Movies like In Zainab's Heaven (2023)
The best movies like In Zainab's Heaven (2023) are The Cave (2019), My Mom Jayne (2025) and Halloween: 25 Years of Terror (2006). If In Zainab's Heaven hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDeliver Us from Evil (2006)7.2/10 from 216 votes
- NewestLE PORTEL 1943, Les sacrifiés du grand bluff des Alliés (2026)Released 2026
The 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Mom Jayne (2025)
Through deeply personal interviews with her siblings and an examination of the photographs, letters, and belongings left behind, Mariska assembles a new portrait of her mother Jayne Mansfield, an extraordinary and complex woman.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHalloween: 25 Years of Terror (2006)
Follow the evolution of the 'Halloween' movies over the past twenty-five years. It examines why the films are so popular and revisits many of the original locations used in the films - seeing the effects on the local community. For the first time, cast, crew, critics and fans join together in the ultimate 'Halloween' retrospective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTo Kill a Tiger (2023)
Ranjit, a farmer in India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape. His decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of, and his journey unprecedented.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight Will Fall (2014)
When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
In the Realms of the Unreal is a documentary about the reclusive Chicago-based artist Henry Darger. Henry Darger was so reclusive that when he died his neighbors were surprised to find a 15,145-page manuscript along with hundreds of paintings depicting The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glodeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Cased by the Child Slave Rebellion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBirth of the Living Dead (2013)
A behind the scenes look into George Romero's groundbreaking horror classic Night of the Living Dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2015)
A woman in Pakistan sentenced to death for falling in love becomes a rare survivor of the country's harsh judicial system.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBurma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2008)
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012)
Alex Gibney explores the charged issue of pedophilia in the Catholic Church, following a trail from the first known protest against clerical sexual abuse in the United States and all way to the Vatican.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCome See Me in the Good Light (2025)
In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne of Us (2017)
Penetrating the insular world of New York's Hasidic community, focusing on three individuals driven to break away despite threats of retaliation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoys State (2020)
This raucous journey into the heart of democracy captures an unusual rite of passage: 1,100 teenage boys from across Texas coming together to build a representative government from the ground up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeliver Us from Evil (2006)
Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie (1988)
Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape—with U.S. help—to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElstree 1976 (2015)
A documentary about ten very different lives connected by having appeared onscreen wearing masks or helmets in Star Wars.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (2013)
An impressionistic portrait of the iconic actor Harry Dean Stanton comprised of intimate moments, film clips from some of his 250 films and his renditions of American folk songs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeart of a Dog (2015)
Musician and performance artist Laurie Anderson reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother and her beloved dog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Chechnya (2020)
This searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a remarkable approach to protecting anonymity exposes this under-reported atrocity–and an extraordinary group of people confronting evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSomeday My Prince Will Come (2005)
An exposed Cumbrian village by the sea surrounded by windmills, fields and factories provides a striking setting for this fairy tale of young love and the loss of childhood innocence. Over one year, the film follows the 9 year-old Laura Anne and her 11 year-old cousin, Steven as they move towards the end of their childhoods. The narrative is told in rhyme by the young female protagonist. As time passes and the seasons change, feelings and memories from all our childhoods are evoked and we wonder what time will make of Laura Anne and Steven.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Hot House (2006)
In a candid and unflinching portrait of Palestinian prisoners, Shimon Dotan takes viewers inside the highest security prisons in Israel where thousands of Palestinians fill these detention facilities.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
El Equipo (2023)
An unlikely collaboration between a forensic scientist from Texas and a group of Latin American students changes the course of forensic science and international human rights.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
A, B, C... Z (1971)
Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Hiver 54 : L'Abbé Pierre et l'insurrection de la bonté (2024)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
LE PORTEL 1943, Les sacrifiés du grand bluff des Alliés (2026)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Stunned, I Remain Alert (2020)
Journalist Dermi Azevedo has never stopped fighting for human rights and now, three decades after the end of the military dictatorship in Brazil, he's witnessing the return of those same practices.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Ghosts: Soldiers of a Forgotten War (2021)
The Donetskyi village is on the border between the unrecognized Luhansk People's Republic and the Lugansk region of Ukraine. Residents of the village live in destroyed houses, under constant Ukrainian shelling. For seven years the «Ghost» battalion has been holding the front line to protect its people. To capture 'ghosts' daily work, the film crew operated in the midst of intense gunfire and mortar attacks. The battalion commander, code-name ‘Negro’, says that for many guys the war has turned into a job. Of course, they are tired and dream of returning home, but so far they just try to survive and protect their loved ones.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Women on the Frontline (2021)
At five o'clock in the evening, Red Cross and OSCE observers leave the front line and leave the fighters under fire. Hypocrisy takes over, and here begins the story of these women, which first kicked off in Maidan Square in Kyiv. Heartache and hatred, broken love, wrong decisions and yet hope for a new life, even in the face of death. This is a documentary about the war that broke out in the spring of 2014 in Eastern Ukraine through the eyes of women.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Polisario: Liberation of the Western Sahara (TBA)
A historical analysis of the on-going war in the Western Sahara. Liza Bear interviews Abdullah Majdid, the Polisario Front's United Nations representative. The tape addresses Morocco's U.S.-backed military effort to subjugate the indigenous Sahrawi population and annex one of the world's largest phosphate deposits, as well as the Sahrawis' conditions for a referendum.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like In Zainab's Heaven?
The closest matches to In Zainab's Heaven are The Cave (2019), My Mom Jayne (2025) and Halloween: 25 Years of Terror (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after In Zainab's Heaven?
Start with The Cave (2019), the closest match to In Zainab's Heaven.
What is the highest-rated movie like In Zainab's Heaven?
Deliver Us from Evil (2006), rated 7.2/10 by 216 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like In Zainab's Heaven?
LE PORTEL 1943, Les sacrifiés du grand bluff des Alliés (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to In Zainab's Heaven chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside In Zainab's Heaven, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.