Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "despotic-rule"
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1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Family
With their warning about Lord Voldemort's return scoffed at, Harry and Dumbledore are targeted by the Wizard authorities as an authoritarian bureaucrat slowly seizes power at Hogwarts.
Director: David Yates | Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Brendan Gleeson
Votes: 634,314 | Gross: $292.00M
2. House of Saddam (2008)
TV-MA | 232 min | Biography, Drama, History
A mini-series that explores the inner workings of Saddam Hussein's family and his relationship with his closest advisors.
Stars: Igal Naor, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Makram Khoury, Philip Arditti
Votes: 5,174
3. How to Become a Tyrant (2021)
TV-14 | 23 min | Documentary, Biography, History
Ruling with an iron fist requires an aspiring dictator to know the playbook for absolute power, as history's despots prove in this sardonic docuseries.
Stars: Peter Dinklage, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Waller Newell, Ruth Ben-Ghiat
Votes: 11,400
4. Stalin (1992 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 172 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.
Director: Ivan Passer | Stars: Robert Duvall, Julia Ormond, Maximilian Schell, Jeroen Krabbé
Votes: 2,787
5. The Land (1970)
130 min | Drama
A small peasant village's struggles against the careless inroads of the large local landowner. The Land shows why political oppression does not necessarily lead to a sense of solidarity among the disinherited.
Director: Youssef Chahine | Stars: Mahmoud Al Meleji, Nagwa Ibrahim, Ezzat El Alaili, Hamdy Ahmed
Votes: 2,460
6. Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot (1958)
Not Rated | 88 min | Biography, Drama, History
As Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate their Tsar.
Director: Sergei Eisenstein | Stars: Nikolay Cherkasov, Serafima Birman, Pavel Kadochnikov, Mikhail Zharov
Votes: 8,069
7. Amin: The Rise and Fall (1981)
R | 91 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The chronicle of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and his tyranic rule from 1971 to his overthrow in 1979.
Director: Sharad Patel | Stars: Joseph Olita, Thomas Baptiste, Leonard Trolley, Geoffrey Keen
Votes: 496
8. The Viking Queen (1967)
Approved | 91 min | Adventure
Saline inherits the kingdom of England on the eve of the signing of the treaty sharing power with the Roman Empire. However, revolt was brewing, threatening the fragile peace.
Director: Don Chaffey | Stars: Don Murray, Carita, Donald Houston, Andrew Keir
Votes: 974
9. The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2010)
Not Rated | 180 min | Documentary, Biography, History
The film explores the image of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu using unknown official footage from the Romanian National Television and National Film Archives.
Director: Andrei Ujica | Stars: Nicolae Ceausescu, Elena Ceausescu, Stefan Andrei, Gheorghe Apostol
Votes: 1,641 | Gross: $0.03M
10. Red Monarch (1983 TV Movie)
101 min | Comedy, Drama
About Stalin's inner circle who he starts seeing as untrustworthy.
Director: Jack Gold | Stars: Colin Blakely, David Suchet, Carroll Baker, Ian Hogg
Votes: 331
11. General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait (1974)
Not Rated | 92 min | Documentary
A documentary on the military dictator of Africa's Uganda.
Director: Barbet Schroeder | Stars: Idi Amin, Fidel Castro, Golda Meir
Votes: 2,023
12. Apocalypse: Stalin (2015)
157 min | Documentary, History, War
The rise of Stalin, from his early beginning as a bankrobber to the cold-blooded leader of the Soviet Union.
Stars: Mathieu Kassovitz, Doug Rand
Votes: 1,122
13. Tsar (2009)
PG-13 | 116 min | Drama, History
A historical film that tells about two years in the life of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, his relationship with Metropolitan Philip of Moscow and the events of the Oprichnina era.
Director: Pavel Lungin | Stars: Pyotr Mamonov, Oleg Yankovskiy, Ramilya Iskander, Anastasiya Dontsova
Votes: 3,247
14. A Touch of the Sun (1979)
85 min | Comedy
A bumbling US marine Captain is assigned to retrieve a space capsule from a despotic African ruler.
Director: Peter Curran | Stars: Oliver Reed, Sylvaine Charlet, Peter Cushing, Keenan Wynn
Votes: 373
15. Echoes From a Somber Empire (1990)
91 min | Documentary
Documentary examining Bokassa's rule in the Central African Republic using the testimony of witnesses and visits to key sites.
Director: Werner Herzog | Stars: Michael Goldsmith, Werner Herzog, Augustine Assemat, David Dacko
Votes: 730
16. Orapronobis (1989)
R | 94 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In 1985, in the obscure town of Santa Filomena, the Orapronobis, a cult under the leadership of Kumander Kontra (Roco), murders a foreign priest who gave the last rites to an alleged rebel,... See full synopsis »
Director: Lino Brocka | Stars: Phillip Salvador, Dina Bonnevie, Gina Alajar, Bembol Roco
Votes: 169
17. Katips (2021)
142 min | Crime, Drama, History
A tale of the young, in their fight for their ideals, how big can one get against a force too much bigger than yourself?
Director: Vince Tañada | Stars: Afi Africa, OJ Arci, Joshua Bulot, Mon Confiado
Votes: 3,686
18. The Caviar Connection (2021)
86 min | Documentary, Thriller
How do dictatorships like Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan launder their reputations from despotic to democratic? This investigative series exposes how Lady Gaga, luxury gifts and ... See full summary »
Director: Benoit Bringer | Stars: Sunna Aevarsdóttir, Heydar Aliyev, Ilham Aliyev, Daniel Freund
Votes: 88
19. Stalin, the Red Tyrant (2007 TV Movie)
85 min | Documentary, History, War
Through colorized archive material rich in previously unseen footage, and many accounts from the period including some from Stalin himself, this documentary tells the story of a man who turned a dream into a nightmare.
Directors: Serge de Sampigny, Mathieu Schwartz, Yvan Demeulandre | Stars: Serge de Sampigny, Tom Morton, Jacques Albaret, Max André
Votes: 96
20. The Last Woman of Shang (1964)
108 min | Drama, History
Admist a rebellion during the Ching Dynasty in ancient China, a nurse flees the palace with a young prince. As an adult, he convinces the daughter of the usurper to betray her father and to assist in restoring him as the rightful monarch.
Directors: Feng Yueh, In-hyeon Choi | Stars: Dai Lin, Shin Yeong-gyun, Pat Ting Hung, Won Namkung
Votes: 54
21. Stalin: Man of Steel (2003 TV Movie)
Documentary
Directors: Peter Adler, Alexander Berkel, Stefan Brauburger, Oliver Halmburger, Ralf Piechowiak | Stars: Edward Herrmann, David Brandenberger, Jonathan Brent, Adolf Hitler
Votes: 7
22. Dictator: One Crazy Job (2012 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 53 min | Documentary
They've become the human face of inhuman barbarity. Leaders like Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, Stalin, Kim Jong Il, Saddam Hussein, Nicolae Ceausescu, Bokassa, Muammar Kadhafi, Khomeini, Mussolini... See full summary »
Director: Alain Charlot | Stars: Dowlet Amanlykow, Özgür Baskurt, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Jean-Bédel Bokassa
Votes: 9
23. Ivan Groznyy (2009)
44 min | Drama, History
XVI century. The film depicts the life of Ivan from his earliest years to the last days of his reign.
Stars: Vitaliy Lenskiy, Pasha Sol, Vladimir Fenchenko, Aleksandr Demidov
Votes: 57
24. Mobutu, roi du Zaïre (1999)
135 min | Documentary
Thiery Michel takes an in-depth look at the reign of Mobutu Sese Seko. A man of "modest roots" who had a Catholic upbringing, Mobutu was sent to the army by his father for insubordination. ... See full summary »
Director: Thierry Michel | Stars: Raymond Barre, Jacques Chirac, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Mobutu Sese Seko
Votes: 216
25. Ya sluzhil v okhrane Stalina, ili Opyt dokumentalnoy mifologii (1989)
90 min | Documentary
This controversial documentary created a storm in Russia by taking the cloak off a violent, repressive period of Soviet history. Filmmaker Semyon Aranovich found the last surviving personal... See full summary »
Director: Semyon Aranovich | Stars: Nadezhda Alliluyeva, Fyodor Fedorovsky, Alexey Rybin
Votes: 62
26. The Fight for Peace (1938)
Approved | 65 min | Documentary, War
A documentary about the threat of war breaking out in Europe, focusing on Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini.
Stars: David Ross, Kai-Shek Chiang, Georges Clemenceau, Engelbert Dollfuss
27. Zhena Stalina (2006 TV Movie)
176 min | Drama, History
Directors: Oleg Massarygin, Mira Todorovskaya | Stars: Olga Budina, Irina Chipizhenko, Ekaterina Galakhova, Tamara Gverdtsiteli
Votes: 52
28.
I, Claudius (1976)
Episode:
Waiting in the Wings
(1976)
Not Rated | 52 min | Biography, Drama, History
Whilst Tiberius in exile derives some comfort from hearing of the mysterious death of Gaius, Antonia confesses to Julia her disappointment in Claudius. She chastises his siblings ... See full summary »
Director: Herbert Wise | Stars: Derek Jacobi, Siân Phillips, Brian Blessed, George Baker
Votes: 407
29.
I, Claudius (1976)
Episode:
Zeus, by Jove!
(1976)
Not Rated | 52 min | Biography, Drama, History
Tiberius summons Caligula and his cousin Gemellus to Capri, declaring them his joint successors. Soon afterwards Tiberius is smothered by Macro, on the orders of Caligula, and his death is ... See full summary »
Director: Herbert Wise | Stars: Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Margaret Tyzack, Beth Morris
Votes: 380