Movies like What Do Dragons Eat? (2025)
The best movies like What Do Dragons Eat? (2025) are While at War (2019), Land and Freedom (1995) and The Endless Trench (2019). If What Do Dragons Eat? hooked you with its drama and history, 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 211 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 & history
Worth the HypeMovies 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 & history
Worth the HypeMovies 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 & history
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMunich - The Edge of War (2021)
At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOperation Ogre (1979)
Spain, 1973. Dictator Francisco Franco has ruled the country since 1939 with an iron fist; but he is now a very old and sick man. The future of the weakened regime is in danger. Admiral Carrero Blanco is his natural successor. The Basque terrorist gang ETA decides that he must die to prevent the dictatorship from continuing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sleeping Voice (2011)
Finished the Spanish Civil War in April 1939, in November 1940, while Spain is being crushed by the ruthless boot of dictator Franco, Pepita travels from rural Córdoba to Madrid to be near her sister Hortensia, who is seven months pregnant and imprisoned, haunted by the shadow of a death sentence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMemories of My Father (2020)
In the polarized and violent Medellín (Colombia's 'City of Eternal Spring') of the 1970s, doctor Héctor Abad Gómez is concerned about both his children and children from less favored classes. After a devastating loss in the family, Héctor gives himself to the greater cause of public health programs for the poor in Medellín to the consternation of the city's authorities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Man of Action (2022)
Loosely inspired by the life of Lucio Urtubia, explore the figure of the so-called anarchist 'Robin Hood,' who ran a legendary counterfeiting operation in Paris that put him in the crosshairs of America's largest bank, when he managed to obtain a huge amount of money by forging traveler's checks to invest in causes he believed in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZama (2017)
In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRadium Girls (2020)
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Scarlet and the Black (1983)
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
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 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 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 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 thisThe (Silent) War (2019)
Northern Spain, October 1944. Several groups of guerrilla fighters, former Republican soldiers exiled in France after the end of the Spanish Civil War, infiltrate the country in order to provoke a popular uprising against General Franco's dictatorship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisPan's Labyrinth (2006)
In post–civil war Spain, 10-year-old Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to live under the control of her cruel stepfather. Drawn into a mysterious labyrinth, she meets a faun who reveals that she may be a lost princess from an underground kingdom. To return to her true father, she must complete a series of surreal and perilous tasks that blur the line between reality and fantasy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisSalvador (Puig Antich) (2006)
The story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be executed under Franco's Fascist State in 1974.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMirror (1975)
A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDer Richter von Zalamea (1956)
Historical drama set during the reign of Philip II of Spain. The royal troops have taken up quarters in the village of Zalamea. Captain Don Alvaro is staying with the farmer Pedro Crespo. His daughter Isabel behaves very coldly and dismissively toward the captain, which irritates him. Finally, he takes her by force and humiliates her father. The captain is put on trial in the village. Pedro is appointed judge and, despite all the threats from General de Lope, sentences the captain to death. De Lope then wants to deny him his judicial authority. Surprisingly, King Philip II appears in the village and confirms the harsh sentence, but wants to pardon the offender. However, the sentence has already been carried out.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Bethune: The Making of a Hero (1993)
True story of Norman Bethune, a medical doctor who fought for justice in China during Mao's rise to power.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
The Dinner (2025)
Spain, April 15, 1939. With the Civil War concluded, and with the intention of celebrating his victory, General Franco attends a dinner with his generals at the Palace Hotel.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWish You Were Here (2005)
A man desperately searches for his girlfriend on the Costa del Sol.
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
The Ponzán Network (2022)
During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Second World War (1939-1945), around three thousand people managed to elude their pursuers, and probably also avoided being killed, thanks to the heroic and very efficient efforts of the Ponzán Team, a brave group of people — mountain guides, forgers, safe house keepers and many others —, led by Francisco Ponzán Vidal, who managed to save their lives, both on one side and the other of the border between Spain and France.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
The 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
The Devil's Backbone (2001)
Spain, 1939. In the last days of the Spanish Civil War, the young Carlos arrives at the Santa Lucía orphanage, where he will make friends and enemies as he follows the quiet footsteps of a mysterious presence eager for revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like What Do Dragons Eat??
The closest matches to What Do Dragons Eat? are While at War (2019), Land and Freedom (1995) and The Endless Trench (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after What Do Dragons Eat??
Start with While at War (2019), the closest match to What Do Dragons Eat?.
What is the highest-rated movie like What Do Dragons Eat??
La Bola Negra (2026), rated 8.0/10 by 211 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like What Do Dragons Eat??
La Bola Negra (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like What Do Dragons Eat??
Yes: While at War (2019), The Endless Trench (2019) and Freedomfighters (1996).
How are movies similar to What Do Dragons Eat? chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What Do Dragons Eat?, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.