Movies like Midnight Traveler (2019)
The best movies like Midnight Traveler (2019) are Under the Wire (2018), Last Men in Aleppo (2017) and The Cave (2019). If Midnight Traveler hooked you with its documentary, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFire at Sea (2016)6.7/10 from 254 votes
- NewestCutting Through Rocks (2025)Released 2025
Under the Wire (2018)
On 12 February 2012, two journalists entered war-ravaged Syria. One of them was celebrated Sunday Times war correspondent, Marie Colvin. The other was photographer, Paul Conroy. Their aim was to cover the plight of Syrian civilians trapped in Homs, a city under siege and relentless military attack from the Syrian army. Only one of them returned.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Last Men in Aleppo (2017)
A searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets, an organization consisting of ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes and attacks in the hope of saving lives. Incorporating moments of both heart-pounding suspense and improbable beauty, the documentary draws us into the lives of three of its founders — Khaled, Subhi, and Mahmoud — as they grapple with the chaos around them and struggle with an ever-present dilemma: do they flee or stay and fight for their country?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cave (2019)
Deep beneath the surface in the Syrian province of Ghouta, a group of female doctors have established an underground field hospital. Under the supervision of paediatrician Dr. Amani and her staff of doctors and nurses, hope is restored for some of the thousands of children and civilian victims of the ruthless Syrian civil war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWatani: My Homeland (2016)
The story of one family's fight and struggle to survive the Syrian Civil War. Having lost her husband, the mother makes the heart achingly painful decision to leave her homeland, in search of safety and a brighter future for her children. Filmed over three years, the film chronicles the family's journey from the front-line in Aleppo, to a little town in Germany. Escaping the chaos and terror of their war torn homeland becomes a catalyst for a different kind of struggle; the struggle to understand your past and accept your present, to adapt to a new life, to hold on to hope, and the idea of belonging to a homeland.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Frame by Frame (2015)
When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, taking a photo was a crime. After the regime fell from power in 2001, a fledgling free press emerged and a photography revolution was born. Now, as foreign troops and media withdraw, Afghanistan is left to stand on its own and so are its journalists. Set in a modern Afghanistan bursting with color and character, FRAME BY FRAME follows four Afghan photojournalists navigating a dangerous media landscape as they reframe Afghanistan for the world, and for themselves. Through cinema vérité, powerful photojournalism, and never-before-seen footage shot in secret during the Taliban regime, the film connects an audience with four humans in the pursuit of the truth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Cutting Through Rocks (2025)
37-year-old Sara Shahverdi, a motorcycle riding, land owning, former midwife-turned-fierce citizen advocate and recent divorcée, just won a landslide local election in her remote Iranian village and everyone has an opinion about it.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Fire at Sea (2016)
Capturing life on the Italian island of Lampedusa, a frontline in the European migrant crisis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSabaya (2021)
With just a mobile phone and a gun, Mahmud, Ziyad and their group risk their lives trying to save Yazidi women and girls being held by ISIS as Sabaya (abducted sex slaves) in the most dangerous camp in the Middle East, Al-Hol in Syria.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Lost Lives (2019)
This poignant testament to the physical and emotional cost of war, centres on the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Hunger Ward (2020)
Filmed from inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in Yemen, HUNGER WARD documents two female health care workers fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war. The film provides an unflinching portrait of Dr. Aida Alsadeeq and Nurse Mekkia Mahdi as they try to save the lives of hunger-stricken children within a population on the brink of famine.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
War Photographer (2001)
Documentary about war photographer James Nachtwey, considered by many the greatest war photographer ever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThree Songs for Benazir (2021)
The story of Shaista, a young man who—newly married to Benazir and living in a camp for displaced persons in Kabul—struggles to balance his dreams of being the first from his tribe to join the Afghan National Army with the responsibilities of starting a family. Even as Shaista’s love for Benazir is palpable, the choices he must make to build a life with her have profound consequences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMore Than I Want to Remember (2022)
One night at her home in southeastern Congo, 14-year-old Mugeni awakes to the sounds of bombs. As her family scatters to the surrounding forests to save themselves, Mugeni finds herself completely alone.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Porcelain War (2024)
Under roaring fighter jets and missile strikes, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind and fight, contending with the soldiers they have become. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Torn Apart: Separated at the Border (2019)
Two mothers who were each separated from their children in the United States for months after fleeing from danger in their homelands to seek asylum work with pro-bono lawyers and volunteers to reunite with their kids who have been placed thousands of miles away from them with little access to communication.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Stranger at the Gate (2022)
A U.S. Marine plots a terrorist attack on a small-town American mosque, but his plan takes an unexpected turn when he comes face to face with the people he sets out to kill.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Motherland (2017)
The planet’s busiest maternity hospital is located in one of its poorest and most populous countries: the Philippines. There, poor women face devastating consequences as their country struggles with reproductive health policy and the politics of conservative Catholic ideologies.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Which Way Is The Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington (2013)
A portrait of photographer Tim Hetherington's work in war zones around the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Simple as Water (2021)
A meditation on the elemental bonds of family told through portraits of four Syrian families in the aftermath of war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk (2025)
An Iranian filmmaker participates in a series of video calls with a young Palestinian photojournalist who describes her life confined in Gaza during the current regional conflict.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
This Is Home: A Refugee Story (2018)
The lives of four Syrian families, resettled in Baltimore and under a deadline to become self-sufficient in eight months.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Letter from Masanjia (2019)
Damascus, Oregon, United States. Julie Keith finds a baffling message hidden in a pack of decorative items, a desperate plea for help, written by someone imprisoned in a Chinese labor camp called Masanjia…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Nasrin (2020)
Secretly filmed in Iran for over two years, Nasrin is an immersive portrait of human rights activist and political prisoner Nasrin Sotoudeh and Iran’s remarkably resilient women’s rights movement. Nasrin has long fought for the rights of women, children, LGBT prisoners, religious minorities, journalists and artists, and those facing the death penalty. She was arrested in 2018 for representing women who protested Iran’s mandatory hijab law and sentenced to 38 years in prison, plus 148 lashes. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Olivia Colman and featuring acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi, journalist Ann Curry, exiled women’s rights activist Mansoureh Shojaee, and Nasrin Sotoudeh.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Faya Dayi (2021)
A spiritual journey into the highlands of Harar, immersed in the rituals of khat, a leaf Sufi Muslims chewed for centuries for religious meditations – and Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. A tapestry of intimate stories offers a window into the dreams of youth under a repressive regime.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Human 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: Fans watch both · both documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBurma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country (2008)
Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow (2025)
American filmmaker Julia Loktev, born in the Soviet Union, returned to Moscow in 2021 to make a documentary on the persistence of independent media journalism in Putin’s Russia—just months, as it turned out, before the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Structured in five chapters, Loktev’s film is an extraordinary vérité document of a moment of immense change and anxiety.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Night Is Not Eternal (2024)
For seven years, award-winning Chinese-American filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows Rosa María Payá, daughter of the five time Nobel Peace Prize nominated activist, Oswaldo Payá, in Rosa's fight for democratic change in Cuba. Rosa's narrative is interwoven with Wang's poignant reflections on her Chinese upbringing and her observations of eroding democratic norms in the U.S., revealing unsettling similarities to the authoritarian system she left behind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
The Mother of All Lies (2024)
On a handmade set re-creating her Casablanca neighborhood, a young Moroccan filmmaker enlists family and friends to help unearth the troubling lies built into her childhood.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
Notturno (2020)
Shot over three years on the borders between Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon, the film depicts the everyday struggles of people attempting to rebuild their lives amongst the devastating effects of civil wars, dictatorships, foreign invasions, and the deadly presence of ISIS.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both documentary
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Midnight Traveler?
The closest matches to Midnight Traveler are Under the Wire (2018), Last Men in Aleppo (2017) and The Cave (2019). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Midnight Traveler?
People who watched Midnight Traveler most often go on to Under the Wire (2018), Last Men in Aleppo (2017) and The Cave (2019).
What is the highest-rated movie like Midnight Traveler?
Fire at Sea (2016), rated 6.7/10 by 254 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Midnight Traveler?
Cutting Through Rocks (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Midnight Traveler chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Midnight Traveler, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.