Movies like When The Pure Forms Sunk (2021)
The best movies like When The Pure Forms Sunk (2021) are While at War (2019), La Bola Negra (2026) and Butterfly (1999). If When The Pure Forms Sunk hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedLa Bola Negra (2026)8.0/10 from 206 votes
- NewestLa Bola Negra (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishWhile at War (2019)Also in Spanish
While at War (2019)
Salamanca, Spain, 1936. In the early days of the military rebellion that began the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), writer Miguel de Unamuno supports the uprising in the hope that the prevailing political chaos will end. But when the confrontation becomes bloody, Unamuno must question his initial position.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLa Bola Negra (2026)
The intertwined lives of three men in three different eras, three lives intimately linked by sexuality and desire, pain, and legacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisButterfly (1999)
The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who introduces the boy to different things in the world. While the story centres on Moncho's ordinary coming-of-age experiences, tensions related to the looming Spanish Civil War periodically interrupt Moncho's personal growth and daily life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBehold a Pale Horse (1964)
Manuel Artiguez, a famous bandit during the Spanish civil war, has lived in French exile for 20 years. When his mother is dying he considers visiting her secretly in his Spanish home town. But his biggest enemy, the Spanish police officer Vinolas, prepared a trap at the hospital as a chance to finally catch Artiguez.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Endless Trench (2019)
A small village in Huelva, Andalusia, Spain, 1936. Higinio and Rosa have been married only for a few months when the Civil War breaks out. Higinio, being afraid of possible reprisals from the rebel faction, decides to use a hole dug in his own house as a temporary hideout.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLand and Freedom (1995)
Summer 1936: young unemployed communist David Carr leaves Liverpool to join the fight against fascism in Spain. He joins an international group of Militia-men and women, the POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista). After being wounded, he goes to Barcelona, where he joins another group of fighters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 13 Roses (2007)
True story of thirteen totally normal young women that suffered harsh questioning and were put in prison under made up charges of helping the rebellion against Franco back in the 1940s. Despite of their innocence, the thirteen were soon executed without even a trace of evidence of any wrong doing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Spirit of the Beehive (1973)
In 1940, in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, a young girl living on the Castilian plain is haunted after attending a screening of James Whale's 1931 film Frankenstein and hearing from her sister that the monster is not dead, instead existing as a spirit inhabiting a nearby barn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFreedomfighters (1996)
At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the nun Maria is forced to flee her convent. She takes refuge in a brothel, until it is liberated by a woman's anarchist group. Maria joins the group and eventually goes to the front. The women's group faces the problems of fighting not only the nationalists, but also factions on the left seeking to impose a more traditional military structure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFireflies at El Mozote (2025)
A boy seeks revenge after surviving El Mozote massacre in El Salvador, where government forces killed his family and destroyed his village - the deadliest civilian massacre in modern Latin America.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Photographer of Mauthausen (2018)
Spanish photographer Francesc Boix, imprisoned in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, works in the SS Photographic Service. Between 1943 and 1945, he hides, with the help of other prisoners, thousands of negatives, with the purpose of showing the freed world the atrocities committed by the Nazis, exhaustively documented. He will be a key witness during the Nuremberg Trials.
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 thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
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 · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalvador (1986)
In 1980, an American journalist covering the Salvadoran Civil War becomes entangled with both the leftist guerrilla groups and the right-wing military dictatorship while trying to rescue his girlfriend and her children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Teacher Who Promised the Sea (2023)
The buried memories of the Spanish Civil War are unearthed as a woman searches for the remains of her grandfather's father and discovers the story of an idealistic young teacher from Tarragona.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWaiting for Anya (2020)
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMuhammad Ali's Greatest Fight (2013)
Muhammad Ali’s historic Supreme Court battle from behind closed doors. When Ali was drafted into the Vietnam War at the height of his boxing career, his claim to conscientious objector status led to a controversial legal battle that rattled the U.S. judicial system right up to the highest court in the land.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNobody Knows I'm Here (2020)
Memo lives on a remote Chilean sheep farm, hiding a beautiful singing voice from the outside world. A recluse with a glittery flair, he can't stop dwelling on the past, but what will happen once someone finally listens?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wall (1967)
Prisoners await execution by firing squad when they are captured during the Spanish Civil War in this drama taken from the novella by Jean-Paul Sarte. Pablo is a loyalist jailed after he searches for his brother. An Irish mercenary and a Belgian physician are his cellmates. Flashbacks recall their lives before the war as they spend their last moments on Earth waiting for their date with death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Five Cartridges (1960)
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), five International Brigade soldiers of different nationalities are given a crucial assignment as their commander lies dying: they are to smuggle top-secret information across enemy lines.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Cunetas (TBA)
During the Spanish Civil War, a family of farmers must face the fascist threat. Tired of turning the other cheek, they will make an unexpected decision.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Head in the Clouds (2004)
Gilda Bessé shares her Paris apartment with an Irish schoolteacher, Guy Malyon, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. As the world drifts toward war, Gilda defiantly pursues her hedonistic lifestyle and her burgeoning career as a photographer. But Guy and Mia feel impelled to join the fight against fascism, and the three friends are separated.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBunuel and King Solomon's Table (2001)
The old Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900-83) imagines a movie plot, set in Toledo in the future 2002, about the fantastic adventure of three actors, who play him and his friends, the painter Salvador Dalí (1904-89) and the poet Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), and their search for King Solomon's table, a mythical artifact capable of revealing the past, present and future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Perros de luna (2017)
It does not matter the sex of those who love each other, or so Gonzalo thinks. He is in love with Enrique and wants him to join his struggle to change the society that prevents them from living their love freely. Based in «El Público» of Lorca.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan—who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era—has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a crucial bridge in order to halt the enemy's progress.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisYou're My Hero (2003)
Thirteen-year-old Ramon is on the verge of many adolescent discoveries -- and the confusion that goes along with them. Shy and awkward, he's moved from town to town throughout his childhood and believes that life is about winning and losing. But he soon learns it's all about survival. Like Ramon, Spain is in transition (President Francisco Franco is about to die); it's a time of social upheaval marked by change, illusion and struggle.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Fallen Sparrow (1943)
Imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War, John "Kit" McKittrick is released when a New York City policeman pulls some strings. Upon returning to America, McKittrick hears that a friend has committed suicide, and he begins to smell a rat. During his investigation, McKittrick questions three beautiful women, one of whom has a tie to his refugee past. Pursued by Nazi operatives, McKittrick learns of the death of another friend, and begins to suspect the dark Dr. Skaas.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When The Pure Forms Sunk?
The closest matches to When The Pure Forms Sunk are While at War (2019), La Bola Negra (2026) and Butterfly (1999). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When The Pure Forms Sunk?
Start with While at War (2019), the closest match to When The Pure Forms Sunk.
What is the highest-rated movie like When The Pure Forms Sunk?
La Bola Negra (2026), rated 8.0/10 by 206 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When The Pure Forms Sunk?
La Bola Negra (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like When The Pure Forms Sunk?
Yes: While at War (2019), La Bola Negra (2026) and Butterfly (1999).
How are movies similar to When The Pure Forms Sunk chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When The Pure Forms Sunk, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.