Movies like Wilaya (2012)
The best movies like Wilaya (2012) are The Color of Friendship (2000), Staring at Strangers (2022) and Goodbye June (2025). If Wilaya hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedUnder the Same Moon (2007)8.0/10 from 378 votes
- NewestRisa and the Wind Phone (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishStaring at Strangers (2022)Also in Spanish
The Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStaring at Strangers (2022)
Carpenter Sergio runs away and hides in a closet after his boss fired him. When the closet arrives at its buyer's house, he decides to stay there, hiding in his new home living with an unknown family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGoodbye June (2025)
Four siblings' lives change drastically when their ailing mother takes a turn for the worse over the holiday season.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUtama (2022)
In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Bus (2021)
Widower Tom, on the recent passing of his wife Mary, uses his free bus pass to travel the length of Britain from John O'Groats in Caithness to Land's End in Cornwall, their shared birthplace, using only local buses. It's an incident-fuelled nostalgia trip and his encounters with local people make him a media phenomenon. Tom is totally unaware and to his surprise on arrival at Land’s End he’s greeted as a celebrity.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmong Wolves (2010)
Entre lobos (Among Wolves) tells the remarkable story of a poor country boy named Marcos, who at the age of 7 is handed over to his father's employer, a rich landowner, who in turn delivers him to a life of labor with a hermetic goatherd in an isolated valley. The old man, who lives in a cave, is unused to human company and at first seems not very interested in having a live-in apprentice. The boy, who was abused by his parents, is frightened and equally aloof initially. Despite this, the shepherd begins teaching Marcos how to herd the goats, as well as how to care for himself and how to survive in the wilderness by trapping and fishing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wingwalker (2024)
A young widower is deported as his daughter is scheduled for a heart transplant, this will lead him to orchestrate the boldest border crossing plan in history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUnder the Same Moon (2007)
Tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while her mother cares for Carlitos back in Mexico.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisNight Always Comes (2025)
Facing eviction in a city her family can no longer afford, a woman plunges into a desperate and increasingly dangerous all-night search to raise $25,000.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Miracle of Marcelino (1955)
Left on the doorstep of a monastery as an infant, Marcelino was raised by the monks. He was well-cared for but lonely and missed having a mother. One day he found a special friend in the forbidden attic, hanging on a cross. A friend that would repay Marcelino's kindness by granting him one heart-felt wish.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRisa and the Wind Phone (2026)
Risa, after her father's death, discovers she has the ability to communicate with him from beyond the grave. As she explores this supernatural connection, she faces emotional challenges and family secrets that will test her faith in what she thought was possible.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdú (2020)
In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe King of Havana (2015)
Recently escaped from reformatory, Reinaldo struggles to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society. Hopes, disillusionment, rum, good humor and above all hunger, accompany him in his wanderings, until he meets Magda and Yunisleidy, survivors like himself. In one or the other's arms, he will try to escape the material and moral misery surrounding him, living love, passion, tenderness and uninhibited sex to the limit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSand bellies (2024)
The Algerian region of Tindouf is home to more than 170,000 Sahrawis, who have been living in refugee camps since 1976, when Morocco occupied the Western Sahara region. In a place of inhospitable conditions and scarcity, the Sahrawi population lives on dwindling humanitarian aid. Six percent of them face the added difficulty of coeliac disease.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The whisper of the wind (2020)
Tahar is a 20-year-old Sahrawi man who lives in the Basque Country. However, his family continues to live in the Tindouf refugee camp. One day, he receives a call from there: his father is dying.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Letter to Sasha (2012)
Fatma, who lives in Asuerd’s refugee camp in the Hamada of the Algerian desert, will listen in television to news that will give her a great idea … to contact with a girl from another side of the Atlantic Ocean: Sasha, one of the daughters of the president Obama.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Western: Sahara (2014)
WESTERN: SAHARA documented the pre-production of an audiovisual participatory project at Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf, Algeria. From the trailer as part of media coverage, participants imagine a film about the creation of the Saharawi state.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Champs-Elysées (2023)
A boy has a dream of traveling to the world, especially to Paris where his uncle lives, but a wall built on his land divides his country and does not allow him to travel or cross to the other side of his land.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Battalion to My Beat (2016)
Eager to escape a life of confinement in the refugee camps of Western Sahara in Algeria, Mariam flees into the desert to join the army, naively believing herself to be the Joan of Arc who will save her country from occupation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Best Option (2016)
Koto is a restless and impulsive young African, born in a refugee camp. His life in Catalonia among the paddy fields of the Delta passes by with few changes, always under the protection of his foster parents. He has left behind the tough childhood he had in the Saharan refugee camp where he was born. One day life takes a sudden turn: the doctors tell him that he urgently needs a kidney transplant. The best choice as a possible donor would be his biological mother. The sudden arrival of his Saharan family is a shock for Koto, who watches as the life he has been living for the past 10 years falls apart around him. Far removed from the beliefs and customs of his people, the young man must deal with his origins to try to save his own life. The film is based on a real story and played by Koto himself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jaima (2023)
In the dunes of the Sahara, a Jaima, the traditional Saharawi tent. Through the tea ritual, a woman takes us into the past and present of her people, persecuted and driven from their land. There are three teas she offers us: the first, bitter as life; the second, sweet as love; the third, mild as death. Each tea tells us a story.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I'm tiny (2015)
As I´m tiny, the night seems to dark to me, so I swicht on the light in case the wardrobe monster is scared.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coría and the sea (2014)
This is a story about women who are fighters, tenacious, hopeful, active women…who were capable of lifting, from nothingness, in the harshest landscape of the world, life. They are the Sahrawi women. 40 years ago, they were forced into exile; the men of this region, marched to war and the women created “temporary cities”: The Refugee Camps. They invented a new day to day life which made possible a sustainable existence and a hope, of one day returning home. Coría every night dreams of the sea; the majestic image of its water, the sound of its waves, are the echoes that join the people with their homeland. The will beats in the hearts of the Sahrawi women who maintain their unbreakable spirit, ever moving forward.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Wilaya and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Wilaya?
The closest matches to Wilaya are The Color of Friendship (2000), Staring at Strangers (2022) and Goodbye June (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Wilaya?
Start with The Color of Friendship (2000), the closest match to Wilaya.
What is the highest-rated movie like Wilaya?
Under the Same Moon (2007), rated 8.0/10 by 378 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Wilaya?
Risa and the Wind Phone (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Wilaya?
Yes: Staring at Strangers (2022), Utama (2022) and Among Wolves (2010).
How are movies similar to Wilaya chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Wilaya, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.