Movies like Affair in Sumatra (1956)
The best movies like Affair in Sumatra (1956) are I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Away We Go (2009) and Mr. Turner (2014). If Affair in Sumatra hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedMarshall (2017)7.3/10 from 719 votes
- NewestUrang Bunian: Misteri dari Hutan Sumatera (2026)Released 2026
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
A nurse in the Caribbean turns to voodoo in hopes of curing her patient, a mindless woman whose husband she's fallen in love with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAway We Go (2009)
Verona and Burt have moved to Colorado to be close to Burt's parents but, with Verona expecting their first child, Burt's parents inexplicably decide to move to Belgium, now leaving them in a place they hate and without a support structure in place. They set off on a whirlwind tour of of disparate locations where they have friends or relatives, sampling not only different cities and climates but also different families. Along the way they realize that the journey is less about discovering where they want to live and more about figuring out what type of parents they want to be.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Turner (2014)
Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLovely & Amazing (2002)
An intimate family portrait of four hapless but resilient women and the bittersweet lessons they learn in keeping up with the hectic demands of their individual neuroses. Each of the women seeks redemption in her own haphazard way, but whatever salvation they find is illusory and short-lived.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLEGO DC: Shazam! Magic and Monsters (2020)
It’s high time the Justice League took notice of Shazam, but joining the world’s greatest team of superheroes is a lot harder when they’ve all been turned into kids.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
A young Australian reporter tries to navigate the political turmoil of Indonesia during the rule of President Sukarno with the help of a diminutive photographer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlice in Wonderland (1999)
Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoxie (2021)
Inspired by her mom's rebellious past and a confident new friend, a shy 16-year-old publishes an anonymous zine calling out sexism at her school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPeople Will Talk (1951)
A successful, unorthodox doctor befriends a young woman with suicidal ideations due to her pregnancy by her ex, a military reservist killed in action.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fugitive Kind (1960)
Val Xavier, a drifter of obscure origins, arrives at a small town and gets a job in a store run by Lady Torrence. Her husband, Jabe M. Torrance, is dying of cancer. Val is pursued by Carol Cutere, the enigmatic local tramp-of-good-family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMansfield Park (1999)
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJust Before I Go (2015)
Ted Morgan has been treading water for most of his life. After his wife leaves him, Ted realizes he has nothing left to live for. Summoning the courage for one last act, Ted decides to go home and face the people he feels are responsible for creating the shell of a person he has become. But life is tricky. The more determined Ted is to confront his demons, to get closure, and to withdraw from his family, the more Ted is yanked into the chaos of their lives. So, when Ted Morgan decides to kill himself, he finds a reason to live.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarshall (2017)
Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMandingo (1975)
Warren Maxwell, the owner of a run-down plantation, pressures his son, Hammond, to marry and produce an heir to inherit the plantation. Hammond settles on his own cousin, Blanche, but purchases a sex slave when he returns from the honeymoon. He also buys his father a new Mandingo slave named Mede to breed and train as a prize-fighter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJudy & Punch (2019)
In the anarchic town of Seaside, nowhere near the sea, puppeteers Judy and Punch are trying to resurrect their marionette show. The show is a hit due to Judy's superior puppeteering but Punch's driving ambition and penchant for whisky lead to an inevitable tragedy that Judy must avenge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSong of the South (1946)
Uncle Remus draws upon his tales of Br'er Rabbit to help little Johnny deal with his confusion over his parents' separation as well as his new life on the plantation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Day at the Races (1937)
Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save Judy's sanitarium by winning a big race with a finicky horse owned by Judy's boyfriend Gil. There are a few problems. Hackenbush, who was recently put in charge of the sanitarium, isn't really a doctor, he's a veterinarian.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrue Believer (1989)
Eddie Dodd is a burnt out former civil rights lawyer who now specializes in defending drug dealers. Roger Baron, newly graduated from law school, has followed Eddie's great cases and now wants to learn at his feet. With Roger's idealistic prodding, Eddie reluctantly takes on a case of a young Korean man who, according to his mother, has been in jail for eight years for a murder he didn't commit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReal Women Have Curves (2002)
In East Los Angeles, an 18-year-old struggles between her ambitions of going to college and the desires of her domineering mother for her to get married, have children, and oversee the small, rundown family-owned textile factory.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJungle Cruise (2021)
Dr. Lily Houghton enlists the aid of wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff to take her down the Amazon in his dilapidated boat. Together, they search for an ancient tree that holds the power to heal – a discovery that will change the future of medicine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFrontier Sumatra (2019)
With 30 football fields of forest lost each minute in the world, we need to know now if we can save nature. This is the story of one conservation project, Restorasi Ekosistem Riau (RER). After decades of land-clearing and burning across Sumatra, the remote Kampar Peninsula is now the last great peatland rainforest on the island. But protecting this vast ecosystem pushes the RER team to the limits
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Secret Lives of Orangutans (2024)
Follow a multi-generational orangutan family through their treetop triumphs and travails in this immersive documentary narrated by David Attenborough.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Mantagi (2026)
This film follows a spiritual and physical journey from upstream to downstream along the Batanghari River. Through five narrative fragments, viewers are invited to see how water bears silent witness to the lives of the people of Jambi—from a place of purification, a source of life, to a victim of ecosystem destruction.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Sumatra's Last Tigers (TBA)
Sumatra, Indonesia has been hit by a wave of gruesome attacks on humans, 8 in three months, the culprit is the critically endangered Sumatran tiger. As its forest disappears it has no choice but to hunt the most abundant mammal left...man. With less than 400 wild Sumatran tigers left in the wild time is running out to save them. But hope for the species lies with a small group of dedicated individuals who are battling to find a solution to the tiger conflict problem before it's too late. In stunning HD we reveal the Sumatran tiger like never before and the humans who risk everything to save them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Tea Company of the NILS in Pematang Siantar (1927)
A reportage about the tea company of the NILS (the Netherlands Indies Agricultural Syndicate) called Permanangan, on the east coast of Sumatra.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Chris Packham: In Search of the Lost Girl (2018)
In 1998, Chris Packham met a hunter-gatherer tribe in remote Sumatra. 20 years later, he goes in search of the same tribe to search for the girl whose photograph he took.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Urang Bunian: Misteri dari Hutan Sumatera (2026)
On their way to his wife's hometown in West Sumatra, Teddy and his best friend, Kevin, recklessly continue their journey at night and become lost in a forbidden area believed to be the realm of the Urang Bunian. Amidst a forest filled with supernatural terrors and illusions, they must find their way home before they disappear forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Merantau (2009)
In Minangkabau, West Sumatera, Yuda a skilled practitioner of Silat Harimau is in the final preparations to begin his "Merantau" a century's old rites-of-passage to be carried out by the community's young men that will see him leave the comforts of his idyllic farming village and make a name for himself in the bustling city of Jakarta.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndochine (1992)
In colonial Vietnam, dashing French naval captain Jean-Baptiste, wealthy plantation owner Éliane Devries, and her adopted Vietnamese daughter Camillevare form the three points of a cross-cultural romantic triangle. As the struggle against European imperialism sweeps Indochina, Jean-Baptiste and Camille have to choose sides and Éliane faces the emotionally difficult challenge of raising the child of her daughter and ex-lover.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRed Dust (1932)
Dennis, owner of a rubber plantation in Cochinchina, is involved with Vantine, who left Saigon to evade the police. When his new surveyor arrives along with his refined wife Dennis is quickly infatuated by her.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Affair in Sumatra?
The closest matches to Affair in Sumatra are I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Away We Go (2009) and Mr. Turner (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Affair in Sumatra?
Start with I Walked with a Zombie (1943), the closest match to Affair in Sumatra.
What is the highest-rated movie like Affair in Sumatra?
Marshall (2017), rated 7.3/10 by 719 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Affair in Sumatra?
Urang Bunian: Misteri dari Hutan Sumatera (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Affair in Sumatra?
Yes: I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Away We Go (2009) and Mr. Turner (2014).
How are movies similar to Affair in Sumatra chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Affair in Sumatra, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.