Movies like Heart of the Casbah (1952)
The best movies like Heart of the Casbah (1952) are Algiers (1938), Pépé le Moko (1937) and Killer Heat (2024). If Heart of the Casbah hooked you with its drama and romance, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat the Day Owes the Night (2012)7.6/10 from 254 votes
- NewestDon't They Know It's the End of the World? (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchPépé le Moko (1937)Also in French
Algiers (1938)
Pepe Le Moko is a notorious thief, who escaped from France. Since his escape, Moko has become a resident and leader of the immense Casbah of Algiers. French officials arrive insisting on Pepe's capture are met with unfazed local detectives, led by Inspector Slimane, who are biding their time. Meanwhile, Pepe meets the beautiful Gaby, which arouses the jealousy of Ines.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPépé le Moko (1937)
Pépé le Moko, one of France's most wanted criminals, hides out in the Casbah section of Algiers. He knows police will be waiting for him if he tries to leave the city. When Pépé meets Gaby, a gorgeous woman from Paris who is lost in the Casbah, he falls for her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKiller Heat (2024)
An expat PI is hired to investigate a suspicious death in Crete, Greece, where jealousies run deep amongst the victim's powerful family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlue Story (2019)
Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area. Although from warring postcodes, the two quickly form a firm friendship until it is tested and they wind up on rival sides of a street war. Blue Story depicts elements of Rapman's own personal experiences and aspects of his childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Secret (2014)
In 1860s Paris, a young woman, Therese, is trapped in a loveless marriage to the sickly Camille by her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin. She spends her days behind the counter of a small shop and her evenings watching Madame play dominos with an eclectic group. After she meets her husband’s alluring friend, Laurent, she embarks on an illicit affair that leads to tragic consequences. Based on Emile Zola’s novel, Thérèse Raquin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeath in a French Garden (1985)
A wealthy wife's affair with her daughter's guitar tutor is threatened when the tutor is attacked and rescued by a hired killer, leading him to suspect their secret is out.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFallen Angel (1945)
An unemployed drifter, Eric Stanton wanders into a small California town and begins hanging around the local diner. While Eric falls for the lovely waitress Stella, he also begins romancing a quiet and well-to-do woman named June Mills. Since Stella isn't interested in Eric unless he has money, the lovelorn guy comes up with a scheme to win her over, and it involves June. Before long, murder works its way into this passionate love triangle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThérèse Raquin (1953)
Star-crossed lovers Thérèse and Laurent think they've gotten away with murder after Thérèse's weakling husband "falls" from a speeding train. But when forced to contend with a blackmailer's demands and the mute accusations of Thérèse's mother-in-law, it's only a matter of time before the law, their passion or blind chance trips them up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkin (2019)
A destitute young man, raised by racist skinheads and notorious among white supremacists, turns his back on hatred and violence to transform his life, with the help of a black activist and the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThieves (1996)
In the middle of the night, someone brings Ivan's body home to his wife and his young son. Flashbacks reveal the relationships among Ivan and his brother Alex, a cop with a cleanliness fetish; siblings Juliette and Jimmy, Ivan's partners in a seedy nightclub; the love triangle of Alex, Juliette, and Marie, a professor of philosophy; and of Alex and his nephew, Ivan's dour, stoic son. Ivan's death changes every relationship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both romance & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat the Day Owes the Night (2012)
Algeria, the 1930s. Younes is nine years old when he is put in his uncle's care in Oran. Rebaptized Jonas, he grows up among the Rio Salado youths, with whom he becomes friends. Emilie is one of the gang; everyone is in love with her. A great love story develops between Jonas and Emilie, which is soon unsettled by the conflicts troubling the country.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInspector Lavardin (1986)
Inspector Lavardin is called to a provincial village to investigate a murder – only to find that one of his ex-lovers is the victim’s widow.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA View of Love (2010)
Happily married with a daughter, Marc is a successful real estate agent in Aix-en-Provence. One day, he has an appointment with a woman to view a traditional country house. A few hours later, Marc finally puts a name to her face. It's Cathy, the girl he was in love with growing up in Oran, Algeria, in the last days of the French colonial regime. Marc hurries to her hotel. They spend the night together. Then she's gone again. And Marc's mother tells him Cathy never left Algeria. She was killed with her father in a bombing just before independence...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThey Won't Believe Me (1947)
On trial for murdering his girlfriend, philandering stockbroker Larry Ballentine takes the stand to claim his innocence and describe the actual, but improbable sounding, sequence of events that led to her death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSahara (1983)
Intent on winning a competition in place of her distinguished late father, beautiful young heiress Dale takes on the guise of a man and competes in his spot, embarking on a car race that crosses the unforgiving Sahara desert.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Insult (2017)
After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAli and Nino (2016)
Muslim prince Ali and Georgian aristocrat Nino have grown up in the Russian province of Azerbaijan. Their tragic love story sees the outbreak of the First World War and the world’s struggle for Baku’s oil. Ultimately they must choose to fight for their country’s independence or for each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stranger (2025)
Algiers, 1938. Meursault, a quiet and unassuming employee in his early thirties, attends his mother's funeral without shedding a tear. The next day, he begins a casual affair with Marie, a work colleague. He quickly slips back into his usual routine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWinter's Tale (2014)
A burglar falls for an heiress as she dies in his arms. When he learns that he has the gift of reincarnation, he sets out to save her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Place to Fight For (2023)
Greg is a police lieutenant; he must collect informations on eco-activists, infiltrating them for months. Myriam, a young free woman, is fighting to save a forest from the building of a dam. They meet and fall in love on the Zone. A beautiful life, a joy that Greg discovers, despite the risks of being unmasked. For each of them, time is short: soon everything will disappear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsoon Wedding (2001)
A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMême les anges ont le coeur brûlé (2024)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDesires of the Heart (2015)
An Indian psychiatrist practicing in Savannah, Georgia begins a relationship with a local artist, only to be summoned home for an arranged marriage. As he weighs love against family expectations, he uncovers old secrets that may determine his future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Inshore (2025)
A commercial fisherman finds love.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & romance
Tale of an Encounter (1985)
Two deaf and dumb children. She is the daughter of an American Oil engineer. He is the son of an Algerian farmer. They meet and manage to communicate, transcending all the cultural barriers that separate them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Blues (2022)
'Blues' is a portrait. Ernest Angermüller, a talented young mime artist who became a quadriplegic after a car accident, and Roza Misiewicz, a young Polish immigrant who works as a carer in France. 'Blues' is the story of their meeting, their memories and a fragmented picture of their desires and dreams as young adults in the making.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Zerda or the Songs of Forgetting (1983)
“La Zerda and the songs of oblivion” (1982) is one of only two films made by the Algerian novelist Assia Djebar, with “La Nouba des femmes du mont Chenoua” (1977). Powerful poetic essay based on archives, in which Assia Djebar – in collaboration with the poet Malek Alloula and the composer Ahmed Essyad – deconstructs the French colonial propaganda of the Pathé-Gaumont newsreels from 1912 to 1942, to reveal the signs of revolt among the subjugated North African population. Through the reassembly of these propaganda images, Djebar recovers the history of the Zerda ceremonies, suggesting that the power and mysticism of this tradition were obliterated and erased by the predatory voyeurism of the colonial gaze. This very gaze is thus subverted and a hidden tradition of resistance and struggle is revealed, against any exoticizing and orientalist temptation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Jesus Freaks (2024)
A woman's story of love and redemption during the Christian youth revolution that swept across America in the 1970's.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Don't They Know It's the End of the World? (2026)
Two people on a date realize their circumstances prevent them from ever having a serious relationship. They create a fantasy that they're married, leading to existential consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both romance
Like Heart of the Casbah and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Heart of the Casbah?
The closest matches to Heart of the Casbah are Algiers (1938), Pépé le Moko (1937) and Killer Heat (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Heart of the Casbah?
Start with Algiers (1938), the closest match to Heart of the Casbah.
What is the highest-rated movie like Heart of the Casbah?
What the Day Owes the Night (2012), rated 7.6/10 by 254 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Heart of the Casbah?
Don't They Know It's the End of the World? (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Heart of the Casbah?
Yes: Pépé le Moko (1937), Death in a French Garden (1985) and Thérèse Raquin (1953).
How are movies similar to Heart of the Casbah chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Heart of the Casbah, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.