Movies like The Professional (2003)
The best movies like The Professional (2003) are Balkan Spy (1984), The Wounds (1998) and The Knife (1999). If The Professional hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedUnderground (1995)7.7/10 from 821 votes
- NewestThe Load (2019)Released 2019
Balkan Spy (1984)
Convinced that his subtenant is a spy and an enemy of the state, Ilija Čvorović falls into deep paranoia which leads to an absurd and destructive chain of events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wounds (1998)
This film follows two Belgrade youths on their rise to gangster legends in a decaying society.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Knife (1999)
In attempt to find out who he is and where his roots lie, Alija Osmanović discovers something far deeper and more important. He slowly discovers an evil that follows him as his destiny regardless of what his ancestors were called. Trying to find the reasons for this evil, he finds himself in a vicious circle. Running away from an irrational fear within him, he eventually finds the road to his faith.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Dudes! (2001)
Urban comedy, happening during a night in Belgrade. Mare, Pop and Gojko are three friends who grew up together. Mare and Pop have always been musicians, while Gojko (who was harassed by them in school and nicknamed 'Sissy') became a 'guy in suit', boss of his own club and recording studio.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTito and Me (1992)
At his school, 10-year-old Zoran wins the competition for the best essay about Tito. His reward is participation in the march "Revolutionary trails" to Tito's hometown of Kumrovec.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Marathon Family (1982)
The Topalović family has been in the burial business for generations. When the 150-year-old Pantelija dies, five generations of his heirs start to fight for the inheritance.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSky Hook (2000)
Belgrade during the height of the war Yugoslavia in 1999. Kaja struggles with daily destruction and the constant threat of being drafted, but also with his impending divorce from his wife Tijana, who wants to emigrate with their son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996)
In the opening stages of the Bosnian War, a small group of Serbian soldiers are trapped in a tunnel by a Muslim force.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisUnderground (1995)
Black marketeers Marko and Blacky manufacture and sell weapons to the Communist resistance in WWII Belgrade, living the good life along the way. Marko's surreal duplicity propels him up the ranks of the Communist Party, and he eventually abandons Blacky and steals his girlfriend. After a lengthy stay in a below-ground shelter, the couple reemerges during the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s as Marko sees the opportunity to exploit the situation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Black Bomber (1992)
In a near-future Belgrade, a DJ stirs up trouble with his rocking anti-establishment broadcasts. After his station is shut down, he takes to the street and starts transmitting revolution with the police hot on his trail.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Frozen Stiff (2002)
The basic plot revolves around drug dealer Limeni and two men, Lemi and Kiza, who are trying to transport their dead grandfather for burial, until their car breaks down and they end up struggling to get him home onboard a train. This is when these two plots intersect and all hell breaks loose.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWho's Singin' Over There? (1980)
On Saturday, 5 April 1941, one day before the Invasion of Yugoslavia of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, a colourful group of random passengers on a country road deep in the heart of Serbia board a dilapidated bus, headed for the capital Belgrade. The group includes two gypsy musicians, a World War I veteran, a Germanophile, a budding singer, a sickly looking man, and a hunter with a shotgun. The bus is owned by Krstic senior, and driven by his impressionable and dim-witted son Misko.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Red Colored Grey Truck (2004)
Belgrade, the summer of 1991. Yugoslavia is falling apart. Gavran can't get a driving licence because he is color blind. He is a rural Bosnian introvert obsessed with trucks. So, as soon as he is released from prison, he steals a truck to go on a joyride. Suzana, a city girl, discovers she is pregnant, but until she's due for an abortion, she decides to go to Dubrovnik. She hitchikes and Gavran almost runs her over. She is unhurt, but she blackmails him to take her to Dubrovnik. Two people from different worlds, equally removed from the real one. For him she is the first woman he can talk to; for her he is just another idiot to add to the long list of them that she has so far compiled. But the pressure of danger and the intimations of war force them together. The world about them has become so absurd that they seem to each other the only sober people left.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhen I Grow Up, I'll Be a Kangaroo (2004)
A young student Braca is trying to seduce a beautiful model Iris. Although they are from two different worlds, they both try not to show it. In another story, Šomi and Duje anxiously follow the football match between Manchester and Eastwich. They bet on Eastwich, because their childhood friend Kengur is their goalkeeper. The plot of the third story takes place on the roof of the solitaire, where Avaks and Hibrid are wasting time in anticipation of something happening.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBarking at the Stars (1998)
Comedy about teachers and students at a high school in a small provincial town. Mihailo tries to win the heart of a girl his brother is also chasing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Cabaret Balkan (1998)
20 peoples paths crisscross one night in violent mid-'90s Belgrade.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Life Is a Miracle (2004)
Set during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s, Luka is a mild-mannered railway clerk whose life is turned upside down, not just by the outbreak of the war, but when his wife runs off with a local musician. Then Luka's son is conscripted and eventually captured in the fighting. To recover his son, Luka is commanded to guard a pretty young Muslim nurse who will be used in a hostage swapping operation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeven and a Half (2006)
A collection of seven stories "from the block," linked by the theme of the seven deadly sins, humorously portrays the everyday life of New Belgrade's inhabitants, who are consumed by their minor foibles and guided by their passions. While pride, sloth, envy, wrath, greed, lust, and gluttony are biblical sins, they seem almost ridiculous in contemporary times when set against the backdrop of civilization's far more severe challenges.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
We Are Not Angels (1992)
Angel and the devil fight for the soul of a Belgrade playboy who made a young girl pregnant.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Woman with a Broken Nose (2010)
The act of a woman with a broken nose, who suddenly jumps out of a taxi and throws herself off the bridge in Belgrade, connects the lives of three witnesses.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & comedy
Huddersfield (2007)
Raša is 30, lives with his alcoholic father and trying, and failing, to make ends meet by giving literature lessons to teenage girls and hosting a program on the local radio, presenting new books and interviewing authors. Ivan, a promising judo fighter in his teenage years, has since had a history of neurosis, psychotic episodes, hospitalization, being heavily medicated, involvement in various occult groups and practices, prior to having been baptized in the Orthodox Church.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
When Father Was Away on Business (1985)
In a post-WWII Yugoslavia still under Stalinist rule in the 1950s, six-year-old Malik is oblivious as to why his father, Mehmed, has suddenly disappeared. In truth, Mehmed has been sent to a labor camp as punishment for acts of sexual indiscretion involving young girls. Malik's mother, Senija, however, has no answers, and the family must cope in the father's absence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTwo Hours of Quality TV Program (1995)
Made for New Year's Eve program, "Two Hours of Quality Program" exceeded all expectations becoming more than just a small TV movie. Using black humor as its sharp weapon, it dealt with ongoing chaos in the country and the introduction of new values to the urban culture.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
The Elusive Summer of '68 (1984)
For the young man who lives in Serbian province town, the maturing coincides with the turbulent political events of the year 1968.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Load (2019)
Vlada works as a truck driver during the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. Tasked with transporting a mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, he drives through unfamiliar territory, trying to make his way in a country scarred by the war. He knows that once the job is over, he will need to return home and face the consequences of his actions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Normal People (2001)
The plot follows Steva, who is in love with an actress, Duja, who adores his motorcycle, and Bane, who plans to steal the motorcycle. Nikola desperately searches for a job, while Toma is in love with Mira, who is in an abusive relationship and occasionally thinks about Toma. The film highlights the despair and isolation of a generation in the post-war era.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Black Cat, White Cat (1998)
A small-time hustler makes a deal with a notorious gangster to whom he owes money: marry his teenage son to the latter's daughter. However, the young lovers are not as agreeable.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSee You in Montevideo (2014)
A football team from Belgrade, former Republic of Yugoslavia gets a chance to go to the First World Football Championship, but things get complicated along the way.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSouth Wind (2018)
A story about Petar Maraš, a Belgrade criminal in his late twenties, whose one reckless move causes an avalanche of events that will greatly affect the lives of those around him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhen I Am Dead and White (1967)
The story about Jimmy Barka, a young vagabond who works as a seasonal worker. Having been sacked from the job, his dreams are to become a singer. As most of the things in the Balkans happen, he is destined to failure.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & drama
Like The Professional and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Professional?
The closest matches to The Professional are Balkan Spy (1984), The Wounds (1998) and The Knife (1999). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Professional?
People who watched The Professional most often go on to Balkan Spy (1984), The Wounds (1998) and The Knife (1999).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Professional?
Underground (1995), rated 7.7/10 by 821 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Professional?
The Load (2019) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Professional chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Professional, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























