13 Best War Drama Movies of 2023

Wars and armed conflicts have haunted mankind since the very first day of its existence. And now the situation in the world can by no means be called calm.

But what are the reasons for confrontations between peoples and entire countries? For what reason people are so eager to destroy each other? And what can be done to make man move from destruction to creation? Perhaps the answers to these questions will give foreign war dramas 2023 from our list.

The Zone of Interest

• IMDB Rating – 8.3
• Genre: Drama, Military, History
• Production: USA, UK, Poland / 2023
• Director: Jonathan Glaser
• Starring: Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel, Ralf Herfort, Maximilian Beck, Stefanie Petrovitz, Marie Rosa Tietjen, Sascha Maaz, Wolfgang Lampl, Lilly Falk, Christopher Manavi

It’s a new movie about the holocaust. World War II. Germany. Rudolf Hoess’s family leads an ordinary life of German burghers. Rudolf goes to work every day. The children play and swim in the river, and Höss’s wife, Hedwig, is engaged in the garden.

The family’s German country villa is ascetic, but tidy and lovingly decorated. And only from the chimney, adjacent to the wall of the house, a constant gray smoke. The owner of the house is the commandant of Auschwitz. And there, behind the wall, hundreds of people are burned every day.

Rudolf Hoess served as commandant of Auschwitz from 1940 to 1943 and confessed to the extermination of 2.5 million Jews. He was executed in 1947. Growing up, Hoess’s five children refused to condemn their father. They still believe that Hoess was just an excellent military man who followed orders.

Blood & Gold

• IMDB Rating – 6.5
• Genre: Action, Drama, Military, History
• Production: Germany / 2023
• Director: Peter Torwart
• Starring: Robert Maser, Marie Hacke, Alexander Scher, Florian Schmidtke, Jördis Triebel, Stefan Großmann, Simon Rupp, Jochen Nickel, Petra Zieser, Roy McCreary.

Spring of 1945. The Second World War is about to end. An SS detachment led by Lieutenant Colonel von Starnfeld is busy searching for the gold that was taken from the Jews during Kristallnacht.

A deserter named Heinrich falls into their hands. The Nazis decide to hang the young man, but he is rescued by a local farmer named Elsa. But obsessed with the search for gold, the SS squad returns to the village. And now Heinrich cannot avoid meeting them.

The lead role in the military spaghetti western was played by German actor and athlete Robert Maser, who was twice world champion in artistic gymnastics before beginning his movie career.

Ambush

• IMDB Rating – 4.0
• Genre: Action, Thriller, Military
• Production: USA / 2023
• Worldwide Box Office: $26,305
• Director: Mark Boorman
• Starring: Jonathan Rees Myers, Aaron Eckhart, Connor Paolo, Mac Brandt, Mara Lane, Jason Genao, Jordan Johnson-Hinds, Patrick Walker, Gregory Sims, Matt Martinez

A movie about the Vietnam War in 1966. A group of American elite commandos is tasked to bring back to the United States classified data on agents fighting on the side of the States.

But after a surprise attack, a folder with crucial information ends up in the hands of the Vietnamese. The American soldiers follow the enemy’s trail, which leads to the deadly labyrinth of the Kuti tunnels.

The Kuti Tunnels are a network of numerous underground passages located in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City. The total length of the tunnels exceeds 200 kilometers. Under the ground is a whole city consisting of living rooms, warehouses, medical facilities, water wells and more. At present, the Kuti Tunnels are a popular tourist destination in Vietnam.

The Phantom

• IMDB Rating – 6.3
• Genre: Thriller, History, Action
• Production: Korea South / 2023
• Budget: $11,000,000
• Worldwide Box Office: $5,172,736
• Director: Lee Hae-young
• Starring: Seol Kyung-gu, Lee Ha-ni, Park So-dam, Park Hae-soo, Seo Hyun-woo, Kim Dong-hee, Kim Joon-hee, Ko In-bum, Jo Ha-seok, Seo Jin-won

A thrilling spy thriller about the Japanese occupation of Korea. After another assassination attempt on the governor, the Japanese decide to track down a spy deeply embedded in the occupation government.

Five suspects are gathered in one place. It is a remote hotel located on a seaside cliff, from which it is impossible to escape. Now each of the suspects must prove their innocence.

From 1910 to 1945, Korea was invaded by militaristic Japan. This is a very controversial time for Korea. During the colonial period, the country experienced rapid economic growth due to the rapid development of industry. At the same time, the Japanese authorities pursued a discriminatory policy towards the local Korean population.

Hidden Blade

• IMDB Rating – 6.5
• Genre: Thriller, Drama, History, Military
• Production: China / 2023
• Worldwide Box Office: $139,243,714
• Director: Cheng Er
• Starring: Tony Leung Chu Wai, Wang Yibo, Zhou Xun, Huang Lei, Dong Chengpeng, Wang Chuanjun, Jian Shuying, Hiroyuki Mori, Zhang Jingyi, Dong Yi

The events of the Chinese spy action movie unfold during the Second World War. In the puppet pro-Japanese government of Wang Jingwei, a Communist agent is infiltrated. To gain the trust of the Japanese, the spy does not shy away from torturing and killing innocent people. He is ready to do anything to disrupt the negotiations between the Japanese and Chiang Kai-shek and bring the Communists to power in China.

One of the best foreign war movies of 2023. The spy thriller has already grossed nearly $140 million at the worldwide box office and is among the top ten highest-grossing films of 2023.

White Bird

• Genre: Drama, Adventure, Family, Military, Biography
• Production: USA / 2023
• Director: Marc Forster
• Starring: Orlando Schwerdt, Ariella Glazer, Helen Mirren, Gillian Anderson, Olivia Ross, Bryce Geysar, Patsy Ferran, Joe Stone-Fewings, Stuart McQuarrie, John Bubniak

Teenager Julian Albans is expelled from school for bullying his classmate Auggie Pullman. After learning about this, Julian’s grandmother decides to change her grandson’s life and tells him the story of her difficult childhood. How she, a Jewish girl, during World War II was rescued from massacre by a young man who cared about her and was practically a stranger.

The military historical drama is a spin-off of the 2017 family drama Miracle and is based on Raquel Palacio’s novel White Bird: A Miracle Story.

L’abbé Pierre

• Genre: Drama, Military, Biography, History
• Production: France / 2023
• Director: Frédéric Tellier
• Starring: Benjamin Lavergne, Emmanuelle Bercot, Michel Vuillermoz, Antoine Laurent, Alain Sachs, Leila Muse, Malik Amraoui, Chloe Stephanie, Djibril Pavade, Didier Noblez

A biopic about the life of a great Frenchman – Abbot Pierre, in the world Henri Antoine Gruet. During World War II, Gruet rescued Jews and was an active member of the French Resistance. It was during these heroic years that the Catholic priest received the clandestine call sign “Abbé Pierre”, which later became his middle name.

The 2023 foreign military biographical movie is based on real events. According to a poll conducted in France, Abbé Pierre is considered the most outstanding Frenchman. The World War II hero was voted for by 55% of respondents.

Love in Country

• IMDB Rating – 5.3
• Genre: Drama, Military
• Production: USA / 2023
• Director: Kurt Brown, Richard Gayton
• Starring: David Garber, Michael Southworth, Vincent van Hint, Elijah Olakea, John Owens, Robert M. O’Brien, John Michael Tilmont, Saw Ha, Brandon Utterman, David A. Miller

The year is 1968. The Vietnam War is in full swing. During the horrors of the longest and most brutal war of the 20th century, Sergeants Ian Alexander and John Reese fell in love. Can they get out of this bloody meat grinder alive?

The Vietnam War was both a civil war between the socialist North and the capitalist South and an armed struggle against the American occupiers. The military conflict ended with the complete victory of North Vietnam, which was unofficially supported by the USSR. Americans during the conflict lost 58 thousand people, more than 300 thousand people were wounded.

Golda

• Genre: Drama, Military, Biography, History
• Production: UK, USA / 2023
• Director: Guy Nattiv
• Starring: Helen Mirren, Zed Joseph, Claudette Williams, Henry Goodman, Olivia Brody, Emma Davies, Rotem Keynan, Camille Cotten, Jonathan Tefler, Ellie Piercy.

Sometimes winners are judged. Golda Meir is the first and only female prime minister of Israel. It was she who had to deal with the complex conflict between a coalition of Arab states and Israel during the Doomsday War. Although Israel was victorious in this confrontation, the enormous sacrifices of the Jewish state forced Golda Meir to resign.

The Doomsday War began during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, or Judgment Day. In the first days of the conflict, which lasted eighteen days, the Arab coalition forces achieved significant success. The situation was so catastrophic that, according to some reports, Israel was prepared to use nuclear weapons. Under pressure from the U.S. and the USSR, the conflict was ended.

Zhi yuan jun: xiong bing chu ji

• Genre: Military, Action, History
• Production: China / 2023
• Director: Chen Kaige
• Starring: Zhu Yilong, Zhang Zifeng, Xin Baiqin, Chen Feiyu, Huang Xiaoming, Zhang Yi, Mathias Laurieri, William Ninan, Andrew Rolfe

The war drama is dedicated to the exploits of Chinese volunteers during the Korean War of 1950-1953. It all began with the decision of the Central Government of the People’s Republic of China to participate in the military conflict that unfolded on the territory of neighboring Korea.

Poorly armed and lacking heavy military equipment, the Chinese volunteers managed to turn the tide of the war and repulse the well-trained and state-of-the-art U.S. troops.

The Korean War of 1950-1953 was a military confrontation between the North and South parts of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea was supported by the USSR and China, while South Korea was supported by the United States. The war ended with an armistice on July 27, 1953. The territory of the Korean Peninsula is still divided into two states: the communist Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the capitalist Republic of Korea.

Measures of Men

• IMDB Rating – 7.2
• Genre: Drama, Military, History
• Production: Germany / 2023
• Director: Lars Kraume
• Starring: Leonard Scheicher, Peter Simonischek, Sven Schelker, Max Philip Koch, Ludger Böckelmann, Leo Meyer, Anton Paulus, Thilo Werner, Corinna Kirchhoff, Alexander Rajun.

One of the most significant foreign war dramas of 2023. The beginning of the last century. German ethnologist Alexander Hoffman tries to disprove the unscientific theories of his time about the superiority of white Europeans over black Africans.

The scientist travels to Africa, to the former colony of German Southwest Africa, to add to the collection of art and skulls of the Berlin Ethnological Museum. There Hoffmann witnesses the first genocide of the 20th century – the extermination of the African tribes of the Herero and Nama by the Germans.

Between 1904 and 1908, German troops massacred 65,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people. The survivors of 15 thousand women and children were sent by the Germans to a concentration camp, where they were in the position of slaves. The German authorities officially recognized the fact of genocide only in 2021.

Jia yuan xing dong

• Genre: Action, Military, History
• Production: China / 2023
• Director: Sun Yinxi
• Starring: Liu Ye

2015. Saudi Arabia announces the start of a military operation in Yemen against the Houthi group. But several hundred civilian specialists from China are in the country.

The government of the People’s Republic of China has decided to evacuate its citizens from the war-ridden country. The Chinese special forces are tasked with carrying out the operation without casualties and in the shortest possible time.

The action movie is based on real events. In March 2015, China successfully evacuated more than 600 of its citizens from Yemen. The civilian specialists were evacuated on frigates of the Northern Fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy patrolling off the coast of Somalia.

Filip

The story of one Jew who, in the midst of the Holocaust, refuses to die and decides to enjoy life. A Polish Jew named Philip manages to escape from the Warsaw ghetto.

The young man ends up in Frankfurt am Main, where he pretends to be French. He gets a job as a waiter in a restaurant. But the war continues to take its bloody toll, and Philip decides to take revenge. In his own special way.

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto created by the Nazis in occupied Europe. The number of isolated Jews amounted to 450,000 people. The inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto died en masse from cold, hunger and epidemics, as well as were constantly exterminated by the Nazis in the death camps.

In April 1943, there was an uprising in the ghetto, which was brutally suppressed by SS troops. The 37,000 Jews who survived were exterminated and the ghetto was liquidated.