Movies like Monos (2019)
The best movies like Monos (2019) are Birds of Passage (2018), Maria Full of Grace (2004) and The Colors of the Mountain (2011). If Monos hooked you with its drama and thriller, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedEl Infierno (2010)8.0/10 from 838 votes
- NewestBarren Land (2025)Released 2025
- In SpanishBirds of Passage (2018)Also in Spanish
Birds of Passage (2018)
During the marijuana bonanza, a violent decade that saw the origins of drug trafficking in Colombia, Rapayet and his indigenous family get involved in a war to control the business that ends up destroying their lives and their culture.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMaria Full of Grace (2004)
A pregnant Colombian teenager becomes a drug mule to make some desperately needed money for her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Colors of the Mountain (2011)
A motley crew of young boys in Colombia lives only for one passion: soccer. But when their precious new ball rolls into a minefield, their dreams are suddenly on hold. Even as the village becomes the center of a tug-of-war between right-wing paramilitary groups and leftist guerrillas, the idea of a rescue attempt is too tempting to resist.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Strategy of the Snail (1993)
A group of tenants facing eviction due to a city renovation unite to fight back, but as they clash with the landlord and his ruthless attorney, they each transform into the opposite of who they once were.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMemories of My Father (2020)
In the polarized and violent Medellín (Colombia's 'City of Eternal Spring') of the 1970s, doctor Héctor Abad Gómez is concerned about both his children and children from less favored classes. After a devastating loss in the family, Héctor gives himself to the greater cause of public health programs for the poor in Medellín to the consternation of the city's authorities.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSatanás - Profile of a Killer (2007)
Based on the Mario Mendoza's book and inspired by true events, tells three interconnected stories happening in the eve of the infamous Pozzetto Massacre.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPickpockets (2018)
An aspiring teen thieves learn what it takes to be successful pickpockets on the streets of Bogotá
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies 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: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEl Angel (2018)
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1971. Carlos Robledo Puch is a 19-year-old boy with an angelic face, but a vocational thief as well, who acts ruthlessly, without remorse. When he meets Ramón, they follow together a dark path of crime and death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLand and Shade (2015)
Alfonso is an old farmer who has returned home to tend to his son, who is gravely ill. He rediscovers his old house, where the woman who was once his wife still lives, with his daughter-in-law and grandson. The landscape that awaits him resembles a wasteland. Vast sugar cane plantations surround the house, producing perpetual clouds of ash. 17 years after abandoning them, Alfonso tries to fit back in and save his family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Snitch Cartel (2011)
The real life story of Andres Lopez Lopez aka "Frecita" during his years involved with the Colombian Cartel aka "Cartel Norte del Valle"
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Animal's Wife (2016)
Amparo, a submissive young woman, tries to escape from her strict convent school but falls into the hands of “El Animal,” a violent and abusive man who forces her to become his wife. Trapped by fear and constant mistreatment, she clings to her love for her daughter and her hope for a better life. However, her strength and dignity may not be enough to stand against the cruelty of the ruthless Animal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Circus (2010)
A trapeze artist must decide between her lust for Sergio, the Happy Clown, or her affection for Javier, the Sad Clown, both of whom are deeply disturbed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Infierno (2010)
After being deported back to Mexico, a man has no choice but to join the vicious drug cartel that has corrupted his hometown in order to survive.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Kings of the World (2022)
Rá, Culebro, Sere, Winny and Nano. Five boys who live on the streets of Medellín. Five kings with no kingdom, no law, no family, set out on a journey in search of the promised land. A subversive tale told through a wild and endearing clan, somewhere between reality and delirium. A journey to nowhere, where everything happens.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIxcanul (2015)
María, a 17-year-old Kaqchikel Maya, lives with her parents on a coffee plantation at the foot of an active volcano. She is set to be married to the farm's foreman. But María longs to discover the world on the other side of the mountain, a place she cannot even imagine. And so she seduces a coffee-harvester who wants to escape to the USA. When this man leaves her behind, María discovers her own world and culture anew.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRodrigo D. No Future (1990)
Rodrigo and his friends, restless teenagers from the marginalized neighborhoods on the hillsides of Medellín, spend their time causing trouble. But Rodrigo dreams of playing rock music and brings his friends together to form a punk band that becomes a lifeline amid a web of disorientation, violence, drugs, and fear.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
The Rose Seller (1998)
Monica is 13 years old and has already created her own world, on the street, where she fights courageously to defend what little she has: her friends, her boyfriend, who sells drugs, and her dignity and pride that makes no concessions to anyone. On Christmas night, like every night, she sells roses to make a living. But life brings her a new appointment with loneliness, poverty, drugs and death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDirty Pretty Things (2002)
An undocumented immigrant finds a human heart in one of the toilets of the west London hotel where he works with other undocumented immigrants.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChaco (2020)
In 1934, Bolivia is at war with Paraguay. Liborio and Ticona and other Bolivian indigenous soldiers are lost in the hell of the Chaco, under the commandment of German Captain Kundt. They're looking for the Paraguayan enemy that they haven't seen for months, and that they will never find. They leave together in a search that will make them realize, progressively, the destiny they have been pushed into and the inevitable condition of a defeated troop. They're walking like shadows, wandering forever in the middle of dust and silence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both war & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe (Silent) War (2019)
Northern Spain, October 1944. Several groups of guerrilla fighters, former Republican soldiers exiled in France after the end of the Spanish Civil War, infiltrate the country in order to provoke a popular uprising against General Franco's dictatorship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisNothing in Return (2015)
One summer, Dario flees the hellish environment of his home. Luismi, unconditional friend, a poor devil with pretensions of winning, and Antonia, an old woman who collects abandoned his motorcar furniture, become his new family. Three generations living together in a city too big to be alone.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBarren Land (2025)
Barren Land is the story of three friends. All three trapped between the abandonment of the institutions, the violent and unstoppable rise of the narco in the province and the dangerous increase of social discontent. Three friends trapped in a powder keg that will test their friendship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like this7 Virgins (2005)
It is summertime in a blue-collar, marginal district of a city in the South of Spain. Tano, a teenager currently serving a sentence in a juvenile reform center, is given a 48-hour leave to attend his brother’s wedding.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEden (2013)
After a night out with friends, Hyun Jae accepts a late night ride home from a young fire fighter. What begins as a night of promise quickly turns into a nightmare when she is abducted and imprisoned outside Las Vegas as a sex slave.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Dawn (1984)
It is the dawn of World War III. In mid-western America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town—and their country—from invading Soviet forces.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both thriller & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtortion (2017)
A doctor desperately tries to save his wife and their 5 year old son after their vacation in the Bahamas takes an unexpected turn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Die Young (2019)
Lucas, a 14-year-old boy inducted into the gang life in Washington D.C., is determined that his 10-year-old brother won't follow the same path. When an Afghanistan war veteran comes into the neighborhood, an opportunity arises.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Yakuza (1974)
When George Tanner does business with high-ranking Yakuza Tono, Tono kidnaps his daughter, and George summons his old friend, private eye Harry Kilmer, to Japan to investigate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDogville (2003)
A woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Monos?
The closest matches to Monos are Birds of Passage (2018), Maria Full of Grace (2004) and The Colors of the Mountain (2011). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Monos?
People who watched Monos most often go on to Birds of Passage (2018), Maria Full of Grace (2004) and The Colors of the Mountain (2011).
What is the highest-rated movie like Monos?
El Infierno (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 838 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Monos?
Barren Land (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Monos?
Yes: Birds of Passage (2018), Maria Full of Grace (2004) and The Colors of the Mountain (2011).
How are movies similar to Monos chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Monos, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.