Movies like The Burial of Kojo (2018)
The best movies like The Burial of Kojo (2018) are Mami Wata (2023), Capernaum (2018) and Goodbye Julia (2023). If The Burial of Kojo 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 ratedCapernaum (2018)8.1/10 from 2,071 votes
- NewestI Was a Stranger (2025)Released 2025
Mami Wata (2023)
In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe’s devoted but rebellious daughter Zinwe and skeptical protégé Prisca warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper, a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Capernaum (2018)
After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisGoodbye Julia (2023)
A retired singer from northern Sudan, Mona, burdened by guilt for covering up a man's death, hires his southern widow, Julia, as her maid. Unable to confess her role in the tragedy, she hopes to move forward, but the country's growing unrest threatens to reveal her secret.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
My Father's Shadow (2025)
Two young brothers explore Lagos with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, witnessing both the city's magnitude and their father's daily struggles as political unrest threatens their journey home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSaloum (2023)
Three mercenaries extracting a druglord out of Guinea-Bissau are forced to hide in the mystical region of Saloum, Senegal.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both thriller & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAtlantics (2019)
Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTimbuktu (2014)
Just outside of the Malian city of Timbuktu, now occupied by militant Islamic rebels who impose the Sharia on civilians and inconvenience their daily life, a cattleman kills a fisherman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHotel Rwanda (2004)
Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAníkúlápó (2022)
After an affair with a queen leads to his demise, an eager traveler encounters a mystical bird with the power to give him another life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdú (2020)
In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKandahar (2001)
After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLingui, the Sacred Bonds (2021)
On the outskirts of the capital of Chad, determined single mother Amina works tirelessly to provide for herself and her 15-year old daughter Maria. When Amina discovers Maria is pregnant and does not want a child, the two women begin to seek out an abortion, condemned by both religion and law. In the process, mother and daughter forge a connection stronger than any they’ve ever known.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDifret (2014)
Three hours outside of Addis Ababa, a bright 14-year-old girl is on her way home from school when men on horses swoop in and kidnap her. The brave Hirut grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her would-be husband. In her village the practice of abduction into marriage is common and one of Ethiopia’s oldest traditions. Meaza Ashenafi, an empowered and tenacious young lawyer, arrives from the city to represent Hirut and argue that she acted in self defense. Meaza boldly embarks on a collision course between enforcing civil authority and abiding by customary law, risking the ongoing work of her women’s legal aid practice to save Hirut’s life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Was a Stranger (2025)
A Syrian doctor and her daughter flee Aleppo, setting off a chain of events that binds five strangers together. A smuggler, a soldier, a poet, and a coast guard captain collide in a crisis that tests their courage, their choices, and their humanity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & thriller
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBamako (2007)
Caught in the stranglehold of debt and structural adjustment, Africa is fighting for its survival. In the face of disaster, representatives of African society bring an action against international financial institutions. The trial takes place in Bamako, in the yard of a house, among its inhabitants.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou Will Die at Twenty (2020)
Shortly after Muzamil was born, the village's holy man predicts that he will die at age 20. Muzamil's father can't stand the curse and leaves home. Sakina raises her son as a single mother, overly protective. One day, Muzamil turns 19.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScales (2020)
Hayat, a 12-year-old strong-willed girl, lives in a poor fishing village governed by dark tradition, in which every family must give away a daughter to the sea creatures who inhabit the waters near by. In turn, the sea creatures are hunted by the men of the village. Saved from this ordeal by her father, Hayat is outcasted by her village and considered a curse. But Hayat never surrenders. When Hayat’s mother gives birth to her new-born brother, Hayat must accept the brutal custom by sacrificing herself to these creatures or find a way to escape.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & drama
Coma (2022)
Amidst a period of unprecedented world events, an eighteen-year-old girl’s life is placed on hold. Isolated in her bedroom, she falls under the spell of the mysterious vlogger Patricia Coma. As time carries on, the lines between her dreams, fears, hopes, and reality begin to blur into one another.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Sun Children (2021)
The story of 12-year-old Ali and his three friends. Together they work hard to survive and support their families, doing small jobs in a garage and committing petty crimes to make fast money. In a turn of events that seems miraculous, Ali is entrusted to find hidden treasure underground. He recruits his gang, but first, to gain access to the tunnel, the children must enroll at the Sun School, a charitable institution that tries to educate street kids and child laborers, close to where the treasure is located.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPan's Labyrinth (2006)
In post–civil war Spain, 10-year-old Ofelia moves with her pregnant mother to live under the control of her cruel stepfather. Drawn into a mysterious labyrinth, she meets a faun who reveals that she may be a lost princess from an underground kingdom. To return to her true father, she must complete a series of surreal and perilous tasks that blur the line between reality and fantasy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWadjda (2012)
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight of the Kings (2021)
A young man is sent to "La Maca," a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new "Roman" and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he begins to narrate the mystical life of the legendary outlaw named "Zama King" and has no choice but to make his story last until dawn.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUnder the Shadow (2016)
After Shideh's building is hit by a missile during the Iran-Iraq War, a superstitious neighbor suggests that the missile was cursed and might be carrying malevolent Middle-Eastern spirits. She becomes convinced a supernatural force within the building is attempting to possess her daughter Dorsa, and she has no choice but to confront these forces if she is to save her daughter and herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in 'the Bathtub', a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink’s tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe—for a time when he’s no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack—temperatures rise and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink’s health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappy as Lazzaro (2018)
Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMudras Calling (2018)
When US-raised Jaden returns to his birthplace Myanmar, to search for his roots, he discovers a shocking truth, a new love and ultimately a possible future in his homeland.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Horns (2013)
In the aftermath of his girlfriend's mysterious death, a young man awakens to strange horns sprouting from his temples.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSplit (2016)
When Inanna, a young actress, becomes obsessed with a mask maker, she sacrifices parts of her life in order to win his love. At the same time she enters a mythic journey in the theater that blurs her performance, her dreams and her real life and results in a provocative and powerful confrontation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Caveman's Valentine (2001)
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & thriller
SnoozefestMovies like thisVesper (2022)
After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her paralyzed Father, meets a mysterious Woman with a secret that forces Vesper to use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the possibility of a future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Burial of Kojo?
The closest matches to The Burial of Kojo are Mami Wata (2023), Capernaum (2018) and Goodbye Julia (2023). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Burial of Kojo?
People who watched The Burial of Kojo most often go on to Mami Wata (2023), Capernaum (2018) and Goodbye Julia (2023).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Burial of Kojo?
Capernaum (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,071 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Burial of Kojo?
I Was a Stranger (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Burial of Kojo chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Burial of Kojo, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.