Movies like Sarajevo (2014)
The best movies like Sarajevo (2014) are The Scarlet and the Black (1983), Chess Story (2021) and The Lost Battalion (2001). If Sarajevo hooked you with its thriller and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest rated1917 (2019)8.0/10 from 14,106 votes
- NewestRose (2026)Released 2026
- In GermanChess Story (2021)Also in German
The 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 history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChess Story (2021)
1938. While the Nazi troops march into Vienna, the lawyer Josef Bartok hastily tries to escape to the USA with his wife but is arrested by the Gestapo. Bartok remains steadfast and refuses to cooperate with the Gestapo that requires confidential information from him. Thrown into solitary confinement, Bartok is psychologically tormented for months and begins to weaken. However, when he steals an old book about chess it sets him on course to overcome the mental suffering inflicted upon him, until it becomes a dangerous obsession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lost Battalion (2001)
Fact-based war drama about an American battalion of over 500 men which gets trapped behind enemy lines in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 France during the closing weeks of World War I.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAll Quiet on the Western Front (1979)
At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of Armistice Day, and the end of the war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fox (2023)
At the dawn of World War II, a young motorcycle courier in the Austrian army encounters a wounded fox cub and takes it with him to occupied France. The soldier and the fox develop an unlikely bond. Based on the true story of Franz Streitberger, director Adrian Goiginger’s great-grandfather.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Great War (2019)
In November of 1918 as World War I was ending, a unit of American soldiers goes behind enemy lines to find a lost platoon of African American soldiers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this1917 (2019)
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
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 history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSavior (1998)
A hardened mercenary in the Foreign Legion begins to find his own humanity when confronted with atrocities during the fighting in Bosnia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRose (2026)
In the early 17th century, a soldier arrives at an isolated Protestant village in Germany claiming to be the heir to an abandoned farmstead. Even though he proves to be a good man, the villagers’ suspicions about his identity grow and they force a reckoning.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeneath Hill 60 (2010)
The true story of Australia's cat-and-mouse underground mine warfare—one of the most misunderstood, misrepresented and mystifying conflicts of WW I. It was secret struggle BENEATH the Western Front that combined daring engineering, technology and science. Few on the surface knew of the brave, claustrophobic and sometimes barbaric work of these tunnellers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
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 war & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Valley (1971)
People in a small German village in the last valley to remain untouched by the devastating Thirty Years' War try to exist in peace with a group of soldiers occupying the valley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlyboys (2006)
The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBunker (2023)
Trapped in a bunker during World War I, a group of soldiers are faced with an ungodly presence that slowly turns them against each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWelcome to Sarajevo (1997)
Follow a group of international journalists into the heart of the once cosmopolitan city of Sarajevo—now a danger zone of sniper and mortar attacks where residents still live. While reporting on an American aid worker who’s trying to get children out of the country, a British correspondent decides to take an orphaned girl home to London.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWar Horse (2011)
On the brink of the First World War, Albert's beloved horse Joey is sold to the Cavalry by his father. Against the backdrop of the Great War, Joey begins an odyssey full of danger, joy, and sorrow, and he transforms everyone he meets along the way. Meanwhile, Albert, unable to forget his equine friend, searches the battlefields of France to find Joey and bring him home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOutlaws - For Greater Glory (2012)
A chronicle of the Cristeros War (1926-1929), which was touched off by a rebellion against the Mexican government's attempt to secularize the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmperor (2020)
An escaped slave travels north and has chance encounters with Frederick Douglass and John Brown. Based on the life story of Shields Green.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Harlem Hellfighters' Great War (2017)
Nicknamed the "Harlem Hellfighters", these African-Americans wanted to become ordinary citizens like everyone else. They saw fighting heroically in the trenches as their chance to achieve this. In 1918, the 15th New York National Guard Regiment became the most highly decorated unit of the First World War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & war
Somme 1916, la bataille insensée (2016)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history & war
12 Days of Terror (2004)
July of 1916 was a time of record heat, a polio epidemic, and a World War in Europe. But beachgoers in New Jersey are threatened by a even greater terror: a shark that has suddenly developed a taste for human flesh. Starting July 1st and lasting over a period of 12 days, the unidentified shark kills four people and seriously injures a fifth before the attacks stop, and threatens New Jersey's thriving tourist industry. Based on true events, and one of the inspirations behind Peter Benchley's Jaws.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Hitler's American Business Partners (2003)
Henry Ford, the legendary automobile manufacturer, James D. Mooney, the GM manager and Tom Watson, the IBM boss, were all awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazis' highest distinction for foreigners, by Hitler for their services to the Third Reich. At this time, in 1937 and 1938, Hitler's armaments industry was running at full speed. The German subsidiaries of these American companies - Opel, the Ford Werke AG and Dehomag - had willingly allowed themselves to be integrated into the "Führer's" war preparations. The film concentrates on the companies which were indispensable for Hitler to wage war. The documentary is supported by new archive material, as well as interviews with contemporary witnesses and experts.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Twentieth Century (TBA)
In this remake the Bertolucci's 1900, Olmo Dalco and Alfredo Berlingheiri's complicated friendship and struggles with the constantly changing political scope are chronicled as well as the rise of fascism and the communist revolution.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
The Trial of Ratko Mladic (2018)
The war crimes trial of Ratko Mladic, accused of masterminding the murder of over 7000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in the 90s Bosnian war, the worst crime in Europe since WW2.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Hotel Imperial (1927)
During World War I, an Austrian officer is trapped behind the Russian lines. He tries to sneak through to his own lines, but is forced to take refuge in a small hotel, where he is hidden by the establishment's chambermaid. The two fall in love, but a Russian general makes the hotel his headquarters and sets his sights on the maid. In addition, the Austrian must find out the identity of a spy who is feeding the Russians military information that could lead to the destruction of the Austrian army.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
Apocalypse: The Battle of Verdun (2016)
A detailed account of one of the bloodiest battles of World War I. Between February and December 1916, the French and German armies relentlessly fought in the devastated camps around the village of Verdun.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
Aurora's Sunrise (2023)
The story of how Aurora Mardiganian (1901-94), a survivor of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire (1915-17), became a Hollywood silent film star.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
L'Inverno (TBA)
A tale of torn loyalty and love between SS officer Nikolaus Fuhrich and his first love, Jewish violinist Elisabeth Soloviechik. From two befriended Austrian families, one Jewish, one "Germanic," the fates of these two young characters intersect and intertwine prior to the First and after the Second World War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both history
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sarajevo?
The closest matches to Sarajevo are The Scarlet and the Black (1983), Chess Story (2021) and The Lost Battalion (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sarajevo?
Start with The Scarlet and the Black (1983), the closest match to Sarajevo.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sarajevo?
1917 (2019), rated 8.0/10 by 14,106 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sarajevo?
Rose (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like Sarajevo?
Yes: Chess Story (2021), The Fox (2023) and Rose (2026).
How are movies similar to Sarajevo chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sarajevo, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.