Movies: Based on memoir or autobiography

The Iron Curtain is based on the actual 1945 case of Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko, (Dana Andrews), who, after careful training, was assigned to the U.S.S.R. Embassy in Ottawa, Canada in the midst of World War II. Eventually, Gouzenko defected wi...

Cosmetics saleswoman Kirsi Viilonen dreams of a career as a star artist. When Kirsi meets DJ and radio journalist Paula, she decides to give in completely to her dream of becoming a singer. Despite the scorn of the male-dominated music world, Paula r...

Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, Ron Kovic becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for....

A young runaway rejects society's condemnation and dares to fulfill his dreams. France, 1930s. 14-year-old orphan Yves Tréguier sees the world through the bars of "educational homes" where he is raised in conditions worthy of a penal colony, and drea...

A young man in 1981 South Africa must complete his brutal and racist two years of compulsory military service while desperately maintaining the secrecy of his homosexuality....

A small-town couple with big dreams of making their family complete must persevere through infertility and tragedy....

Coming-of-age story depicting Zlatan Ibrahimovic's upbringing in a rough Swedish suburb. Born to Balkan immigrants, football was Zlatan's release in a tough environment where his remarkable talent and self-reliance catapulted him against all odds to ...

A substance-addicted actress tries to look on the bright side even as she's forced to move back in with her mother to avoid unemployment....

A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth....

Jay Parini finds himself stuck in a Morris Minor, chauffeuring the brilliant, blind Jorge Luis Borges through Scotland. Quiet and conservative, 23-year-old student Parini dreams of becoming a writer but is at a loss to make sense of the wild, irrepre...

Sportswriter George Plimpton poses as a rookie quarterback for the Detroit Lions for a "Sports Illustrated" article....

Despite her sheltered upbringing, Jenny is a teen with a bright future; she's smart, pretty, and has aspirations of attending Oxford University. When David, a charming but much older suitor, motors into her life in a shiny automobile, Jenny gets a ta...

When a Jewish songstress is plucked from the stage and sent to Auschwitz, she and other musicians find themselves assigned to a terrible task—using their talents to soothe fellow prisoners who are sentenced to die in the gas chambers....

The film is based on the memoirs of partisan commander Peter Kružliak. Lieutenant Peter Kubiš is ordered to move with his unit to the mountains after the fall of Banská Bystrica, where he is to receive further orders. No one is waiting, on the contra...

The story of how Marlon Brando plucked Bernard Judge, an obscure but idealistic Los Angeles architect from his stable existence and convinced him that he should build the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on a tiny and uninhabitable Tahitian...

The C Word is an adaptation of Lisa Lynch's inspiring and candid book, based on her blog, about her battle with cancer....

At a national park in Kenya, English game warden George Adamson and his wife, Joy, care for three orphaned lion cubs. After the two larger lions are shipped off to a zoo in the Netherlands, the smallest of the three, Elsa, stays with the couple. When...

Kiroku boards with a Roman Catholic family and falls for the daughter Michiko. He ignores his feelings, joins a gang, gets in fights and, eventually, becomes involved with the radical Kita Ikki group....

Wealthy Sunny von Bülow lies brain-dead, husband Claus guilty of attempted murder; but he says he's innocent and hires Alan Dershowitz for his appeal....

A biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Texas home in the 1930s to find work, discovering the suffering and strength of America's working class....