Movies like El Norte (1983)
The best movies like El Norte (1983) are Black Gold (2011), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) and The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013). If El Norte hooked you with its adventure and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAmores Perros (2000)7.7/10 from 3,054 votes
- NewestI'll Be Gone in June (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishSin Nombre (2009)Also in Spanish
Black Gold (2011)
On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
America is in the depths of the Great Depression. Families drift apart when faraway jobs beckon. A courageous young girl confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father. During her odyssey, she forms a close bond with two diverse traveling companions: a magnificent, protective wolf, and a hardened drifter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)
A 10-year-old child prodigy cartographer secretly leaves his family's ranch in Montana where he lives with his cowboy father and scientist mother and travels across the country on board a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Quest (1996)
Ghang-gheng, the ancient winner-take-all competition in which the deadliest fighters from around the world employ the most spectacular feats of martial arts skills ever displayed in order to win the prized Golden Dragon. But fighting prowess alone will not be enough for Chris to triumph over such daunting foes.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am David (2003)
A 12-year-old boy manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own, through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark, and a compass to help get him there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSin Nombre (2009)
Sayra, an Indigenous Latina American teenage girl from Honduras, Central America, hungers for a better life. Her chance for one comes when she is reunited with her long-estranged father, who intends to emigrate to Mexico and then enter the United States. Sayra's life collides with a pair of Indigenous Latino American gang members from Mexico, North America who have boarded the same USA-bound train.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRambo: Last Blood (2019)
After fighting his demons for decades, John Rambo now lives in peace on his family ranch in Arizona, but his rest is interrupted when Gabriela, the granddaughter of his housekeeper María, disappears after crossing the border into Mexico to meet her biological father. Rambo, who has become a true father figure for Gabriela over the years, undertakes a desperate and dangerous journey to find her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Wingwalker (2024)
A young widower is deported as his daughter is scheduled for a heart transplant, this will lead him to orchestrate the boldest border crossing plan in history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBorderline (1980)
Jeb Maynard is a patrolman guarding the U.S.-Mexican border, whose partner and buddy Scooter has just been murdered. Maynard knows that a smuggler of illegal aliens is responsible for Scooter's death, but the feds insist that drug dealers committed the crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmores Perros (2000)
A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKings of the Sun (1963)
In order to flee from powerful enemies, young Mayan king Balam leads his people north across the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of what will become the United States. They build a home in the new land but come into conflict with a tribe of Native Americans led by their chief, Black Eagle, while both Balam and Black Eagle fall in love the beautiful Mayan princess Ixchel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpon Entry (2023)
Diego, a Venezuelan urbanist, and Elena, a contemporary dancer from Barcelona, move to the United States with their approved visas to start a new life. Their intention is to boost their professional careers and start a family in 'the land of opportunities'. But upon entering New York airport's immigration area, they are taken to the secondary inspection room, where border officers will subject them to an unpleasant inspection process and a psychologically grueling interrogation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrozen River (2008)
A financially strapped mother joins a Mohawk woman to smuggle illegal immigrants into the United States.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlue Beetle (2023)
Recent college grad Jaime Reyes returns home full of aspirations for his future, only to find that home is not quite as he left it. As he searches to find his purpose in the world, fate intervenes when Jaime unexpectedly finds himself in possession of an ancient relic of alien biotechnology: the Scarab.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKayara (2025)
A courageous and athletic teenager, Kayara dreams that she is destined to be the first female to break into the league of Chasquis - the official messengers of the Incan empire. As she learns what it takes to be a Chasqui along with its challenges, she tackles every mission she gets and discovers the ancient stories of her land and her people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApocalypto (2006)
Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Marksman (2021)
Jim Hanson’s quiet life is suddenly disturbed by two people crossing the US/Mexico border – a woman and her young son – desperate to flee a Mexican cartel. After a shootout leaves the mother dead, Jim becomes the boy’s reluctant defender. He embraces his role as Miguel’s protector and will stop at nothing to get him to safety, as they go on the run from the relentless assassins.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCome Away (2020)
Before Alice went to Wonderland, and before Peter became Pan, they were brother and sister. When their eldest brother dies in a tragic accident, they each seek to save their parents from their downward spirals of despair until finally they are forced to choose between home and imagination, setting the stage for their iconic journeys into Wonderland and Neverland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisDaniel & Ana (2009)
Being kidnapped shatters a brother and sister's harmony, forcing them to confront their desires.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Set during the Cold War, the Soviets—led by sword-wielding Irina Spalko—are in search of a crystal skull which has supernatural powers related to a mystical Lost City of Gold. Indy is coerced to head to Peru at the behest of a young man whose friend—and Indy's colleague—Professor Oxley has been captured for his knowledge of the skull's whereabouts.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHouse of Sand and Fog (2003)
Behrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy. After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer and befriends a police officer. Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man in the Trunk (2019)
On an otherwise quiet night there is a startling knock at the door. Andrew Tucker answers the door to find an old friend whom he hasn't seen in years. The disheveled and absent friend comes to him with one request: "I need you to come with me but, I can't tell you where we're going." Andrew takes a chance but learns that every answer brings more questions. Nothing good ever comes knocking after midnight and Andrew's nightmare asks how far you would go to help a friend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
A young Pakistani Briton manages a rundown laundrette with his lover while dealing with tension in his family, the local Pakistani community, and a persistent mob of skinheads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bittersweet Life (2005)
Kim Sun-woo is an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a cold, calculative crime boss, Kang who assigns Sun-woo to a simple errand while he is away on a business trip; to shadow his young mistress, Hee-soo, for fear that she may be cheating on him with a younger man with the mandate that he must kill them both if he discovers their affair.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Silence (1963)
Traveling through an unnamed European country on the brink of war, sickly, intellectual Ester, her sister Anna and Anna's young son, Johan, check into a near-empty hotel. A basic inability to communicate among the three seems only to worsen during their stay. Anna provokes her sister by enjoying a dalliance with a local man, while the boy, left to himself, has a series of enigmatic encounters that heighten the growing air of isolation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStroszek (1977)
Bruno Stroszek is released from prison and warned to stop drinking. He has few skills and fewer expectations: with a glockenspiel and an accordion, he ekes out a living as a street musician. He befriends Eva, a prostitute down on her luck and they join his neighbor, Scheitz, an elderly eccentric, when he leaves Germany to live in Wisconsin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Carry You with Me (2021)
An epic love story spanning decades is sparked by a chance encounter between two men in provincial Mexico. Based on a true story, ambition and societal pressure propel an aspiring chef to leave his soulmate and make the treacherous journey to New York, where life will never be the same.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Final Day (2024)
Yadira, a creative young Cuban girl, struggles packing on her final day home. Embarking on an immigration journey alone, her suitcase feels too small to carry everything her heart holds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I'll Be Gone in June (2026)
In 2001, Franny, a 16-year-old exchange student from Germany, arrives in the sleepy desert town of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Far from home, Franny struggles through awkward school days, stifling heat, and restless nights until she meets Elliott, a boy whose quiet sadness mirrors her own. As America reels from 9/11, something resonates within Franny and an unexpected tenderness begins to bloom.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Three Times (2005)
In three separate segments, set respectively in 1966, 1911, and 2005, three love stories unfold between three sets of characters, under three different periods of Taiwanese history and governance.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like El Norte?
The closest matches to El Norte are Black Gold (2011), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) and The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after El Norte?
Start with Black Gold (2011), the closest match to El Norte.
What is the highest-rated movie like El Norte?
Amores Perros (2000), rated 7.7/10 by 3,054 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like El Norte?
I'll Be Gone in June (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like El Norte?
Yes: Sin Nombre (2009), The Wingwalker (2024) and Amores Perros (2000).
How are movies similar to El Norte chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside El Norte, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.