Movies like Ukrainian Independence (2023)
The best movies like Ukrainian Independence (2023) are 20 Days in Mariupol (2023), 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025) and Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (2015). If Ukrainian Independence hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest rated20 Days in Mariupol (2023)8.1/10 from 328 votes
- NewestChernobyl: 48 Hours To Escape (2026)Released 2026
20 Days in Mariupol (2023)
As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like this2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025)
Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGilbert (2017)
The life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFor the Love of Spock (2016)
The life of Mr. Spock, as well as that of Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played him for almost fifty years, written and directed by his son: Adam.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye (2022)
Join the likes of Jeremy Renner, Hailee Steinfeld, Florence Pugh, and Vincent D’Onofrio as they reveal how Marvel Studios’ “Hawkeye” was conceived and created. Witness firsthand what it took to pull off the show’s pulse-pounding action set pieces, and discover how iconic characters from the pages of Marvel Comics such as Kate Bishop were adapted and brought to life for the six-episode series.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLooking for Richard (1996)
Al Pacino's deeply-felt rumination on Shakespeare's significance and relevance to the modern world through interviews and an in-depth analysis of "Richard III."
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove, Marilyn (2013)
Using the book 'Fragments', which collects Marilyn Monroe's poems, notes and letters, and with participation from the Arthur Miller and Truman Capote estates who have contributed more material, each of the actresses will embody the legend at various stages in her life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Curse of the Dragon (1993)
A 1993 documentary film about Bruce Lee. The film includes interviews from some of his fellow students and opponents who worked alongside him in his movies.
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 thisFather Soldier Son (2020)
When Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch is critically wounded in Afghanistan, it sets him and his sons on a journey of love, loss, redemption and legacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEarth: One Amazing Day (2017)
An astonishing journey revealing the awesome power of the natural world. Over the course of one single day, we track the sun from the highest mountains to the remotest islands to exotic jungles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThey Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of Armistice Day, and the end of the war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAndre the Giant (2018)
An ambitious and wide-ranging documentary exploring Andre’s upbringing in France, his celebrated career in WWE, and his forays in the entertainment world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisLost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)
The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau” —originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the big screen in 1996. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project just to find an abrupt end to his work while leading actor Marlon Brando pulled the strings in the shadows. Now for the first time, the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMatangi / Maya / M.I.A. (2018)
Drawn from a never before seen cache of personal footage spanning decades, this is an intimate portrait of the Sri Lankan artist and musician who continues to shatter conventions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMurder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (2020)
After 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown is sentenced to life in prison, questions about her past, physiology and the law itself call her guilt into question.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Battered Bastards of Baseball (2014)
Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Am Heath Ledger (2017)
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHow Did Your February 24 Begin? (2022)
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has changed the lives of every Ukrainian. Formerly bankers, IT workers, cultural figures and others have become military personnel and volunteers, people resisting the greatest threat to peaceful life in all of Europe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Cultural Code of Ukraine: East (2023)
The project is set in eastern Ukraine, where the main characters live — representatives of different professions, who have chosen culture as the meaning and business of their lives. They are the creators and keepers of the national cultural code. The authors study what exactly is passed down from generation to generation, and what meanings are hidden in it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Ynang-Bayan: To be a Woman is to Live at a Time of War (1991)
A documentary film, which focuses on the subject of women’s movement in the Philippines. Myth and legend overlap with history and politics as the women’s struggle is laid to bear in the individual stories and achievements of those featured in the film. The fragmented mosaic of voices and scenes allow for a plurality of views and opinions to account for the multifaceted and complex nature of Filipinas. From poetry to dance, politics to poetry – women chart their own lives in the auspicious event of change happening with the ascent of a woman to the country’s pinnacle of power.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Voices in Wartime (2004)
Voices in Wartime is a 2004 documentary that explores the human experience of war through poetry. Combining interviews with soldiers, journalists, and historians, it reveals how war affects individuals and societies across time and place. The film features poets from around the world – from Homer and Wilfred Owen to Shoda Shinoe and modern writers in Iraq and Nigeria – showing how poetry expresses the pain, trauma, and truth of conflict. By linking verse with real-life accounts, Voices in Wartime highlights how poetry helps us understand the emotional and moral impact of war.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
No Traces of Life (2024)
Building on Forensic Architecture’s previous investigation into herbicidal warfare and its effects on Palestinian farmers along the eastern perimeter of the occupied Gaza Strip, this investigation marks Land Day in Palestine by examining the systematic targeting of orchards and greenhouses by Israeli forces since October 2023. Our analysis reveals that this destruction is a widespread and deliberate act of ecocide that has exacerbated the ongoing catastrophic famine in Gaza and is part of a wider pattern of deliberately depriving Palestinians of critical resources for survival.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Chernobyl: 48 Hours To Escape (2026)
Witnesses, survivors and front-line heroes recall the first days of the Chernobyl disaster of April 1986. Featuring rare archive footage of the world's worst ever nuclear accident.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
WWI Chronicles: When All Hope Was Lost (2025)
From Gallipoli to Brest-Litovsk, witness WWI's turning points-naval clashes, mutiny, and revolution-shaping the fate of empires and the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The War of Chimeras (2017)
The story of war, love and death that was documented by the immediate participants of events. Off screen and later on it are the two - a boy and a girl. He volunteered for the front; she went to the place just after the battle. He got into Ilovaysk cauldron, lost his closest brother-soldiers. She, while travelling along the ruined towns, strives to understand the essence of war and love. Both tell openly one another about their feelings during the war, escaping the cauldron, a try to live together after, and a common trip to the frontline.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
Comrades under Edelweiss (1943)
This rare documentary was filmed with the participation and personal camera of Wolfgang Gorther, a German military cinematographer of the 1st mining division, who participated in the legendary ascent of Elbrus on the night of August 21, 1942. From the beginning of the Second World War and the last international winter sports week in Garmisch-Partenkirchen follows the invasion of the German troops into the Soviet Union: Dnieper, Zaporozhy, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Nogaean Steppe, Caucasus – fighting at 50 degrees below zero, military expedition into the world of ice and snow; – ascent of mountain arrows and subsequent hoisting of flags on the Elbrus at an altitude of 5,633 meters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Zero Line: Inside Russia's War (2026)
BBC exposes the horror unfolding on the Russian side of the war in Ukraine. Soldiers being tortured and even executed at the hands of their brothers in arms.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ukrainian Independence?
The closest matches to Ukrainian Independence are 20 Days in Mariupol (2023), 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025) and Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ukrainian Independence?
Start with 20 Days in Mariupol (2023), the closest match to Ukrainian Independence.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ukrainian Independence?
20 Days in Mariupol (2023), rated 8.1/10 by 328 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ukrainian Independence?
Chernobyl: 48 Hours To Escape (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Ukrainian Independence chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ukrainian Independence, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.