Movies like One Bright Afternoon (2026)
The best movies like One Bright Afternoon (2026) are Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (2022), De Gaulle: Liberté (2026) and Walking with the Enemy (2014). If One Bright Afternoon hooked you with its history and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDe Gaulle: Liberté (2026)7.9/10 from 244 votes
- NewestMoulin (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchFarewell, Mr. Haffmann (2022)Also in French
Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (2022)
Paris 1942. François Mercier is an ordinary man who only aspires to start a family with the woman he loves, Blanche. He is also the employee of a talented jeweler, Mr. Haffmann. But faced with the German occupation, the two men will have no other choice but to conclude an agreement whose consequences, over the months, will upset the fate of our three characters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDe Gaulle: Liberté (2026)
While World War II is raging, General De Gaulle seeks to convince the world that the battle for France not lost. Reality seems determined to prove him wrong. Yet, little by little, resistance fighters, rebellious students and determined soldiers rise up. Their faith, audacity and thirst for freedom defy what history seemed to have written in advance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWalking with the Enemy (2014)
Regent Horthy is the leader of Hungary and a German ally, but his favorable standing with Hitler changes as the war comes to an end. Forced to cede Hungary’s power or else witness the execution of his son, Regent Horthy gives up control of his country to the Nazis, who quickly move Hungarians to ghettos and death camps, with no hope in sight. But the despair changes when a young man named Elek emerges. Separated from his family during the relocations and aided by the woman he loves , Elek defies the enemy by becoming one of them. In a race against time, disguised as a Nazi Officer he embarks on a mission to save his family and thousands of his countrymen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoulin (2026)
In June 1943, Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, is arrested while attempting to reunite the forces of the "Armée Secrète." Interrogated by Klaus Barbie, the head of the Gestapo in Lyon, Moulin is drawn into a relentless confrontation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisField of Lost Shoes (2015)
A group of teenage cadets sheltered from war at the Virginia Military Institute must confront the horrors of an adult world when they are called upon to defend the Shenandoah Valley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Colors of Fire (2022)
February 1927. The funeral of Marcel Péricourt, the most powerful banker in Paris. His daughter Madeleine must take the helm of the financial empire of which she is the heiress. But she has a son, Paul, who with an unexpected and tragic gesture will place her on the path to ruin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPrizefighter: The Life of Jem Belcher (2022)
At the turn of the 19th century, Pugilism was the sport of kings and a gifted young boxer fought his way to becoming champion of England.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAusterlitz (1960)
A return to the life of the Little Corporal with a dramatisation of the decisive 1805 conflict between French forces and the armies of Austria and Russia. An epic reconstruction of the battle of Austerlitz, where Bonaparte had the greatest victory of his career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDiplomacy (2014)
On the night of August 24, 1944, the fate of Paris rests with General von Choltitz, who plans to destroy the city on Hitler's orders. As the general prepares to detonate explosives throughout the capital, Swedish consul Raoul Nordling uses diplomacy in a desperate bid to convince him to defy the orders and save Paris.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDefiance (2008)
Based on a true story, during World War II, four Jewish brothers escape their Nazi-occupied homeland of West Belarus in Poland and join the Soviet partisans to combat the Nazis. The brothers begin the rescue of roughly 1,200 Jews still trapped in the ghettos of Poland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOnoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021)
Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide; stay alive whatever happens; the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, this role will be to wage a guerrilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after; Onoda, 10,000 days later.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Radiant Girl (2022)
Paris, summer 1942. Irene is a young, bubbly, 19-year-old Jewish girl. Her family watches her discover the world, friends, new love and a passion for the theatre. The aspiring actress is living her youthful life without a care in the world, but she does not know that time may be running out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChouans ! (1988)
Directed by Philippe de Broca, the film recounts a bloody episode of the French Revolution. 1793, the Terror . In Vendée and in Bretagne, the chouans are revolting against the young Republic and fight for the monarchy restauration. The civil war divides also the family of the Count Savinien de Kerfadec, a liberal and generous noble and a flying machines inventor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisA Month in the Country (1987)
A destitute WWI veteran is hired to help carry out restoration work on a medieval mural in a rural Yorkshire church. While living in the quiet village, he forms a close friendship with an archaeologist and begins to come to terms with his trauma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlo (2023)
World premiering on the Plage, it tells the story of « the little fiancée of the Atlantic », who’s career reached its peak with her victory of the Route du Rhum in 1990.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisResistance (2020)
The story of mime Marcel Marceau as he works with a group of Jewish boy scouts and the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTobruk (1967)
In September 1942, the German Afrika Korps under Rommel have successfully pushed the Allies back into Egypt. A counter-attack is planned, for which the fuel dumps at Tobruk are a critical impediment. In order to aid the attack, a group of British commandos and German Jews make their way undercover through 800 miles of desert, to destroy the fuel dumps starving the Germans of fuel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisCome What May (2015)
In may 1940, the German troops enter France. Frightened by the progress of the enemy, the people of a small village of Pas-de-Calais decide on the recommendations of the prefecture, to give up everything to go on the road, fleeing to the coast.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLeningrad. Stimmen einer belagerten Stadt (2024)
It was one of the great crimes of the Second World War: from 1941 to 1944, a total of 872 days, the siege and starvation of Leningrad by the German Wehrmacht on Hitler's orders lasted. Over a million people fell victim to the blockade, most of them dying of hunger. Countless of these starving people wrote diaries with the last of their strength, and cameramen filmed in the paralyzed city. Evidence from the hell of the siege, many of the film recordings, but above all the written memories on which this documentary on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation is based, remained under lock and key after the war. The voices of those who had suffered through this terrible time should not be heard by anyone, because they did not fit the pathos of the Leningrad heroic song that was officially sung. Most of the recordings come from women. The writers feared neither the enemy nor the Communist Party or Stalin, who often proved incompetent in providing for the population.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & drama
Our Time Will Come (2017)
In Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, a school teacher and her would-be-fiancé link up with Chinese guerrilla fighters, forging their own path to freedom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
De Bevrijding van Den Haag (2010)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Počkám, až zabiješ (1973)
During World War II, dogs were trained in special centres for guard duty in concentration camps. However, one of the prisoners domesticates a female German Shepherd, which saves his life during his escape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Horká zima (1974)
A man who was a communist MP during the First Republic joins the Slovak National Uprising, but is wounded and has to hide in a log cabin with others. However, an attempt to obtain false documents for the partisans almost causes a betrayal...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Pastor Hall (1940)
The village of Altdorf has to come to terms with Chancellor Hitler and the arrival of a platoon of Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers go about teaching and enforcing "The New Order", but Pastor Hall, a kind and gentle man, won't be cowed. Some villagers join the Nazi party avidly, and some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life, but Pastor Hall takes his convictions to the pulpit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Intimates (1997)
Foon escapes an arranged marriage by walking the road of a Ji Sor. After an affair with Shing, she becomes pregnant. An attempted abortion nearly costs Foon her life. Wan, the young owner of a silk factory, rescues her. Wan and Foon share their romances, reflecting the experience of women during the 40's.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The True Story of the Bridge on the River Kwai (2000)
Made famous by the 1957 Hollywood movie, the bridges of the River Kwai emblematize one of the most misunderstood events in history. Contrary to the romanticized film version, the structures represent a period of terror, desperation, and death for over 16,000 POWs and 100,00 local slaves. The Thailand - Burma Railway was the vision of the Japanese Imperial Army: a 250-mile track cut through dense jungle that would connect Bangkok and Rangoon. To accomplish this nearly impossible feat, the fanatical and ruthless Japanese engineers used POWs and local slaves as manpower. Candid interviews with men who lived through the atrocity - including Dutch, Australian, British, and American POWs - illuminate the violence and horror of their three-and-a-half-year internment. From Britain's surrender of Singapore the enduring force of friendship, The True Story Of The Bridge On The River Kwai narrates a moving and unforgettable account of a period in history that must be remembered.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Drylanders (1962)
The epic story of the opening of the Canadian West and the drought that brought the Depression in the thirties. This is the saga of a family who left eastern Canada to stake their future in the Prairies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Operation Bottleneck (1961)
WWII Burma...Six paratroopers undertake an extremely dangerous mission against the Japanese. It will ultimately cost them their lives, except for one "lucky" survivor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like One Bright Afternoon?
The closest matches to One Bright Afternoon are Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (2022), De Gaulle: Liberté (2026) and Walking with the Enemy (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after One Bright Afternoon?
Start with Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (2022), the closest match to One Bright Afternoon.
What is the highest-rated movie like One Bright Afternoon?
De Gaulle: Liberté (2026), rated 7.9/10 by 244 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like One Bright Afternoon?
Moulin (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like One Bright Afternoon?
Yes: Farewell, Mr. Haffmann (2022), De Gaulle: Liberté (2026) and Moulin (2026).
How are movies similar to One Bright Afternoon chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside One Bright Afternoon, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.