Movies like Once Were Warriors (1994)
The best movies like Once Were Warriors (1994) are Ballast (2008), Whale Rider (2003) and In My Father's Den (2004). If Once Were Warriors hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedAmerican History X (1998)8.3/10 from 13,133 votes
- NewestWe Were Dangerous (2024)Released 2024
- Same seriesWhat Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999)Once Were Warriors
Ballast (2008)
A single mother and her embattled son struggle to subsist in a small Mississippi Delta township. An act of violence thrusts them into the world of an emotionally devastated highway store owner, awakening the fury of a bitter and longstanding conflict.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Whale Rider (2003)
A contemporary story of love, rejection, and triumph as a young Māori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn My Father's Den (2004)
War journalist Paul Prior returns to his New Zealand hometown after his father’s death, rekindling strained relationships with his brother and memories of a troubled past. He befriends Celia, a curious and aspiring writer, who shares a fascination with his world. When Celia mysteriously disappears, Paul becomes the prime suspect, forcing him to confront buried secrets and uncover the dark truths of his family and community.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMahana (2016)
1960s, East Coast of New Zealand. Two Māori sheep-shearing families, the Mahanas and the Poatas, are longstanding enemies and commercial rivals. 14-year-old Simeon Mahana, the youngest son of the youngest son is in conflict with his traditionalist grandfather, Tamihana. As Simeon unravels the truth behind the longstanding family vendetta he risks not just his own future prospects but the cohesion of the entire tight-knit society.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999)
Five years have passed and Jake has turned his back on his family. He's still up to his usual tricks in McClutchy's Bar, unaware, as he downs his latest opponent, that his eldest son, Nig, has died in a gang fight. The uncomfortable family reunion at Nig's funeral sparks a confrontation with second son, Sonny, and sets Jake and Sonny on a downward spiral.
Why it matches: Same series: Once Were Warriors · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVigil (1984)
Toss lives on a sheep farm with her father in New Zealand. When Toss's father dies in an accident, Ethan, an itinerant hunter, wanders onto the family farm and is given a job by her grandfather. Toss's fairly innocent relationship with Ethan is severed when he forms a relationship with her mother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Monster of Mangatiti (2015)
When 19 year old Heather Walsh accepts a job on a farm in the Mangatiti Valley, she has no idea paradise will become a nightmare. This true New Zealand story tells of Heather's horrific ordeal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
We Were Dangerous (2024)
Nellie, Daisy and Lou attend an institution for delinquent girls on an isolated island in 1954. The trio rail against the system, finding strength in their friendship but this is challenged when the school's matron divides them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Gran Torino (2008)
Disgruntled Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, Thao Lor, a Hmong teenager who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: a 1972 Gran Torino.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAmerican History X (1998)
Derek Vineyard is paroled after serving 3 years in prison for killing two African-American men. Through his brother, Danny Vineyard's narration, we learn that before going to prison, Derek was a skinhead and the leader of a violent white supremacist gang that committed acts of racial crime throughout L.A. and his actions greatly influenced Danny. Reformed and fresh out of prison, Derek severs contact with the gang and becomes determined to keep Danny from going down the same violent path as he did.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Boys (1998)
Brett, out of prison on parole, returns to his family home to catch up with his mother and brothers. The day takes a bad turn when the brothers start drinking and doing drugs, embarking on a night that they will have difficulty living down.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
In 1931, three Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a trek across the Outback.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Tracker (2002)
Somewhere in Australia in the early 20th century outback, an Aboriginal man is accused of murdering a white woman. Three white men are on a mission to capture him with the help of an experienced Indigenous man.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWedding in White (1972)
Set in Canada during World War II, a young girl's brother comes home from his army base, and brings an buddy with him. After a night of drinking, the brother's friend rapes the sister. After the two men have gone back, the girl finds that she's pregnant - and discovers that her parents don't blame the soldier, but blame her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Farming (2018)
Based on the writer/director's childhood, FARMING tells the story of a young Nigerian boy, 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he becomes the feared leader of a white skinhead gang.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBoy (2010)
Boy, an 11-year-old child and devout Michael Jackson fan who lives on the east coast of New Zealand in 1984, gets a chance to know his absentee criminal father, who has returned to find a bag of money he buried years ago.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWake in Fright (1971)
A young schoolteacher descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Brave (1997)
A down-on-his-luck American Indian recently released from jail is offered the chance to "star" as the victim of a snuff film, the resulting pay of which could greatly help his poverty stricken family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFish Tank (2009)
Fifteen-year-old Mia is in a constant state of war with her family and the world around her. When she meets her party-girl mother’s charming new boyfriend Connor, she is amazed to find he returns her attention, and believes he might help her start to make sense of her life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMustang (2015)
In a Turkish village, five orphaned sisters live under strict rule while members of their family prepare their arranged marriages.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Lost Child (2000)
Knowing the past changes the future. Seeking a connection to her heritage, Rebecca Hoffman sets out on a journey of discovery following the deaths of her adoptive parents. She finds that connection with her birth family in the Navajo community. But cultures clash when her husband is rejected as an outsider. Rebecca and her family experience rebirth in a rich culture and renewal as a family in this dramatic film based on the autobiography Looking for Lost Bird by Yvette Melanson (with Claire Safran).
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
This Boy's Life (1993)
When a son and mother move to Seattle in hopes for a better life, the mother meets a seemingly polite man. Things go south when the man turns out to be abusive, endangering their lives. As the mother struggles to maintain hope in an impossible situation, the son has plans to escape.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisÁga (2018)
In a yurt on the snow-covered fields of the North, Nanook and Sedna live following the traditions of their ancestors. Alone in the wilderness, they look like the last people on Earth. Nanook and Sedna's traditional way of life starts changing - slowly, but inevitably. Hunting becomes more and more difficult, the animals around them die from inexplicable deaths and the ice has been melting earlier every year. Chena, who visits them regularly, is their only connection to the outside world - and to their daughter Ága, who has left the icy tundra a long time ago due to family feud. When Sedna's health deteriorates, Nanook decides to fulfill her wish. He embarks on a long journey in order to find Ága.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Beneath Clouds (2002)
The story of Lena, the light-skinned daughter of an Aboriginal mother and Irish father and Vaughn, a Murri boy doing time in a minimum security prison in North West NSW. Dramatic events throw them together on a journey with no money and no transport. To Lena, Vaughn represents the life she is running away from. To Vaughn, Lena embodies the society that has rejected him. And for a very short amount of time, they experience a rare true happiness together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2002)
Based on a local legend and set in an unknown era, it deals with universal themes of love, possessiveness, family, jealousy and power. Beautifully shot, and acted by Inuit people, it portrays a time when people fought duels by taking turns to punch each other until one was unconscious, made love on the way to the caribou hunt, ate walrus meat and lit their igloos with seal-oil lamps.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRomper Stomper (1992)
Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins' merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEastern Plays (2009)
Two estranged brothers are brought together when they have opposite roles in a racist beating: while Georgi who's recently joined a neo-nazi group participates in the violence, Hristo witnesses and rescues a Turkish family. Only by reuniting will the two brothers be able to assess what they really want from life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019)
When Áila encounters a young Indigenous woman, barefoot and crying in the rain on the side of a busy street, she soon discovers that this young woman, Rosie, has just escaped a violent assault at the hands of her boyfriend. Áila decides to bring Rosie home with her and over the course of the evening, the two navigate the aftermath of this traumatic event.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Shotgun Stories (2007)
Shotgun Stories tracks a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers following the death of their father. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Once Were Warriors and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Once Were Warriors?
The closest matches to Once Were Warriors are Ballast (2008), Whale Rider (2003) and In My Father's Den (2004). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Once Were Warriors?
People who watched Once Were Warriors most often go on to Ballast (2008), Whale Rider (2003) and In My Father's Den (2004).
What is the highest-rated movie like Once Were Warriors?
American History X (1998), rated 8.3/10 by 13,133 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Once Were Warriors?
We Were Dangerous (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Is Once Were Warriors part of a series?
Yes. It belongs to Once Were Warriors, which includes What Becomes of the Broken Hearted? (1999).
Are there English movies like Once Were Warriors?
Yes: Ballast (2008), Whale Rider (2003) and In My Father's Den (2004).
How are movies similar to Once Were Warriors chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Once Were Warriors, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.