Movies like Zimbabwe (2008)
The best movies like Zimbabwe (2008) are The Young One (1960), Skin (2009) and The Visit (1964). If Zimbabwe hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBattle of the Year (2013)6.8/10 from 369 votes
- NewestRise (2025)Released 2025
The Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Visit (1964)
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe River (1984)
Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly Lands (2019)
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSalomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHurry Sundown (1967)
A ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tragedies to the lives of his loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBattle of the Year (2013)
A down-on-his-luck coach is hired to prepare a team of the best American dancers for an international tournament that attracts all the best crews from around the world, but the Americans haven't won in fifteen years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Trials of Cate McCall (2013)
In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSores of Emmanuel (2010)
Faced with mounting debt and the heartbreak of being unable to fund his children’s education, Emmanuel Mutema is a desperate single father pushed to the edge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Rise (2025)
A charismatic young boy who lives on a rubbish dump in Zimbabwe must convince a reclusive boxing coach to teach him to fight in order to find safety and strength in a world that has left him behind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Midday Sun (1990)
Maggie is an ordinary Canadian girl with the best of intentions who has signed on to work in a Catholic mission in Zimbabwe. With an ample supply of enthusiasm and ignorance, she consistently demonstrates her lack of understanding of the local culture. When she is robbed, she fights for the release of the man convicted of the crime and belatedly makes some attempt to understand her environment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Shaina (2020)
Shine is a teenager in Zimbabwe who doesn't believe in herself. In the face of life-altering events, she is forced to rely on her own ingenuity and determination to face her future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kare Kare Zvako: Mother's Day (2005)
Drought has struck. Father pushes his wife away from the family dinner of termites. In anger, when mother challenges him, he digs a pit with a brutal purpose, but little does he suspect that Mother can retaliate just as powerfully. Based on an old Shona folk tale and rendered as a musical celebrating a diversity of contemporaray Zimbabwean music, Mother's Day is the newest and most exciting motion picture development to come out of Zimbabwe.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dzemudanga (2021)
Simbiso, a determined 17-year-old girl from a rural village, carries the weight of raising her younger siblings after losing their parents. When she is cornered by her aunt to marry an old man as a ticket out of poverty, she is forced to make a hard decision.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kuroorwa kwaChipo (2021)
A young woman preparing for her customary marriage finds her future threatened when her former boyfriend, an escaped prisoner, arrives intent on stopping the wedding and disrupting her new life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Chimurenga - The War in Zimbabwe (1978)
A documentary covering the Second Chimurenga, the Zimbabwean War of Liberation.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Alien from L.A. (1988)
When her archaeologist father disappears on an expedition, Wanda sets out to look for him. What she finds is a secret underground world, where no one believes in life on the surface and where she and her father are taken for spies.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisJit (1990)
A young African man must try every trick in the book in this attempts to win the heart of the most beautiful girl in his village.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Zimbabwe and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Zimbabwe?
The closest matches to Zimbabwe are The Young One (1960), Skin (2009) and The Visit (1964). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Zimbabwe?
Start with The Young One (1960), the closest match to Zimbabwe.
What is the highest-rated movie like Zimbabwe?
Battle of the Year (2013), rated 6.8/10 by 369 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Zimbabwe?
Rise (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Zimbabwe?
Yes: The Young One (1960), Skin (2009) and The Visit (1964).
How are movies similar to Zimbabwe chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Zimbabwe, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.