Movies like The Algerian Novel (2019)
The best movies like The Algerian Novel (2019) are The Stranger (2025), Le Petit Soldat (1963) and Dahomey (2024). If The Algerian Novel hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPapicha (2019)7.6/10 from 287 votes
- NewestThe Stranger (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchThe Stranger (2025)Also in French
The Stranger (2025)
Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother's funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague. He quickly slips back into his usual routine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLe Petit Soldat (1963)
Despite his lack of political convictions, photojournalist Bruno Forestier is roped into a paramilitary group waging a shadow war in Geneva against the Algerian independence movement.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDahomey (2024)
Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Image Book (2018)
In Le Livre d’Image, Jean-Luc Godard recycles existing images (films, documentaries, paintings, television archives, etc.), quotes excerpts from books, uses fragments of music. The driving force is poetic rhyme, the association or opposition of ideas, the aesthetic spark through editing, the keystone. The author performs the work of a sculptor. The hand, for this, is essential. He praises it at the start. “There are the five fingers. The five senses. The five parts of the world (…). The true condition of man is to think with his hands. Jean-Luc Godard composes a dazzling syncopation of sequences, the surge of which evokes the violence of the flows of our contemporary screens, taken to a level of incandescence rarely achieved. Crowned at Cannes, the last Godard is a shock film, with twilight beauty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFar from Men (2015)
A French teacher in a small Algerian village during the Algerian War forms an unexpected bond with a dissident who is ordered to be turned in to the authorities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStatues Also Die (1953)
Commissioned by the journal Présence Africaine, this short documentary examines how African art is devalued and alienated through colonial and museum contexts. Beginning with the question of why African works are confined to ethnographic displays while Greek or Egyptian art is celebrated, the film became a landmark of anti-colonial cinema and was banned in France for eight years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December (1995)
Director Jean-Luc Godard reflects in this movie about his place in film history, the interaction of film industry and film as art, as well as the act of creating art.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDNA (2020)
A woman has a close bond with her beloved Algerian grandfather, who protected her from a toxic home life as a child; his death triggers a deep identity crisis as tensions between her extended family members escalate, revealing new depths of resentment and bitterness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisFuck (2006)
A documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrlando (1992)
England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCairo Conspiracy (2022)
A fisherman's son is offered the ultimate privilege to study at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the epicenter of power of Sunni Islam. Shortly after his arrival, the university’s highest ranking religious leader, the Grand Imam, dies and the young student becomes a pawn in a ruthless power struggle between Egypt's religious and political elite.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChocolat (1988)
On her way to visit her childhood home in a colonial outpost in Northern Cameroon, a young French woman recalls her childhood, her memories concentrating on her family's houseboy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDalíland (2022)
In 1973, a young gallery assistant goes on a wild adventure behind the scenes as he helps aging genius Salvador Dali prepare for a big show in New York.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisEden and After (1970)
A group of French students are drawn into the psychological and sexual games of a mysterious man called Duchemin. Once they sample his "fear powder" the students experience a series of hallucinations.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChronicle of a Summer (1961)
Paris, summer 1960. Anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch and sociologist and film critic Edgar Morin wander through the crowded streets asking passersby how they cope with life's misfortunes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFrida (2024)
An intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print interviews — and brought vividly to life by lyrical animation inspired by her unforgettable artwork.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPapicha (2019)
An 18-year-old aspiring fashion designer refuses to let the turmoil of the Algerian Civil War dictate her life and defies growing conservative restrictions by organising a fashion show.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNotre Musique (2004)
A three-chapter (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise) meditation on the city of Sarajevo in the wake of the Bosnian war, on Palestine and Israel, and on war itself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDrew: The Man Behind the Poster (2013)
A documentary on legendary movie-poster artist Drew Struzan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOrwell: 2+2=5 (2025)
George Orwell was one of the most visionary authors of the 20th century, whose novels 1984 and Animal Farm foretold a chilling, authoritarian future. Acclaimed director Raoul Peck interweaves clips, readings from Orwell's diary, cinematic references, and modern-day footage to craft not only a portrait of the writer, but a fresh take on how prophetic his work has become.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Algerian Novel?
The closest matches to The Algerian Novel are The Stranger (2025), Le Petit Soldat (1963) and Dahomey (2024). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Algerian Novel?
Start with The Stranger (2025), the closest match to The Algerian Novel.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Algerian Novel?
Papicha (2019), rated 7.6/10 by 287 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Algerian Novel?
The Stranger (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Algerian Novel?
Yes: The Stranger (2025), Le Petit Soldat (1963) and Dahomey (2024).
How are movies similar to The Algerian Novel chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Algerian Novel, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.