Movies like The Night & The Universe (2010)
The best movies like The Night & The Universe (2010) are Chile '76 (2022), Death and the Maiden (1994) and Ema (2019). If The Night & The Universe hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMachuca (2004)7.7/10 from 222 votes
- NewestThe Wave (2025)Released 2025
- In SpanishChile '76 (2022)Also in Spanish
Chile '76 (2022)
Chile, 1976. Carmen heads off to her beach house. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEma (2019)
Ema is a magnetic and impulsive dancer in a reggaeton troupe. Her toxic marriage to choreographer Gastón is beyond repair, following a decision to give up on their adopted child Polo. She sets out on a mission to get him back, not caring who she’ll need to fight, seduce or destroy to make it happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTony Manero (2008)
A man is obsessed with John Travolta's disco dancing character from "Saturday Night Fever".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Her Place (2024)
After Chilean writer María Carolina Geel murders her lover, the case captivates shy legal secretary Mercedes, sparking a connection between the two women.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPost Mortem (2010)
In Chile, 1973, during the last days of Salvador Allende's presidency, an employee at a Morgue's recording office falls for a burlesque dancer who mysteriously disappears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Fantastic Woman (2017)
Marina's life is thrown into turmoil following the death of her partner. Mourning the loss of the man she loved, she finds herself under intense scrutiny from those with no regard for her privacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo (2012)
In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the ‘No’ vote persuade a brash young advertising executive, René Saavedra, to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and while under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHotel Coppelia (2021)
1965, Dominican Republic. At a seaside brothel, the lives of a group of prostitutes take a dramatic turn when freedom fighters stage a revolutionary coup, making them realise they can have a better life and perhaps find love. But everything changes when the US army supresses the revolution and takes the brothel as a military base: the girls will have to face the dilemma of either sleeping with the enemy or protecting their dignity at all costs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKamchatka (2002)
In 1976, Argentina fell into the hands of a de facto government. Thousands of citizens are persecuted and kidnapped. This is the case of the parents of two children, who, knowing they are wanted, decide to hide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMachuca (2004)
Santiago, capital of Chile during the Marxist government of elected, highly controversial president Salvador Allende. Father McEnroe supports his leftist views by introducing a program at the prestigious "collegio" (Catholic prep school) St. Patrick to allow free admission of some proletarian kids. One of them is Pedro Machuca, slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo Infante's liberal-bourgeois home. Yet the new classmates become buddies, paradoxically protesting together as Gonzalo gets adopted by Pedro's slum family and gang. But the adults spoil that too, not in the least when general Pinochet's coup ousts Allende, and supporters such as McEnroe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Miracle of Marcelino (1955)
Left on the doorstep of a monastery as an infant, Marcelino was raised by the monks. He was well-cared for but lonely and missed having a mother. One day he found a special friend in the forbidden attic, hanging on a cross. A friend that would repay Marcelino's kindness by granting him one heart-felt wish.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisUtama (2022)
In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStaring at Strangers (2022)
Carpenter Sergio runs away and hides in a closet after his boss fired him. When the closet arrives at its buyer's house, he decides to stay there, hiding in his new home living with an unknown family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGarage Olimpo (1999)
María is eighteen years old, she lives with her mother in an old house in Buenos Aires in 1978, subletting rooms and giving classes to poor illiterate adults. Suddenly she is abducted by a military squad and finds herself accused of subversion and submitted to torture in the hideous underground of the Garage Olimpo, while her mother desperately tries to find her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMissing (1982)
Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman. A conservative American businessman travels to Chile to investigate the sudden disappearance of his son after a military takeover. Accompanied by his son's wife he uncovers a trail of cover-ups that implicate the US State department which supports the dictatorship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wave (2025)
A music student’s testimony ignites a feminist uprising on her campus, where protest becomes performance and collective voice becomes an act of resistance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Up to the World (2014)
Davide and Loris are brothers and live in a very small village in the north of Italy. While Davide is eighteen years old and gay, Loris is almost thirty and doesn't know anything about his brother's sexuality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he and best friend Alberto Granado had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRachí (2024)
Combining modern footage with home movies and interviews, filmmaker María Casado's life is explored, focusing on themes of family, history, and belonging, with a particular emphasis on childhood experiences related to home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Olga (2004)
Based upon the true story of Olga Benário, the German-born wife of Brazilian communist leader Luís Carlos Prestes. During the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945) she was arrested and sent to Nazi Germany, where she was put to death in a concentration camp. After World War II began, Vargas decided to uphold the Allies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMorales, el reformador (2012)
Set months before the recent social movements that rocked Chile and the world, we are introduced to Ulises Morales, an exemplary citizen of Santiago who believes that Chilean citizens have lost their values and sense of social responsibility. He is a contemporary reformer that in times of change pursues a single mission: to give thousands of Chileans and Latin Americans the power to change their destiny, to become aware and accountable as a new social order emerges.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Girls (2014)
Four lucid grandmothers tell their story forgotten by history: the militancy and resistance of the young women of the leftist youth against the dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Garden of Foams (1971)
An ambassador from an outer (and rich) space comes to visit a poor planet, where he ends up being kidnapped.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
After We Have Left Our Homes (2017)
Under a dictatorship that has banned music, a man hides a record until he is caught. Whilst paying for his crimes he stumbles across a repository of confiscated items, leading to events that will change the course of history.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Night & The Universe?
The closest matches to The Night & The Universe are Chile '76 (2022), Death and the Maiden (1994) and Ema (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Night & The Universe?
Start with Chile '76 (2022), the closest match to The Night & The Universe.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Night & The Universe?
Machuca (2004), rated 7.7/10 by 222 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Night & The Universe?
The Wave (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like The Night & The Universe?
Yes: Chile '76 (2022), Ema (2019) and Tony Manero (2008).
How are movies similar to The Night & The Universe chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Night & The Universe, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.