makes friends with Agim, who moved here after his family were banned from the city by the communists. Years later, their childhood friendship turns into teenage love, but without prospects. Luana’s father promised her in marriage to someone else when she was a child. When her father finds out about Luana and Agim’s love, he is furious and immediately arranges for his daughter to be married to the man he chose for her. Luana faces a dilemma: to flee with her lover to Germany, risking being caught by the communists and probably killed, or stay loyal to her family. A poignant love story set in dark times shaped by pressure from old traditions. A deeply human tale about freedom, which is the greatest good even if the price is loneliness.

The Albanian Virgin

2023 Drama
L'Orizzonte Degli Eventi poster
FILM

The film is about two worlds, different and parallel, living together in the same territory: the Gran Sasso of Italy. The contact between the two realities occurs through the characters of Max, a nuclear physics researcher who works tirelessly in the laboratory located in the belly of the mountain, and the shepherd Bajram. In fact, the shepherd walks on the physicist's head but neither of them knows it. Inside the laboratory the most advanced craft of mankind is being developed, above the mountain, on the other hand, there are poor immigrants doing the oldest work in the world. Gran Sasso is, according to the director, the synthetic image of globalization.

L'Orizzonte Degli Eventi

2005 Drama
The Moonless Night poster
FILM

"In The Moonless Night, the whole of Albania seems to head for the coast by train in order to emigrate to the West. So too is 16-year-old Rudina and her strict and secretive grandfather, who have left their village with that aim in mind. In the train, Rudina meets Gjergj, who is on his way with his friend Millo. The grandfather tries at all costs to keep the two away from each other, but is left powerless in the train when Rudina and Gjergj miss the train at the station. As they continue their journey on foot, they get to know each other better. When they reach the beach, the local Mafia is busy organising the smuggling of people and goods. When the train travellers arrive there too, it slowly becomes clear how much Rudina's grandfather tries to hide about his past and why he doesn't want the two young people to be together." - IFFR

The Moonless Night

2004 Drama

Closely Ranked

10 Ranked across franchise, crew, cast, themes, genre, era and audience scores
The Racer poster
88% match FILM

Summer 1998 - the opening stages of Le Tour de France are relocated to Ireland. Belgian rider Dom Chabol (late 30s) has been one of the best “Domestiques” (support riders) on the Tour for the last 20 years. It’s a sacrificial role – setting pace, blocking wind, and providing support to enable the team’s sprinter to victory - winning is not an option. But Dom secretly harbours a desire to wear the yellow jersey - just once before his career is over. At the start of what will likely be his last Tour, Dom is unceremoniously dropped from the Team he has dedicated his life to. His best mate Sonny, the team masseur, fails to reassure him about his future. But a chance liaison with Lynn, a young Irish doctor, softens the blow, and Dom starts to accept - and even enjoy - the idea of civilian life. But as he gears up to go home and to face his estranged sister, a massive doping error knocks another teammate off the Tour and Dom is thrown back in the saddle…

The Racer

★ 5.9 2020 Drama

Viewers also picked

King of the Belgians poster
84% match FILM

The King of the Belgians is on a state visit in Istanbul when his country falls apart. He must return home at once to save his kingdom. But a solar storm causes airspace and communications to shut down. No planes. No phones. With the help of a British filmmaker and a troupe of Bulgarian folk singers, the King and his entourage manage to escape over the border. Incognito. Thus begins an odyssey across the Balkans during which the King discovers the real world - and himself.

King of the Belgians

★ 6.0 2016 Comedy

Viewers also picked