Movies like Zé (2023)
The best movies like Zé (2023) are The Secret Agent (2025), Vitória (2025) and City of God (2002). If Zé hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCity of God (2002)8.4/10 from 8,610 votes
- NewestAnniversary (2025)Released 2025
The Secret Agent (2025)
Brazil, 1977. Marcelo, a technology expert in his early 40s, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival but soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisVitória (2025)
Nina is an elderly woman who lives alone and feels distressed by the increasing violence in her neighborhood. Amidst conflicts with her neighbors, she decides to film the movement of drug traffickers from her window, hoping to assist the police. After months of recording suspicious activities, her initiative attracts the attention of a journalist, who approaches Nina and offers to support her in her mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCity of God (2002)
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSilence (2016)
In the 17th century, two Portuguese Jesuit priests travel to Japan in an attempt to locate their mentor, who is rumored to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Movie of My Life (2017)
The sierras of southern Brazil, 1963. The son of an French man and a Brazilian woman, Tony is a young man with a profound love of cinema and poetry. After graduating from college he returns to his small town in rural Brazil, to find out that his father had left for good, back to France. Tony then looks for the company of his fathers friends in search of information and references of a lost male role-model. He becomes a school teacher and a male figure to kids, in an attempt to provide them with something he lacks himself. A series of developments lead him to a surprising final lead on his fathers' whereabouts and reasons for leaving.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFour Days in September (1997)
Fernando, a journalist, and his friend César join terrorist group MR8 in order to fight Brazilian dictatorial regime during the late sixties. César, however, is wounded and captured during a bank hold up. Fernando then decides to kidnap the American ambassador in Brazil and ask for the release of fifteen political prisoners in exchange for his life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChe: Part Two (2008)
Seven years after his triumph in Cuba, Che winds up in Bolivia, where he tries to ignite the same revolutionary fires as before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInvisible Life (2019)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1950. In the conservative home of the Gusmão family, Eurídice and Guida are two inseparable sisters who support each other. While Guida can share with her younger sister the details of her romantic adventures, Eurídice finds in her older sister the encouragement she needs to pursue her dream of becoming a professional pianist.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1962)
In Argentina, one daughter of patriarch Madariaga is married to a Frenchman while the other is married to a German thus leading to a crisis when Nazi Germany occupies France and some Madariaga family members fight on opposite sides.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGabriela (1983)
In 1925, Gabriela, a poor, uneducated, yet charming woman becomes cook, mistress, and then wife of Nacib, a bar owner in Ilhéus, a small Brazilian coastal town run by the local colonels.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Killer (2024)
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSergio (2020)
A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder Fire (1983)
Three U.S. journalists get too close to one another and their work in 1979 Nicaragua.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnniversary (2025)
A close-knit family is caught in the turmoil of a controversial rising movement known as "The Change.” Ellen and Paul witness their lives fall apart when Ellen's former student Liz reappears and starts dating their son. As Liz becomes a part of the Taylor family, tensions rise and loyalties are tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEquilibrium (2002)
In a dystopian future, a totalitarian regime maintains peace by subduing the populace with a drug, and displays of emotion are punishable by death. A man in charge of enforcing the law rises to overthrow the system.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCity of Men (2007)
Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeath and the Maiden (1994)
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElite Squad (2007)
In 1997, before the visit of the pope to Rio de Janeiro, Captain Nascimento from BOPE (Special Police Operations Battalion) is assigned to eliminate the risks of the drug dealers in a dangerous slum nearby where the pope intends to be lodged.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCasa Grande (2014)
As a privileged teenager living in an affluent suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Jean has little to worry about beyond games, grades and girls. But as his overbearing father drags the family into debt, Jean is forced into a change of lifestyle which opens his eyes to the world beyond his 'casa grande' - not least that of the feisty, mixed-race firecracker Luiza. Cultures, classes and generations collide in this engrossing coming-of-age drama from Brazil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Zé?
The closest matches to Zé are The Secret Agent (2025), Vitória (2025) and City of God (2002). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Zé?
Start with The Secret Agent (2025), the closest match to Zé.
What is the highest-rated movie like Zé?
City of God (2002), rated 8.4/10 by 8,610 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Zé?
Anniversary (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Zé chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Zé, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.