10 Heart-Wrenching Melodramas About Repression

Description: Set in post-World War II Brooklyn, this film tells the story of Sophie, a Polish immigrant with a haunting past involving the Holocaust, and her complex relationship with a writer and her lover.

Fact: Meryl Streep won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Sophie, and the film was nominated for five Academy Awards in total.

Description: Set in Indonesia during the 1965 coup, this film follows a love story between an Australian journalist and a British embassy worker amidst political turmoil and repression.

Fact: Linda Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a male Chinese-Australian dwarf, Billy Kwan.

Description: While not strictly a love story, this epic film about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, includes elements of personal repression and the struggle for love and identity under political oppression.

Fact: The film was the first Western production allowed to film in the Forbidden City in Beijing, and it won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Description: This film portrays the life of a dedicated butler whose repressed emotions and loyalty to his employer blind him to the political and personal turmoil around him.

Fact: Anthony Hopkins was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his role as the butler, James Stevens.

Description: Set during World War II, this film tells the story of a badly burned man whose past love affair unfolds through flashbacks, highlighting themes of love, betrayal, and the repression of memories.

Fact: The film won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Anthony Minghella.

Description: A British doctor and his unfaithful wife are sent to a cholera-stricken village in China, where their relationship evolves amidst the backdrop of political and social repression.

Fact: The film was shot on location in China, providing an authentic backdrop to the story.

Description: A story of love and regret, where a young girl's lie leads to the separation of two lovers during World War II, exploring themes of guilt, forgiveness, and the impact of repression on personal lives.

Fact: The film features a famous five-minute continuous shot on Dunkirk beach, which was meticulously planned and executed.

Description: This film explores the relationship between a young man and an older woman in post-war Germany, revealing her past as a former Nazi concentration camp guard, leading to themes of guilt, love, and repression.

Fact: Kate Winslet won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Hanna Schmitz, and the film was nominated for five Academy Awards.

Description: This film captures the lives of a Czech surgeon, his wife, and his lover during the Prague Spring and its aftermath, exploring themes of love, freedom, and political repression.

Fact: The film was banned in Czechoslovakia until the Velvet Revolution in

Description: This German film explores the life of a Stasi officer who becomes unexpectedly sympathetic to the subjects he is surveilling, a playwright and his actress lover, under the oppressive regime of East Germany.

Fact: The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007, and its director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, was only 33 when he wrote and directed it.