Movies like The Night Is Afraid of the Sun (1965)
The best movies like The Night Is Afraid of the Sun (1965) are The Last Rifleman (2023), Tobruk (1967) and Walking with the Enemy (2014). If The Night Is Afraid of the Sun 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 ratedThe Lion King (1994)8.3/10 from 20,404 votes
- NewestPalestine 36 (2025)Released 2025
The 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 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 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 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 history & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBattle of the Bulge (1965)
In the winter of 1944, the Allied Armies stand ready to invade Germany at the coming of a New Year. To prevent it, Hitler orders an all-out offensive to re-take French territory and capture the major port city of Antwerp.
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 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 & drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSometimes in April (2005)
Two brothers are divided by marriage and fate during the 100 horrifying days of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Battle of the River Plate (1956)
In the early years of the World War II, the Royal Navy is fighting a desperate battle to keep the Atlantic convoy routes open to supply the British Isles, facing the great danger posed by the many German warships, such as the Admiral Graf Spee, which are scouring the ocean for cargo ships to sink.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 drama & 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 thisPalestine 36 (2025)
Year 1936. As villages across Palestine rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. But history is relentless. With rising numbers of Jewish immigrants escaping antisemitism in Europe and some arriving with nefarious Zionist-colonial ambitions, and the Palestinian population uniting in the largest and longest uprising against Britain’s 30-year dominion, all sides spiral towards inevitable collision in a decisive moment for the British Empire and the future of the entire region.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cruel Sea (1953)
At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOverlord (1975)
During World War II, a young man is called up and, with an increasing sense of foreboding, undertakes his army training ready for D-Day, June 6th, 1944.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCross of Iron (1977)
It is 1943, and the German army—ravaged and demoralised—is hastily retreating from the Russian front. In the midst of the madness, conflict brews between the aristocratic yet ultimately pusillanimous Captain Stransky and the courageous Corporal Steiner. Stransky is the only man who believes that the Third Reich is still vastly superior to the Russian army. However, within his pompous persona lies a quivering coward who longs for the Iron Cross so that he can return to Berlin a hero. Steiner, on the other hand is cynical, defiantly non-conformist and more concerned with the safety of his own men rather than the horde of military decorations offered to him by his superiors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Go In at Dawn (2020)
When a high-ranking war planner is captured and held in a German prisoner of war camp, a team of specialists take on the dangerous mission of trying to break him out. Trouble is, he doesn't want to be rescued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & war
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Secrets We Keep (2020)
In post-World War II America, a woman, rebuilding her life in the suburbs with her husband, kidnaps her neighbor and seeks vengeance for the heinous war crimes she believes he committed against her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & 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 & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJohnny Mad Dog (2008)
A cast of unknown performers are used in this drama about child soldiers fighting a war in an unnamed African country.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGettysburg (1993)
In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee leads the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with the goal of marching through to Washington, D.C. The Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of General George G. Meade, forms a defensive position to confront the rebel forces in what will prove to be the decisive battle of the American Civil War.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIntimate Enemies (2007)
A drama following a French platoon during Algeria's war of independence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPas De Blanc À La Une (1971)
Pas De Blanc À La Une, by Youcef Bouchouchi, treatises the brutality of the conflict during the war of independence in Algeria from 1854 to 1962, and the systematic use of torture which pushes even the most hesitant to make up their minds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & war
Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
The story of Dian Fossey, a scientist who came to Africa to study the vanishing mountain gorillas, and later fought to protect them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI'm Over Thirty (2021)
The film is about a young man who was born on the day when Kazakhstan gained its long-awaited independence. The guy's memories start from childhood. The events in his personal life are closely intertwined with what the whole country was going through.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Lion King (1994)
Young lion prince Simba, eager to one day become king of the Pride Lands, grows up under the watchful eye of his father Mufasa; all the while his villainous uncle Scar conspires to take the throne for himself. Amid betrayal and tragedy, Simba must confront his past and find his rightful place in the Circle of Life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTale of an Encounter (1985)
Two deaf and dumb children. She is the daughter of an American Oil engineer. He is the son of an Algerian farmer. They meet and manage to communicate, transcending all the cultural barriers that separate them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Zerda or the Songs of Forgetting (1983)
“La Zerda and the songs of oblivion” (1982) is one of only two films made by the Algerian novelist Assia Djebar, with “La Nouba des femmes du mont Chenoua” (1977). Powerful poetic essay based on archives, in which Assia Djebar – in collaboration with the poet Malek Alloula and the composer Ahmed Essyad – deconstructs the French colonial propaganda of the Pathé-Gaumont newsreels from 1912 to 1942, to reveal the signs of revolt among the subjugated North African population. Through the reassembly of these propaganda images, Djebar recovers the history of the Zerda ceremonies, suggesting that the power and mysticism of this tradition were obliterated and erased by the predatory voyeurism of the colonial gaze. This very gaze is thus subverted and a hidden tradition of resistance and struggle is revealed, against any exoticizing and orientalist temptation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Algeria in Flames (1958)
These are the first images shot in the ALN maquis, camera in hand, at the end of 1956 and in 1957. These war images taken in the Aurès-Nementchas are intended to be the basis of a dialogue between French and Algerians for peace in Algeria, by demonstrating the existence of an armed organization close to the people. Three versions of Algeria in Flames are produced: French, German and Arabic. From the end of the editing, the film circulates without any cuts throughout the world, except in France where the first screening takes place in the occupied Sorbonne in 1968. Certain images of the film have circulated and are found in films, in particular Algerian films. Because of the excitement caused by this film, he was forced to go into hiding for 25 months. After the declaration of independence, he founded the first Algerian Audiovisual Center.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Night Is Afraid of the Sun?
The closest matches to The Night Is Afraid of the Sun are The Last Rifleman (2023), Tobruk (1967) and Walking with the Enemy (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Night Is Afraid of the Sun?
Start with The Last Rifleman (2023), the closest match to The Night Is Afraid of the Sun.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Night Is Afraid of the Sun?
The Lion King (1994), rated 8.3/10 by 20,404 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Night Is Afraid of the Sun?
Palestine 36 (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Night Is Afraid of the Sun chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Night Is Afraid of the Sun, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.