Film

Five Branded Women

Name: Five Branded Women
Genre: Drama, War
Released: 1960
Cast: Silvana Mangano, Jeanne Moreau, Vera Miles, Barbara Bel Geddes, Carla Gravina

War drama
Very dark

A 1960 war drama about five Yugoslav women branded as collaborators and cast out by partisans, who become armed fighters rather than victims. It's uncomfortable and unflinching—a film that treats its female characters as full moral agents in wartime, neither saints nor caricatures. For viewers interested in how cinema handles occupation, complicity, and survival.

TMDb rating

3.1

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But It's a men-on-a-mission film, so the tone skews lighter and more action-focused than you might expect from a war picture.

The Moon in the Gutter1983

Eastern European cinema's unflinching look at how war dehumanizes and how survival demands moral compromise. Raw, unsentimental, and deeply humane.

But It's a challenging watch that doesn't offer easy answers or catharsis—some find that frustrating rather than powerful.

Fires on the Plain1959

A Japanese soldier abandoned in the Philippines faces starvation and moral disintegration. Another 1959-60 war film that refuses to sanitize the cost of conflict.

But The degradation depicted is severe and sustained. This is not a film that looks away or offers comfort.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Five Branded Women

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Come and See1985

Both films refuse the myth of the heroic partisan. Both insist that liberation is messy and that survival often compromises your soul—but Come and See pushes that to its absolute extreme.

A Soviet film about the Eastern Front that obliterates the line between protagonist and victim. It's the most radical war film ever made—complete moral and psychological annihilation.

But It is genuinely traumatizing. Not recommended for casual viewing. Requires genuine emotional bandwidth.

Rogue Male1976

A hunted man on the run uses cunning and improvisation to survive. It shares the core DNA of Five Branded Women—resourceful outsiders against overwhelming odds.

But It's a thriller rather than a drama, so the emotional texture is quite different; some find TV-movie pacing artificial.

Army of Shadows1969

Melville's masterpiece about the French Resistance: paranoid, methodical, morally murky. It understands collaboration and betrayal at a depth few films reach.

But It's glacially paced and deliberately detached. Expecting emotional catharsis will leave you cold.

The Skin1981

Cavani's film about survival and collaboration during the liberation of Naples. Visually stunning and morally complex in ways that echo through decades.

But It's a demanding film about difficult subjects—sexually explicit and politically thorny. Not for everyone's evening.

Occupation in 26 Pictures1978

A Yugoslav film about the partisan resistance. It gives context and texture to the world Five Branded Women inhabits.

But It's less dramatically propulsive; it functions more as a portrait than a narrative engine.

Il Sorpasso1962

An Italian film about two men on a road trip that becomes an allegory for post-war identity. Lighter than Five Branded Women but preoccupied with similar questions of who gets to belong.

But The tone is comedic in ways that might feel tonal whiplash if you're coming from a heavier war drama.