Historical Fiction Movies
Kinora's catalogue lists 178 films set in a real historical period, spanning 1940–2025. Each is tagged by where and when it takes place — filter by real-world setting, era, and environment, or open any film for its full tagged world.
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- 1976
1900
Ruraldir. Bernardo Bertolucci - 2007
300
Mountaindir. Zack Snyder - 2007
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
Urbandir. Cristian Mungiu - 1956
A Man Escaped
Urbandir. Robert Bresson - 1977
A Special Day
Urbandir. Ettore Scola - 1999
A Walk on the Moon
Ruraldir. Tony Goldwyn - 2009
Agora
Urbandir. Alejandro Amenábar - 2022
All Quiet on the Western Front
Ruraldir. Edward Berger - 1984
Amadeus
Urbandir. Miloš Forman - 1973
Amarcord
Coastal Sea · Ruraldir. Federico Fellini - 1992
American Me
Urbandir. Edward James Olmos - 1986
An American Tail
Urban · Ruraldir. Don Bluth - 1997
Anastasia
Urbandir. Don Bluth - 1966
Andrei Rublev
Ruraldir. Andrei Tarkovsky - 2006
Apocalypto
Wilderness · Rural · Urbandir. Mel Gibson - 1969
Army of Shadows
Urbandir. Jean-Pierre Melville - 1958
Ashes and Diamonds
Urbandir. Andrzej Wajda - 2022
Babylon
Urbandir. Damien Chazelle - 1983
Barefoot Gen
Urbandir. Mori Masaki - 1975
Barry Lyndon
Ruraldir. Stanley Kubrick - 2019
Beanpole
Urbandir. Kantemir Balagov - 1959
Ben-Hur
Urban · Coastal Seadir. William Wyler - 1991
Black Robe
Wildernessdir. Bruce Beresford - 1972
Cabaret
Urbandir. Bob Fosse - 1970
Catch-22
Island · Coastal Seadir. Mike Nichols - 1945
Children of Paradise
Urbandir. Marcel Carné - 1966
Closely Watched Trains
Ruraldir. Jiří Menzel - 2003
Cold Mountain
Rural · Mountaindir. Anthony Minghella - 1985
Come and See
Rural · Wildernessdir. Elem Klimov - 1990
Cyrano de Bergerac
Urban · Ruraldir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau - 1990
Dances with Wolves
Wilderness · Ruraldir. Kevin Costner - 1943
Day of Wrath
Ruraldir. Carl Theodor Dreyer - 1965
Doctor Zhivago
Urban · Ruraldir. David Lean - 1971
Duck, You Sucker
Rural · Desertdir. Sergio Leone - 2017
Dunkirk
Coastal Seadir. Christopher Nolan - 1998
Elizabeth
Urbandir. Shekhar Kapur - 1987
Empire of the Sun
Urbandir. Steven Spielberg - 1991
Europa
dir. Lars von Trier - 1998
EverAfter
Ruraldir. Andy Tennant - 1993
Farewell My Concubine
Urbandir. Chen Kaige - 1971
Fiddler on the Roof
Ruraldir. Norman Jewison - 1972
Fist of Fury
Urbandir. Lo Wei - 1994
Fist of Legend
Urbandir. Gordon Chan - 1940
Foreign Correspondent
Urbandir. Alfred Hitchcock - 1994
Forrest Gump
Rural · Urban · Coastal Seadir. Robert Zemeckis - 1948
Fort Apache
Desertdir. John Ford - 1953
From Here to Eternity
Islanddir. Fred Zinnemann - 1981
Gallipoli
Desert · Rural · Urbandir. Peter Weir - 2002
Gangs of New York
Urbandir. Martin Scorsese - 2000
Gladiator
Urbandir. Ridley Scott - 2003
Good Bye, Lenin!
Urbandir. Wolfgang Becker - 2022
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Rural · Coastal Seadir. Mark Gustafson - 1988
Hairspray
Urbandir. John Waters - 1962
Harakiri
Urbandir. Masaki Kobayashi - 1980
Heaven's Gate
Ruraldir. Michael Cimino - 2002
Hero
Rural · Urbandir. Zhang Yimou - 1981
History of the World: Part I
Urban · Wildernessdir. Mel Brooks - 1962
How the West Was Won
Wilderness · Rural · Mountaindir. John Ford - 1964
I Am Cuba
Urban · Rural · Mountaindir. Mikhail Kalatozov - 2013
Ida
Rural · Urbandir. Paweł Pawlikowski - 2016
In This Corner of the World
Urban · Coastal Seadir. Sunao Katabuchi - 2009
Inglourious Basterds
Urban · Ruraldir. Quentin Tarantino - 2013
Inside Llewyn Davis
Urbandir. Joel Coen - 1993
Iron Monkey
Urbandir. Yuen Woo-ping - 1972
Jeremiah Johnson
Wilderness · Mountaindir. Sydney Pollack - 2019
Jojo Rabbit
Urbandir. Taika Waititi - 1962
Jules and Jim
Urbandir. François Truffaut - 1980
Kagemusha
Ruraldir. Akira Kurosawa - 2005
Kingdom of Heaven
Desert · Urbandir. Ridley Scott - 1996
Kolya
Urbandir. Jan Svěrák - 1997
L.A. Confidential
Urbandir. Curtis Hanson - 1995
Land and Freedom
Rural · Urbandir. Ken Loach - 1962
Lawrence of Arabia
Desertdir. David Lean - 1994
Legends of the Fall
Rural · Wilderness · Mountaindir. Edward Zwick - 2021
Licorice Pizza
Suburbandir. Paul Thomas Anderson - 1997
Life Is Beautiful
Urbandir. Roberto Benigni - 1979
Life of Brian
Urban · Desertdir. Terry Jones - 1944
Lifeboat
Coastal Seadir. Alfred Hitchcock - 1970
Little Big Man
Wilderness · Ruraldir. Arthur Penn - 1975
Love and Death
Rural · Urbandir. Woody Allen - 2007
Lust, Caution
Urbandir. Ang Lee - 2003
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Coastal Seadir. Peter Weir - 1993
Matinee
Coastal Seadir. Joe Dante - 1991
Mediterraneo
Island · Coastal Seadir. Gabriele Salvatores - 1968
Memories of Underdevelopment
Urbandir. Tomás Gutiérrez Alea - 1983
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
dir. Nagisa Ōshima - 2002
Millennium Actress
Urbandir. Satoshi Kon - 1976
Mr. Klein
Urbandir. Joseph Losey - 1942
Mrs. Miniver
Ruraldir. William Wyler - 1960
Mughal-e-Azam
Urbandir. K. Asif - 1962
Mutiny on the Bounty
Coastal Sea · Islanddir. Lewis Milestone - 1946
My Darling Clementine
Desert · Ruraldir. John Ford - 1959
Operation Petticoat
Coastal Seadir. Blake Edwards - 1946
Paisan
Urban · Rural · Coastal Seadir. Roberto Rossellini - 2006
Pan's Labyrinth
Rural · Undergrounddir. Guillermo del Toro - 1973
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Desert · Ruraldir. Sam Peckinpah - 2000
Peppermint Candy
Urban · Ruraldir. Lee Chang-dong - 1975
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Wilderness · Ruraldir. Peter Weir - 1978
Pretty Baby
Urbandir. Louis Malle - 2005
Pride & Prejudice
Ruraldir. Joe Wright - 1994
Queen Margot
Urbandir. Patrice Chéreau - 1951
Quo Vadis
Urbandir. Mervyn LeRoy - 1988
Red Sorghum
Ruraldir. Zhang Yimou - 1996
Ridicule
Urbandir. Patrice Leconte - 1950
Rio Grande
Ruraldir. John Ford - 1995
Rob Roy
Rural · Mountaindir. Michael Caton-Jones - 1945
Rome, Open City
Urbandir. Roberto Rossellini - 2022
RRR
Urban · Wildernessdir. S. S. Rajamouli - 2002
Russian Ark
Urbandir. Aleksandr Sokurov - 1954
Sansho the Bailiff
Rural · Coastal Seadir. Kenji Mizoguchi - 1954
Senso
Urbandir. Luchino Visconti - 1998
Shakespeare in Love
Urbandir. John Madden - 1949
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Desertdir. John Ford - 2016
Silence
Rural · Coastal Sea · Islanddir. Martin Scorsese - 2025
Sinners
Ruraldir. Ryan Coogler - 1955
Sissi
Rural · Mountain · Urbandir. Ernst Marischka - 1959
Some Like It Hot
Urban · Coastal Seadir. Billy Wilder - 2015
Son of Saul
Undergrounddir. László Nemes - 1982
Sophie's Choice
Urbandir. Alan J. Pakula - 1960
Spartacus
Ruraldir. Stanley Kubrick - 1953
Stalag 17
Ruraldir. Billy Wilder - 1993
Stalingrad
Urbandir. Joseph Vilsmaier - 2006
Still Life
Urbandir. Jia Zhangke - 1999
The 13th Warrior
Wilderness · Rural · Undergrounddir. John McTiernan - 1952
The African Queen
Wildernessdir. John Huston - 1960
The Alamo
dir. John Wayne - 1977
The Ascent
Rural · Wildernessdir. Larisa Shepitko - 1957
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Wilderness · Ruraldir. David Lean - 2024
The Brutalist
Urbandir. Brady Corbet - 1985
The Color Purple
Ruraldir. Steven Spielberg - 1971
The Conformist
Urbandir. Bernardo Bertolucci - 1957
The Cranes Are Flying
Urbandir. Mikhail Kalatozov - 1996
The Crucible
Ruraldir. Nicholas Hytner - 1973
The Day of the Jackal
Urbandir. Fred Zinnemann - 1978
The Deer Hunter
Urban · Wildernessdir. Michael Cimino - 2001
The Devil's Backbone
Ruraldir. Guillermo del Toro - 2018
The Favourite
Urbandir. Yorgos Lanthimos - 1974
The Godfather Part II
Urban · Ruraldir. Francis Ford Coppola - 1965
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Rural · Desertdir. Pier Paolo Pasolini - 1940
The Grapes of Wrath
Ruraldir. John Ford - 1959
The Great War
Ruraldir. Mario Monicelli - 1959
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
Ruraldir. Masaki Kobayashi - 2008
The Hurt Locker
Urban · Desertdir. Kathryn Bigelow - 2013
The Immigrant
Urbandir. James Gray - 1956
The King and I
Urbandir. Walter Lang - 2006
The Last King of Scotland
Urbandir. Kevin Macdonald - 1980
The Last Metro
Urbandir. François Truffaut - 1992
The Last of the Mohicans
Wilderness · Mountaindir. Michael Mann - 1988
The Last Temptation of Christ
Desert · Urban · Ruraldir. Martin Scorsese - 1994
The Legend of Drunken Master
Urbandir. Lau Kar-leung - 1963
The Leopard
Urban · Ruraldir. Luchino Visconti - 1968
The Lion in Winter
Urbandir. Anthony Harvey - 2006
The Lives of Others
Urbandir. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck - 1979
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Urban · Suburbandir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder - 2005
The New World
Wildernessdir. Terrence Malick - 1975
The Old Gun
Rural · Urbandir. Robert Enrico - 1976
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Ruraldir. Clint Eastwood - 2004
The Passion of the Christ
Urban · Ruraldir. Mel Gibson - 2000
The Patriot
Ruraldir. Roland Emmerich - 1994
The Postman
Island · Coastal Seadir. Michael Radford - 1998
The Prince of Egypt
Desert · Urbandir. Simon Wells - 1993
The Remains of the Day
Ruraldir. James Ivory - 1973
The Spirit of the Beehive
Ruraldir. Víctor Erice - 1956
The Ten Commandments
Desert · Urbandir. Cecil B. DeMille - 1998
The Thin Red Line
Wilderness · Island · Coastal Seadir. Terrence Malick - 1964
The Train
Rural · Urbandir. John Frankenheimer - 1988
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Urban · Ruraldir. Philip Kaufman - 1969
The Wild Bunch
Desert · Ruraldir. Sam Peckinpah - 2006
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Rural · Mountaindir. Ken Loach - 1999
Three Kings
Desertdir. David O. Russell - 1997
Titanic
Coastal Seadir. James Cameron - 1942
To Be or Not to Be
Urbandir. Ernst Lubitsch - 1994
To Live
Ruraldir. Zhang Yimou - 2004
Troy
Coastal Sea · Urbandir. Wolfgang Petersen - 1949
Twelve O'Clock High
Ruraldir. Henry King - 1960
Two Women
Rural · Mountaindir. Vittorio De Sica - 1995
Underground
Urban · Undergrounddir. Emir Kusturica - 2011
War Horse
Ruraldir. Steven Spielberg
Frequently asked
How many movies are set in a real historical period?
Kinora's catalogue lists 178 films set in a real historical period, spanning 1940–2025.
What are some movies set in a real historical period?
Films set in a real historical period in our catalogue include 1900 (1976), 300 (2007), 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007), A Man Escaped (1956), and A Special Day (1977).
What is the oldest movie set in a real historical period?
Foreign Correspondent (1940) is the earliest film set in a real historical period in our catalogue; the most recent is Sinners (2025).