Movies like Salò: The Republic of Silence (2025)

For Sama (2019)

A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war

Night Will Fall (2014)

When Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making use of British, Soviet and American footage, the Ministry of Information’s Sidney Bernstein (later founder of Granada Television) aimed to create a documentary that would provide lasting, undeniable evidence of the Nazis’ unspeakable crimes. He commissioned a wealth of British talent, including editor Stewart McAllister, writer and future cabinet minister Richard Crossman – and, as treatment advisor, his friend Alfred Hitchcock. Yet, despite initial support from the British and US Governments, the film was shelved, and only now, 70 years on, has it been restored and completed by Imperial War Museums under its original title "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey".

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

The Cave (2019)

Deep beneath the surface in the Syrian province of Ghouta, a group of female doctors have established an underground field hospital. Under the supervision of paediatrician Dr. Amani and her staff of doctors and nurses, hope is restored for some of the thousands of children and civilian victims of the ruthless Syrian civil war.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Room 237 (2012)

A subjective documentary that explores various theories about hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Shining. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Zero Days (2016)

Alex Gibney explores the phenomenon of Stuxnet, a self-replicating computer virus discovered in 2010 by international IT experts. Evidently commissioned by the US and Israeli governments, this malware was designed to specifically sabotage Iran’s nuclear programme. However, the complex computer worm ended up not only infecting its intended target but also spreading uncontrollably.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer (2004)

Torture chambers, acid vats, greased chutes and gassing rooms were just some of the devices of death designed by the Torture Doctor, H.H. Holmes in his castle of horrors. Follows Holmes' entire life as a criminal mastermind.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Facing Ali (2009)

Ten of Muhammad Ali's former rivals pay tribute to the three-time world heavyweight champion.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

One Child Nation (2019)

Through interviews with both victims and instigators, Nanfu Wang, a first-time mother, breaks open decades of silence on a vast, unprecedented social experiment that shaped — and destroyed — countless lives in China.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

When Steve Jobs died the world wept. But what accounted for the grief of millions of people who didn’t know him? This evocative film navigates Jobs' path from a small house in the suburbs, to zen temples in Japan, to the CEO's office of the world's richest company, exploring how Jobs’ life and work shaped our relationship with the computer. The Man in the Machine is a provocative and sometimes startling re-evaluation of the legacy of an icon.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Milli Vanilli (2023)

The story of Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan, who became fast friends during their youth in Germany. With Rob coming from a broken home and Fabrice having left an abusive household, they shared a similar upbringing, as well as a future goal: to become famous superstars. In a few short years, their dreams came true. Rob and Fab, better known as Milli Vanilli, became the world's most popular pop duo in 1990 and won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist. However, their ascension to success came with a devastating price that ultimately led to their infamous undoing.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)

Documentary about legendary Paramount producer Robert Evans, based on his famous 1994 autobiography.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

I Called Him Morgan (2016)

Part jazz history, part true-crime tale, Kasper Collin’s new documentary employs extensive archival footage and new interviews to tell the tragic story of the magnificently talented trumpeter Lee Morgan and his common-law wife Helen, who murdered him in a New York bar in 1972.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story (2014)

A portrait of the man behind the greatest fraud in sporting history. Lance Armstrong enriched himself by cheating his fans, his sport and the truth. But the former friends whose lives and careers he destroyed would finally bring him down.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004)

A documentary on the Z Channel, one of the first pay cable stations in the US, and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974, the LA-based channel's eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (2018)

A funny, intimate and heartbreaking portrait of one of the world’s most beloved and inventive comedians, Robin Williams, told largely through his own words. Celebrates what he brought to comedy and to the culture at large, from the wild days of late-1970s L.A. to his death in 2014.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010)

An in-depth look at the rapid rise and dramatic fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Generation Wealth (2018)

Over the past 25 years, Lauren Greenfield's documentary photography and film projects have explored youth culture, gender, body image, and affluence. Underscoring the ever-increasing gap between the haves and the have-nots, portraits reveal a focus on cultivating image over substance, where subjects unable to attain actual wealth instead settle for its trappings, no matter their ability to pay for it.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Belushi (2020)

Using previously unheard audiotapes recorded shortly after John Belushi’s death, director R.J. Cutler’s documentary feature examines the too-short life of the once-in-a-generation talent who captured the hearts and funny bones of devoted audiences.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Disclosure (2020)

An investigation of how Hollywood's fabled stories have deeply influenced how Americans feel about transgender people, and how transgender people have been taught to feel about themselves.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

Sour Grapes (2016)

Controversy erupts when an unassuming young man floods the American wine market with fake vintages valued in the millions, bamboozling the wine world elite, in this humorous and suspenseful tale of an ingenious con on the eve of the 2008 stock market crash.

Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary

How the Holocaust Began (2023)

Historian James Bulgin reveals the origins of the Holocaust in the German invasion of the Soviet Union, exploring the mass murder, collaboration and experimentation that led to the Final Solution.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war

Hitler's War on Oil: Objective Baku (2015)

This film tells the story of World War II as experienced by the inhabitants of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, at the time a satellite of Moscow. The very rich oil deposits of the region aroused the covetousness of Hitler who needed the oil from Baku to carry out his program of world domination. His entire campaign of 1942-1943 was aimed at seizing them. But the Soviets and the Allies were determined to prevent him from doing so, by all means, including the most radical, even if it meant wiping the city off the map.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war

Health for the Americas: Cleanliness Brings Health (1945)

The comparison of two rural families to demonstrate the need for proper hygiene and the consequences of its neglect.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Age of Heroes (2011)

The true story of the formation of Ian Fleming's 30 Commando unit, a precursor for the elite forces in the U.K.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Tombstone of the Fireflies (2008)

Set during World War II, the film follows a young brother and sister as they attempt to survive the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe City.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Projekt Marmor - verdrängt und vergessen (2025)

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

The Eternal Jew (1940)

A Nazi propaganda film made to promote anti-Semitism among the German people. Newly-shot footage of Jewish neighborhoods in recently-conquered Poland is combined with preexisting film clips and stills to defame the religion and advance Hitler's slurs that its adherents were plotting to undermine European civilization.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary

Closed to the Light (2021)

In a moment captured in time, die-hard Italian fascists conduct reprisal executions of civilians in Lombardy during World War II.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Ardennes Fury (2014)

As the Battle of the Bulge rages on, an American tank unit gets trapped behind Nazi lines. With just hours before the bombs of Operation Ardennes Fury fall, the tank's commander makes the risky decision to rescue an orphanage.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war

Halls of Montezuma (1951)

Richard Widmark leads an all star cast of marine leathernecks including Jack Palance, Robert Wagner, Karl Malden, Richard Boone and Jack Webb into battle on a heavily fortified island. This action-packed story follows the squad as they pick their way through enemy-infested jungles on a time sensitive mission to find the source of the enemy rockets. As the mission progresses, the squad and leader overcome many challenges as they are transformed into an effective and efficient fighting unit.

Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war