Movies like Beyond Utopia (2023)
The best movies like Beyond Utopia (2023) are Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017), The Act of Killing (2012) and Do Not Split (2020). If Beyond Utopia hooked you with its documentary and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWinter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (2015)7.9/10 from 331 votes
- NewestBlack Box Diaries (2024)Released 2024
Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017)
When the Chinese Communist Party backtracks on its promise of autonomy to Hong Kong, teenager Joshua Wong decides to save his city. Rallying thousands of kids to skip school and occupy the streets, Joshua becomes an unlikely leader in Hong Kong and one of China’s most notorious dissidents.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Act of Killing (2012)
After befriending documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer, former Indonesian death squad leaders reenact their real-life mass killings in the style of various American film genres. As they recreate their past atrocities, the line between reality and performance blurs, exposing the lingering impact of Indonesia's 1965-66 anti-communist purge and the unsettling psychology of its perpetrators.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDo Not Split (2020)
The story of the 2019 Hong Kong protests, told through a series of demonstrations by local protestors that escalate into conflict when highly armed police appear on the scene.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Writing with Fire (2021)
In a cluttered news landscape dominated by men, emerges India’s only newspaper run by Dalit women. Armed with smartphones, Chief Reporter Meera and her journalists break traditions on the frontlines of India’s biggest issues and within the confines of their own homes, redefining what it means to be powerful.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
The Russian Woodpecker (2015)
As his country is gripped by revolution and war, a Ukrainian victim of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster discovers a dark secret and must decide whether to risk his life and play his part in the revolution by revealing it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
The Look of Silence (2014)
An Indonesian man with a communist background named Ramli was brutally murdered when the "Communist" purge occurred in 1965. His remaining family members lived in fear and silence until the making of this documentary. Adi, a brother of his, decided to revisit the horrific incident and visited the men who were responsible for the killings and one survivor of the purge. These meetings uncovered sadistic details of the murders and exposed raw emotions and reactions of the killers' family members about what happened in the past - much to Adi's disappointment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both history & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lovers and the Despot (2016)
Hong Kong, 1978. South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee is kidnapped by North Korean operatives following orders from dictator Kim Jong-il.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
The Ambassador (2011)
Danish journalist Mads Brügger goes undercover as a Liberian Ambassador to embark on a dangerous yet hysterical journey to uncover the blood diamond trade in Africa.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (2015)
Over 93 days in Ukraine, what started as peaceful student demonstrations became a violent revolution and full-fledged civil rights movement.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Cave (2019)
Deep beneath the surface in the Syrian province of Ghouta, a group of female doctors have established an underground field hospital. Under the supervision of paediatrician Dr. Amani and her staff of doctors and nurses, hope is restored for some of the thousands of children and civilian victims of the ruthless Syrian civil war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe First Wave (2021)
When Covid-19 hit New York City in 2020, filmmaker Matthew Heineman gained unique access to one of New York’s hardest-hit hospital systems. The resulting film focuses on the doctors, nurses, and patients on the frontlines during the “first wave” from March to June 2020. Their distinct storylines each serve as a microcosm to understand how the city persevered through the worst pandemic in a century
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Cold Case Hammarskjöld (2019)
Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (currently Zambia), September 18, 1961. Swedish economist and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the UN, dies mysteriously in a plane crash. Decades later, Danish journalist and filmmaker Mads Brügger and Swedish researcher Göran Björkdahl investigate the case in search of definitive closure.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNorth Korea: Inside The Mind of a Dictator (2021)
A journey through Kim Jong Un’s past and present to understand the man and the myth who holds North Korea’s uncertain future in his hands.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Letter from Masanjia (2019)
Damascus, Oregon, United States. Julie Keith finds a baffling message hidden in a pack of decorative items, a desperate plea for help, written by someone imprisoned in a Chinese labor camp called Masanjia…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
No Place on Earth (2012)
This extraordinary testament to survival from Emmy-winning producer/director Janet Tobias brings to light a story that remained untold for decades: that of thirty-eight Ukrainian Jews who survived World War II by living in caves for eighteen months.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Desert One (2019)
The true story behind one the of most daring rescues in modern US history: a secret mission to free hostages captured during the 1979 Iranian revolution.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
The Mole: Undercover in North Korea (2020)
A real-life undercover thriller about two ordinary men who embark on an outrageously dangerous ten-year mission to penetrate the world's most secretive and brutal dictatorship: North Korea.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like this13th (2016)
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Child Nation (2019)
Through interviews with both victims and instigators, Nanfu Wang, a first-time mother, breaks open decades of silence on a vast, unprecedented social experiment that shaped — and destroyed — countless lives in China.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisConvergence: Courage in a Crisis (2021)
Activists and volunteers work through the darkest days of 2020, galvanizing social change amidst chaos as governments start to fail local communities. This epic, globally spanning and deeply passionate documentary serves as a clarion call that great change can be born of crisis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Edge of Democracy (2019)
A cautionary tale for these times of democracy in crisis—the personal and political fuse to explore one of the most dramatic periods in Brazilian history. With unprecedented access to Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Lula da Silva, we witness their rise and fall and the tragically polarized nation that remains.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlack Box Diaries (2024)
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, exposing the country's outdated judicial and societal systems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlmost Holy (2015)
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine's social and political institutions faced massive change, including an increasingly corrupt government and crippled infrastructure. A number of the nation's youth wound up homeless and addicted to a lethal cocktail of injected cold medicine and alcohol. In the early 2000s a pastor from Mariupol named Gennadiy Mokhnenko took up the fight against child homelessness by forcibly abducting street kids and bringing them to his Pilgrim Republic rehabilitation center—the largest organization of its kind in the former Soviet Union. Gennadiy's ongoing efforts and unabashedly tough love approach to his city's problems has made him a folk hero for some, and a lawless vigilante to others. Despite criticism, Gennadiy is determined to continue his work.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (2012)
The story of how, in 1970, the social activism of young UCLA philosophy professor Angela Davis led her to become involved in a failed kidnapping attempt that ended in a shootout, four deaths, and her name on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
More Than I Want to Remember (2022)
One night at her home in southeastern Congo, 14-year-old Mugeni awakes to the sounds of bombs. As her family scatters to the surrounding forests to save themselves, Mugeni finds herself completely alone.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
In the Rearview (2023)
A Polish vehicle traverses the roads of Ukraine. On board, people are evacuated following the Russian invasion. This van becomes a fragile and transitory refuge, a zone of confidences and confessions of exiles who have only one objective, to escape the war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Collective (2019)
In the aftermath of a tragic fire in a Romanian club, burn victims begin dying in hospitals from wounds that were not life threatening. A team of investigative journalists move into action uncovering the mass corruption of the health system and of the state institutions. Collective follows journalists, whistle blowers, and authorities alike. An immersive and uncompromising look into a dysfunctional system, exposing corruption, propaganda, and manipulation that nowadays affect not only Romania, but societies around the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCity 40 (2016)
Hidden in the heart of Russia, there is a Soviet-era city where thousands of people live and work behind barbed-wire fences monitored by armed guards. It is Ozyorsk (Ozersk), located in the Chelyabinsk Oblast, one of the most polluted places on the planet and home to the largest stockpiles of nuclear material. Its code name: City 40.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Propaganda Game (2015)
North Korea. The last communist country in the world. Unknown, hermetic and fascinating. Formerly known as “The Hermit Kingdom” for its attempts to remain isolated, North Korea is one of the largest sources of instability as regards world peace. It also has the most militarized border in the world, and the flow of impartial information, both going in and out, is practically non-existent. As the recent Sony-leaks has shown, it is the perfect setting for a propaganda war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCamp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis (2021)
Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis, is a documentary short featuring animation that focuses on the story of a top secret POW camp that was classified for over 5 decades. In the midst of WWII, a group of young Jewish refugees are assigned to guard a top secret POW camp near Washington D.C. The Jewish soldiers soon discover that their prisoners are no other than Hitler's top scientists - What starts out as an intelligence mission to gather information from the Nazis, soon gets a shocking twist when the Jewish soldiers are tasked with a very different mission altogether. A mission that would question their moral values - exposing a dark secret from America's past.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary & history
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Beyond Utopia?
The closest matches to Beyond Utopia are Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017), The Act of Killing (2012) and Do Not Split (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Beyond Utopia?
People who watched Beyond Utopia most often go on to Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017), The Act of Killing (2012) and Do Not Split (2020).
What is the highest-rated movie like Beyond Utopia?
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (2015), rated 7.9/10 by 331 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Beyond Utopia?
Black Box Diaries (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Beyond Utopia?
Yes: Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017), Do Not Split (2020) and The Russian Woodpecker (2015).
How are movies similar to Beyond Utopia chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Beyond Utopia, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.