Movies like Black Sweat (1971)
The best movies like Black Sweat (1971) are Escape from Pretoria (2020), Disgrace (2008) and Catch a Fire (2006). If Black Sweat hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBlood Diamond (2006)7.6/10 from 8,667 votes
- NewestThe Last Rifleman (2023)Released 2023
Escape from Pretoria (2020)
South Africa, 1978. Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, two white political activists from the African National Congress imprisoned by the apartheid regime, put a plan in motion to escape from the infamous Pretoria Prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDisgrace (2008)
Disgrace is the story of a South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his good looks, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his cherished daughter. After having an affair with a student, he moves to the Eastern Cape, where he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCatch a Fire (2006)
The true story of anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and particularly the life of Patrick Chamusso, a timid foreman at Secunda CTL, the largest synthetic fuel plant in the world. Patrick is wrongly accused, imprisoned and tortured for an attempt to bomb the plant, with the injustice transforming the apolitical worker into a radicalised insurgent, who then carries out his own successful sabotage mission.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLion of the Desert (1981)
Resistance leader Omar Mukhtar opposes Italian colonization before World War II. The brutal guerrilla war against Italian General Rodolfo Graziani and the Fascist forces of Benito Mussolini highlights the struggle for Libyan independence and the harsh tactics utilised by the colonisers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Still Hide to Smoke (2017)
Α tragi-comedy about 9 women of different ages and various backgrounds that gather in an Algerian hammam to talk about their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRiot in Cell Block 11 (1954)
A prisoner leads his counterparts in a protest for better living conditions which turns violent and ugly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHeart of Darkness (1994)
A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Debaters (2007)
The true story of a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African-American college students into a historical powerhouse that took on the Harvard elite.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYoung Winston (1972)
This historical drama is an account of the early life of British politician Winston Churchill, including his childhood years, his time as a war correspondent in Africa, and culminating with his first election to Parliament.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSons and Lovers (1960)
The son of a working-class British mining family has dreams of pursuing an art career, but when he strikes up an affair with an older, married woman from the town it enrages his kind but possessive mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Power of One (1992)
PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattleground (1949)
Members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division are fighting for their country amidst the rugged terrain of Bastogne, Belgium, in December 1944. Holley and his American compatriots have already seen one of their own, Roderigues, perish under enemy fire. The men try to rebuff another series of Nazi attacks, but what they really need is a change in the weather. Without clear skies, they'll never get the air support they need.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMister Johnson (1991)
In 1923 British Colonial Nigeria, Mister Johnson is an oddity -- an educated black man who doesn't really fit in with the natives or the British. He works for the local British magistrate, and considers himself English, though he has never been to England. He is always scheming, trying to get ahead, which lands him in a lot of hot water.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden (TBA)
Nombeko Mayeki is a young woman from Soweto who finds herself caught in an international whirlwind from South Africa to Sweden. A heroine born in the slums of South Africa, she rises from obscurity to become the key player in an international nuclear conspiracy, accidentally saving the Swedish monarchy and averting global catastrophe with her quick-witted resourcefulness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Blood Diamond (2006)
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the fisherman's son, conscripted as a child soldier into the brutal rebel forces ripping a swath of torture and bloodshed countrywide.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAsk the Dust (2006)
Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisRun brother run (2019)
Salim and Alì, two Nigerian brothers, work in a tomato field managed by Fulvio, a violent and racist corporal. Alì, as opposed to Salim, lives a life which goes over the legality. One day, Fulvio commands the two brothers to deliver a drug shipment to a notorious local criminal, but on the return something goes wrong. The corporal's son, Vincenzo, will help Salim to escape his father's brutality.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Mr. Kingstreet's War (1973)
A couple sets up an African game preserve, only to have British and Italian armies fight over the waterholes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Great Bazaar (2006)
Two boys with different experiences and goals meet up in a sprawling African market. One is looking for a job, to get back what was stolen from him and return home. The other will do anything to avoid having to go back with his family. They become friends and together they reinvent the world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Elli Fat Mat (1989)
27 years after 1962, Antoine returns to Algiers...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Best of Enemies (2019)
Centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTiya's Dream (2008)
In Ethiopia, in a small country school, children have a lesson on the Millennium Development Goals. But one of the pupils, Tiya, is distracted, she doesn’t listen. She is staring at the window. Outside, some children are playing rugby... Abderrahmane Sissako's contribution to 8 (2008).
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
In late 19th-century Canton, legendary hero Wong Fei-Hung battles foreign forces' (English, French and American) plundering of China. When Aunt Yee returns from America totally westernised, Wong assumes the role of protector. This proves difficult when his martial arts school and local militia become involved in fierce battles with foreign and local governments. As violence escalates, even Aunt Yee has to question her new western ideals, but is it possible to fight guns with Kung Fu?
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 Black Sweat?
The closest matches to Black Sweat are Escape from Pretoria (2020), Disgrace (2008) and Catch a Fire (2006). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Black Sweat?
Start with Escape from Pretoria (2020), the closest match to Black Sweat.
What is the highest-rated movie like Black Sweat?
Blood Diamond (2006), rated 7.6/10 by 8,667 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Black Sweat?
The Last Rifleman (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Black Sweat chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Black Sweat, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.