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Movies like The Holy Innocents (1984)

The best movies like The Holy Innocents (1984) are Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013), Cria! (1976) and El Sur (1983). If The Holy Innocents hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013)

    Spain, 1966. An English teacher who travels to Almería when he hears that John Lennon is making a film there befriends with a 16-year-old boy who has run away from home and a young girl who also seems to be running away from something.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  2. Cria! (1976)

    Ana, an eight-year-old girl living in Madrid with her grandmother and two sisters, mourns the death of her mother.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  3. El Sur (1983)

    A woman recalls her childhood growing up in the North of Spain, focusing on her relationship with her father.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  4. Butterfly (1999)

    The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who introduces the boy to different things in the world. While the story centres on Moncho's ordinary coming-of-age experiences, tensions related to the looming Spanish Civil War periodically interrupt Moncho's personal growth and daily life.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  5. The Executioner (1963)

    An undertaker gets married to an old executioner's daughter and, although he doesn't like it, must continue the profession of his father-in-law after his retirement.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  6. Lute: Forge On or Die (1987)

    In Spain of the 1960s, a poor family of quinquis - a nomadic ethnic group with a tradition as old as that of the gypsises of Spain but with even more obscure origins - have a nomadic life marked by poverty. The son, Eleuterio Sánchez Rodriguez, nicknamed "El Lute", steals some chickens and is condemned to six months in jail. El Lute moves to the slum outskirts of Madrid with his common law wife, Chelo, starting an itinerant life as a peddler of pots and pans and living in a quinqui shantytown. He gradually embarks upon as life of petty criminality, eventually participating in the theft of a jewelry store during which a bystander is killed.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  7. Among Wolves (2010)

    Entre lobos (Among Wolves) tells the remarkable story of a poor country boy named Marcos, who at the age of 7 is handed over to his father's employer, a rich landowner, who in turn delivers him to a life of labor with a hermetic goatherd in an isolated valley. The old man, who lives in a cave, is unused to human company and at first seems not very interested in having a live-in apprentice. The boy, who was abused by his parents, is frightened and equally aloof initially. Despite this, the shepherd begins teaching Marcos how to herd the goats, as well as how to care for himself and how to survive in the wilderness by trapping and fishing.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  8. Doce hombres sin piedad (1973)

    The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young man is guilty or innocent of murdering his father.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  9. Voyage to Nowhere (1986)

    The Iniesta-Galván family is a theatre company that goes from town to town offering its performances. Over the years, its members will have to adapt to changes and make decisions, like that of whether or not to continue performing. One day, unexpectedly, a son that he has fathered on his travels presents himself to Carlos Galván.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  10. Viridiana (1962)

    Viridiana is preparing to start her life as a nun when she is sent, somewhat unwillingly, to visit her aging uncle, Don Jaime. He supports her; but the two have met only once. Jaime thinks Viridiana resembles his dead wife. Viridiana has secretly despised this man all her life and finds her worst fears proven when Jaime grows determined to seduce his pure niece. Viridiana becomes undone as her uncle upends the plans she had made to join the convent.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  11. Bicycles Are for the Summer (1984)

    In Madrid, the family of Don Luis, his wife Dolores and their children, Manolita and Luisito, share the daily life of the Civil War with their maid and neighbours. Despite having failed his exams, Luisito wants his father to buy him a bicycle. However, the situation forces them to delay the purchase and the delay, like the war itself, is to last much longer than expected.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  12. Life Goes On (1965)

    Madrid, Spain. Eloísa, a self-sacrificing wife and efficient mother, lives in the neighborhood of Maravillas with her husband, a violent policeman; her sanctimonious son, who spends his life studying and praying to atone for the sins of his family; and her two daughters, obsessed with wealth, who hate each other deeply.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  13. Tristana (1970)

    As a young woman, Tristana is orphaned and taken under the guardianship of Don Lope, a respected member of the community, who takes advantage of his innocent charge. When Tristana falls in love with artist Horacio, she must learn to be more assertive in order to achieve independence from her nefarious guardian, or her blossoming relationship with Horacio is doomed.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  14. The Tobacconist of Vallecas (1987)

    Leandro, an unemployed mason and his friend, Tocho, attempt to rob a tobacconist in the Vallecas district of Madrid, but Mrs. Justa, the tobacconist, impedes it alerting the neighbors who notify police. Inside the shop, the confrontation between the two friends and their 'hostages', the tobacconist and her niece Angeles, is relaxing, and a budding sympathy arises between them.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  15. Main Street (1956)

    A small town in Spain, October 1955. Isabel, a 35-year-old dreamer who feels like a failure because she is not married yet, becomes the new target of a group of soulless pranksters.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  16. Welcome Mr. Marshall! (1953)

    A small Spanish town, Villar del Río, is alerted to the upcoming visit of American diplomats and its ruling townsmen begin preparations to impress the American visitors, in the hopes of benefiting under the Marshall Plan. Hoping to demonstrate the side of Spanish culture with which the visiting foreign officials would be more familiarized, the Castilian citizens don unfamiliar Andalusian costumes, hire a renowned flamenco performer, and re-decorate their town in Andalusian style, meantime waiting for their uncertain arrival.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both

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  17. The Beehive (1982)

    As in the novel of the same title from Camilo Jose Cela, "La Colmena" is a sad composition with the stories of many people in the Madrid of 1942, just the postwar of the spanish civil war. The main theme of the film is the contrast between the poets, surviving close to misery under the Franco's regime, and the winners of the war, the emerging class of the people that makes easy money with illegal business.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  18. Surcos (1951)

    A farm family moves into a city maybe at the end of the Spanish Civil War. They move in with the sister of the farmers wife. In the city everything is illegal or immoral or both.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  19. Belle Époque (1992)

    In 1931, a young soldier deserts from the army and falls into a country farm, where he is welcomed by the owner due to his political ideas. Manolo has four daughters, Fernando likes all of them and they like him, so he has to decide which one to love.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  20. Poachers (1975)

    The relationship between a poacher and his domineering mother in rural Spain is upended when he falls for an escapee from a reform school.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  21. The Good Manners (2025)

    In a Valencian village, during the postwar period, Ana tries to get ahead with her family; the civil war has opened a deep wound in all of them, especially in her brother-in-law, Antonio. Ana tries to heal that wound with stews, secrets and silences, but when Isabel, newly married to Antonio, comes to the family, Ana’s attention and care will be worth little or nothing: the sacrifice does not always have its reward.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  22. Princesses (2005)

    Caye is a young prostitute whose family is unaware of her profession. She meets her striking Dominican neighbour Zulema, an illegal immigrant, after she finds her in the bathroom, badly beaten up. They strike up a close friendship unbeknownst to Caye's xenophobic co-workers.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  23. Barrio (1998)

    Bored 15-year-old school chums Rai Manu and Javi dream of sexual adventures and exotic resorts while the well-off population of Madrid flock to the beaches on a summer holiday. The youths hang around the concrete wasteland killing time by reading the sex classifieds and pushing their luck. They masturbate, thieve, fight with their families and get involved in a drug bust. Finally Rai, the most daring and restless of the trio - gets shot while trying to steal stereo gear from a car. Each adolescent faces a dreary home life but when they get together they enjoy each other's company to the full. The film is an engaging mixture of comedy drama and the pathos of life in a Madrid neighborhood.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  24. Pals (1982)

    José is an unemployed 18-year-old living in a cramped apartment in the slums of Madrid. Marginalized by poverty, José spends his time with his friend Antonio. However, when José gets his girlfriend, Rosario, pregnant, the two friends try anything to get the money to pay for her to have an abortion.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  25. Climax (1977)

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  26. Death of a Cyclist (1955)

    A couple has an affair strike a bicyclist with their car and don't offer aid out of fear of their relationship being exposed.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  27. The Miracle of Marcelino (1955)

    Left on the doorstep of a monastery as an infant, Marcelino was raised by the monks. He was well-cared for but lonely and missed having a mother. One day he found a special friend in the forbidden attic, hanging on a cross. A friend that would repay Marcelino's kindness by granting him one heart-felt wish.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  28. Lucía (1968)

    Traces episodes in the lives of three Cuban women, each named Lucía, from three different historical periods: the 1890s, the 1930s, and the 1960s.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

  29. Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980)

    After a young heiress is assaulted by a policeman, she seeks revenge by befriending the policeman’s mousy wife and introducing her to her circle of outrageous punk friends.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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  30. The 13 Roses (2007)

    True story of thirteen totally normal young women that suffered harsh questioning and were put in prison under made up charges of helping the rebellion against Franco back in the 1940s. Despite of their innocence, the thirteen were soon executed without even a trace of evidence of any wrong doing.

    Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama

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Like The Holy Innocents and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like The Holy Innocents?

The closest matches to The Holy Innocents are Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013), Cria! (1976) and El Sur (1983). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after The Holy Innocents?

People who watched The Holy Innocents most often go on to Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013), Cria! (1976) and El Sur (1983).

What is the highest-rated movie like The Holy Innocents?

Viridiana (1962), rated 7.7/10 by 572 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like The Holy Innocents?

The Good Manners (2025) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there Spanish movies like The Holy Innocents?

Yes: Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013), Cria! (1976) and El Sur (1983).

How are movies similar to The Holy Innocents chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Holy Innocents, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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