True Stories
True Stories are those based (sometimes loosely!) on fact. They cover topics as diverse as drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, class divisions, sexual inequality, mental illness and other human struggles. Meet some of history's most intriguing characters, find out what it's really like to climb a mountain or paint a masterpiece. Truly, the True Story is one of cinema's most engaging and enthralling genres.
Bio-pics feature in this section and are also gathered together separately under the 'Biography' sublink left.
Pictured: Inside the Las Vegas mob, Scorsese's unromantic 'Goodfellas'
Searching For Bobby Fischer (1993)
7.5/10
Director: Steven Zaillian
Starring: Joan Allen, Ben Kingsley, Joe Mantegna, Max Pomeranc, Laurence Fishburne
Aka 'Innocent Moves'. This remarkable film is based on the true story of prodigy Josh Waitzkin, a 7-year-old boy whose seemingly innate understanding... Read more
See No Evil: The Moors Murders (2006)
7.2/10
Director: Christopher Menaul
Starring: Joanne Froggatt, Maxine Peake, Sean Harris, Matthew McNulty, George Costigan, Ch...
The story of Moors Murderers, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, is told with considerable tact, and in deference to the families of the murdered children, a... Read more
Selma (2014)
7.5/10
Director: Ava DuVernay
Starring: Carmen Ejogo, David Oyelowo, Tim Roth, Tom Wilkinson, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Goodin...
This film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting right... Read more
September 5 (2025)
7.1/10
Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch
During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes. Read more
September Dawn (2006)
5.8/10
Director: Christopher Cain
Starring: Trent Ford, Terence Stamp, Jon Voight, Tamara Hope, Jon Gries, Taylor Handley, L...
Set against the backdrop of the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, this drama follows a group of settlers from Arkansas as they travel by wagon throug... Read more
Seraphine (2008)
7.4/10
Director: Martin Provost
Starring: Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent, Genevieve Mnich, Nico Rogner, Franco...
Frenchwoman Seraphine de Senlis, lived from 1864 to 1942. A shepherdess and housekeeper, in her private hours she painted incredible floral arrangemen... Read more
Sergeant York (1941)
7.8/10
Director: Howard Hawks
Starring: Gary Cooper, George Tobias, Joan Leslie, Walter Brennan
Torn between religious pacifism and patriotism, Alvin York of Tennessee went on to become World War I's most acclaimed hero. As the simple backwoods f... Read more
Serpico (1973)
7.8/10
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Al Pacino, John Randolph, Jack Kehoe, Biff McGuire
An exciting filmisation of the true-life accounts of a N.Y.C. Undercover cop whose non-conformity and exposure of department corruption isolate him fr... Read more
Set Fire to the Stars (2014)
5.7/10
Director: Andy Goddard
Starring: Elijah Wood, Celyn Jones, Steven Mackintosh, Kevin Eldon, Shirley Henderson, Kel...
Inspired by a true story... Set in 1950's New York and starring Elijah Wood as John Malcolm Brinnin, the aspiring young American poet who finds his... Read more
Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
7/10
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring: Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, B D Wong, Mako
This grand historical adventure in Tibet is the story of Austrian mountain climber and Nazi party member, Heinrich Harrer (Brad Pitt), who after fleei... Read more