Movies like Afonso's Smile
The best movies like Afonso's Smile are Vitória (2025), The Secret Agent (2025) and Escape from Pretoria (2020). If Afonso's Smile hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Afonso's Smile
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCity of God (2002)8.4/10 from 8,624 votes
- NewestMy Best Friend (2026)Released 2026
Vitória (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 thisThe 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 thisEscape from Pretoria (2020)
South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this24 Hours to Live (2017)
An assassin seeks redemption after being given a second chance at life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisLisbon Story (1994)
Wim Wenders' homage to Lisbon and films. A sound engineer obtains a mysterious postcard from a friend who at the moment is filming a film in Lisbon. He sets out across Europe to find him and help him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Father's Shadow (2025)
Two young brothers explore Lagos with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, witnessing both the city's magnitude and their father's daily struggles as political unrest threatens their journey home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLiam (2001)
A morality tale of xenophobia, religious prejudice, mob violence, poverty, and their effect on two children in Liverpool during the Depression. When a shipyard closes, Liam and Teresa's dad loses his job. Liam, who's about 8, making his first Holy Communion, gets a regular dose of fire and brimstone at church. Teresa, about 13, has a job as a maid to the Jewish family that owns the closed shipyard. The lady of that house is having an affair, and Teresa becomes an accomplice. Liam stutters terribly, especially when troubled. Dad comes under the sway of the Fascists, who blame cheap Irish labor and Jewish owners. A Molotov cocktail brings things to a head.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTabu (2012)
Lisbon, Portugal, 2010. Pilar, a pious woman devoted to social causes, maintains a peculiar relationship with her neighbor Aurora, a temperamental old woman obsessed with gambling who lives tormented by a mysterious past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAfter Everything (2023)
Besieged by writer’s block and the crushing breakup with Tessa, Hardin travels to Portugal in search of a woman he wronged in the past – and to find himself. Hoping to win back Tessa, he realizes he needs to change his ways before he can make the ultimate commitment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoor Things (2023)
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Beautician and the Beast (1997)
A New York City beautician is mistakenly hired as the school teacher for the children of the president of a small Eastern European country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFatima (2020)
In 1917, outside the parish of Fátima, Portugal, a 10-year-old girl and her two younger cousins witness multiple visitations of the Virgin Mary, who tells them that only prayer and suffering will bring an end to World War I. As secularist government officials and Church leaders try to force the children to recant their story, word of the sighting spreads across the country, inspiring religious pilgrims to flock to the site in hopes of witnessing a miracle..
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Jewel of the Nile (1985)
Joan Wilder is thrust back into a world of murder, chases, foreign intrigue... and love. This time out she's duped by a duplicitous Arab dignitary who brings her to the Middle East, ostensibly to write a book about his life. Of course, he's up to no good, and Joan is just another pawn in his wicked game. But Jack Colton and his sidekick Ralph show up to help our intrepid heroine save the day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Crimson Pirate (1952)
Burt Lancaster plays a pirate with a taste for intrigue and acrobatics who involves himself in the goings on of a revolution in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. A light hearted adventure involving prison breaks, an oddball scientist, sailing ships, naval fights and tons of swordplay.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHere on Earth (2000)
Three lives of three young people intersect over the course of one summer. A rich student and a young working-class man accidentally destroy a diner when their impromptu road race takes a disastrous turn. Ordered by a judge to spend the summer repairing the building, they find themselves becoming rivals for the affections of the owner's daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisCaptains Courageous (1937)
Harvey, the arrogant and spoiled son of an indulgent absentee-father, falls overboard from a transatlantic steamship and is rescued by a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks. Harvey fails to persuade them to take him ashore, nor convince the crew of his wealth. The captain offers him a low-paid job, until they return to port, as part of the crew that turns him into a mature, considerate young man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Best Friend (2026)
When empty nest syndrome hits, two BFFs follow their teen daughters to Portugal and find love, fun and a whole new meaning of friendship along the way.
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 this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Afonso's Smile?
The closest matches to Afonso's Smile are Vitória (2025), The Secret Agent (2025) and Escape from Pretoria (2020). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Afonso's Smile?
Start with Vitória (2025), the closest match to Afonso's Smile.
What is the highest-rated movie like Afonso's Smile?
City of God (2002), rated 8.4/10 by 8,624 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Afonso's Smile?
My Best Friend (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Afonso's Smile chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Afonso's Smile, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.