Movies like Refugee Blues (2016)
The best movies like Refugee Blues (2016) are Children of Men (2006), Nowhere to Run (1993) and Ace in the Hole (1951). If Refugee Blues hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Refugee Blues
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Great Escape (1963)7.9/10 from 3,008 votes
- NewestPour the Water as I Leave (2026)Released 2026
Children of Men (2006)
In 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, a former activist agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNowhere to Run (1993)
Escaped convict Sam Gillen single-handedly takes on ruthless developers who are determined to evict a widow with two young children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAce in the Hole (1951)
An arrogant reporter exploits a story about a man trapped in a cave to revitalize his career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Great Escaper (2023)
In the summer of 2014, a World War II veteran sneaks out of his care home to attend the 70th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day landings in Normandy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Good Lie (2014)
A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTears of the Sun (2003)
Navy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPandorum (2009)
Two crew members wake up on an abandoned spacecraft with no idea who they are, how long they've been asleep, or what their mission is. The two soon discover they're actually not alone – and the reality of their situation is more horrifying than they could have imagined.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSouthern Comfort (1981)
A squad of National Guards on an isolated weekend exercise in the Louisiana swamp must fight for their lives when they anger local Cajuns by stealing their canoes. Without live ammunition and in a strange country, their experience begins to mirror the Vietnam experience.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSucker Punch (2011)
A young woman, institutionalized by her abusive stepfather, retreats into a vivid fantasy world where she envisions a plan to escape. Gathering a group of fellow inmates, she embarks on a quest to collect five mystical items, blurring the lines between reality and imagination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMarshmallow (2025)
At a secluded summer camp, timid and introverted 12-year-old Morgan is thrust into a waking nightmare when a once-fabled campfire tale becomes real. As a mysterious figure descends upon the camp, Morgan and his newfound friends must embark on a treacherous journey and uncover a sinister reality buried beneath the surface.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoonrise Kingdom (2012)
Set on an island off the coast of New England in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom tells the story of two twelve-year-olds who fall in love, make a secret pact, and run away together into the wilderness. As various authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm is brewing off-shore – and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in more ways than anyone can handle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRim of the World (2019)
Stranded at a summer camp when aliens attack the planet, four teens with nothing in common embark on a perilous mission to save the world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 5th Wave (2016)
16-year-old Cassie Sullivan tries to survive in a world devastated by the waves of an alien invasion that has already decimated the population and knocked mankind back to the Stone Age.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisSummerland (2020)
A woman during the Second World War opens her heart to an evacuee after initially resolving to be rid of him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Great Escape (1963)
The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisUniversal Soldier (1992)
An American soldier who had been killed during the Vietnam War is revived 25 years later by the military as a semi-android, UniSols, a high-tech soldier of the future. After the failure of the initiative to erase all the soldier's memories, he begins to experience flashbacks that are forcing him to recall his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fall (2008)
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSoul on Fire (2025)
After a horrific accident leaves his body scarred, a young boy strives to live and show everyone what is possible with the help of his family, his faith, his community, his longtime idol's kindness, and the entire city of St. Louis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSorry We Missed You (2019)
Hoping that self-employment through gig economy can solve their financial woes, a hard-up delivery driver and his wife struggling to raise a family end up trapped in the vicious circle of modern-day labour exploitation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Purge: Election Year (2016)
Seventeen years after choosing not to kill the man who killed his son, former police sergeant Leo Barnes has become head of security for Senator Charlene Roan, the front runner in the next Presidential election due to her vow to eliminate the Purge. On the night of what should be the final Purge, a betrayal from within the government forces Barnes and Roan out onto the street where they must fight to survive the night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVia Dolorosa (2014)
Via Dolorosa captures director’s journey in reconnecting with Vietnamese homeless persons whom she filmed for another short film two years ago. While she accompanied a man in his final days, Jo searched within herself to resolve the original sin of the documentary filmmaker as a bystander to the suffering of others.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Air America (1990)
Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisOnce My Mother (2014)
Australian filmmaker Sophia Turkiewicz investigates why her Polish mother abandoned her and uncovers the truth behind her mother's wartime escape from a Siberian gulag, leaving Sophia to confront her own capacity for forgiveness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
The House by the Sea (2017)
By a little bay near Marseille lies a picturesque villa owned by an old man. His three children have gathered by his side for his last days. It’s time for them to weigh up what they have inherited of their father’s ideals and the community spirit he created in this magical place. The arrival, at a nearby cove, of a group of boat people will throw these moments of reflection into turmoil.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHuman Flow (2017)
More than 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war, the greatest displacement since World War II. Filmmaker Ai Weiwei examines the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Over the course of one year in 23 countries, Weiwei follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretch across the globe, including Afghanistan, France, Greece, Germany and Iraq.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMysterious Island (1941)
Based on Verne's book The Mysterious Island, five POWs escape from a camp in a balloon during the Civil War and crash-land on an uninhabited island in the Pacific. Trying to settle with their lives they find someone is helping them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Patria (2015)
A movie about sinners and their quest for salvation. But God is hard to find.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Pour the Water as I Leave (2026)
A surreal exploration of the war in Bosnia told through the unbreakable spirit of seven of her people whose strength to leave was as powerful as the fight to stay. Through the lens of diaspora, the film captures not just the weight of displacement, but the defiant act of survival and the unwavering pursuit of home, no matter where the journey leads.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Silent Night (2002)
Fact-based World War II story set on Christmas Eve, 1944, finds a German Mother and her son seeking refuge in a cabin on the war front. When she is invaded by three American soldiers and then three German soldiers, she successfully convinces the soldiers to put aside their differences for one evening and share a Christmas dinner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Refugee Blues?
The closest matches to Refugee Blues are Children of Men (2006), Nowhere to Run (1993) and Ace in the Hole (1951). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Refugee Blues?
Start with Children of Men (2006), the closest match to Refugee Blues.
What is the highest-rated movie like Refugee Blues?
The Great Escape (1963), rated 7.9/10 by 3,008 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Refugee Blues?
Pour the Water as I Leave (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Refugee Blues?
Yes: Children of Men (2006), Nowhere to Run (1993) and Ace in the Hole (1951).
How are movies similar to Refugee Blues chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Refugee Blues, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.