Movies like Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima (2011)
The best movies like Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima (2011) are Father Soldier Son (2020), 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025) and Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1942). If Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima hooked you with its documentary and war, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedFor Sama (2019)8.2/10 from 323 votes
- NewestThe Silent Service: The Battle of Arctic Ocean (2025)Released 2025
- In JapaneseThe Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)Also in Japanese
Father Soldier Son (2020)
When Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch is critically wounded in Afghanistan, it sets him and his sons on a journey of love, loss, redemption and legacy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025)
Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWhy We Fight: Prelude to War (1942)
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKorengal (2014)
Korengal picks up where Restrepo left off; the same men, the same valley, the same commanders, but a very different look at the experience of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Popcorn FlickMovies like this20 Days in Mariupol (2023)
As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe War on Democracy (2007)
Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger says that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Soviet Story (2008)
“The Soviet Story” is a story of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale. Assisted by the West, this power triumphed on May 9th, 1945. Its crimes were made taboo, and the complete story of Europe’s most murderous regime has never been told. Until now...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFor Sama (2019)
A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLast Days in Vietnam (2014)
During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront a moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLet There Be Light (1946)
The final entry in a trilogy of films produced for the U.S. government by John Huston. Some returning combat veterans suffer scars that are more psychological than physical. This film follows patients and staff during their treatment. It deals with what would now be called PTSD, but at the time was categorised as psychoneurosis or shell-shock. Government officials deemed this 1946 film counterproductive to postwar efforts; it was not shown publicly until 1981.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRestrepo (2010)
Directors Hetherington and Junger spend a year with the 2nd Battalion of the United States Army located in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous valleys. The documentary provides insight and empathy on how to win the battle through hard work, deadly gunfights and mutual friendships while the unit must push back the Taliban.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Age of Stupid (2009)
Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Battle of San Pietro (1945)
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & documentary
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCity of Ghosts (2017)
With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both war & documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThey Shall Not Grow Old (2018)
A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of Armistice Day, and the end of the war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTrinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie (1995)
"Trinity and Beyond" is an unsettling yet visually fascinating documentary presenting the history of nuclear weapons development and testing between 1945-1963. Narrated by William Shatner and featuring an original score performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, this award-winning documentary reveals previously unreleased and classified government footage from several countries.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987)
Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old anarchist veteran of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, sets out to conduct interviews with survivors and relatives to find the truth behind atrocities committed by Japanese military, in particular the unexplained killing of two Japanese privates in his unit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMore Than Miyagi: The Pat Morita Story (2021)
The Oscar nominated actor best known for his role of Mr. Miyagi, left behind a painfully revealing autobiographical record of his much-too-brief time here on earth. Tracing his journey from being bed bound as a boy to the bright lights and discrimination in Hollywood. Deep inside that sweet, generous, multi-talented performer seethed an army of demons, that even alcohol and drugs couldn't mask.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNever-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (2017)
A look at legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki following his retirement in 2013.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDeliver Us from Evil (2006)
Documentary filmmaker Amy Berg investigates the life of 30-year pedophile Father Oliver O'Grady and exposes the corruption inside the Catholic Church that allowed him to abuse countless children. Victims' stories and a disturbing interview with O'Grady offer a view into the troubled mind of the spiritual leader who moved from parish to parish gaining trust ... all the while betraying so many.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both documentary
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEffects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1946)
This was the only documentary made in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of 1945. Japanese filmmakers entered the two cities intent on making an appeal to the International Red Cross, but were promptly arrested by newly arriving American troops. The Americans and Japanese eventually worked together to produce this film, a science film unemotionally displaying the effects of atomic particles, blast and fire on everything from concrete to human flesh. No other filmmakers were allowed into the cities, and when the film was done the Americans crated everything up and shipped it to an unknown location. That footage is now lost. However, an American and a Japanese filmmaker each stole and hid a copy of the film, fearful that the reality of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be hidden from history. Eventually, these prints surfaced and became our only precious archive of the aftermath of nuclear warfare -- a film that everyone knows in part, yet has rarely seen in its entirety.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
Twice: The Extraordinary Life of Tsutomu Yamaguchi (2010)
Tsutomu Yamaguchi is a hibakusha. A survivor of both atomic bomb blasts in 1945. First at Hiroshima, then again at Nagasaki. Now nearing 90, Yamaguchi finally speaks out. Breaking taboos of shame and sorrow, he responds to a call to fight for a world without nuclear weapons by telling his story, so that no one else will ever have to tell one like it again. Twice reconstructs Yamaguchi’s experiences in 1945 Japan, interviews him on the after-effects of exposure and documents the last five years of the late-blooming activist’s life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
200,000 Phantoms (2007)
In 1914, the Czech architect Jan Letzel designed in the Japanese city of Hiroshima Center for the World Expo, which has turned into ruins after the atomic bombing in August 1945. “Atomic Dome” – all that remains of the destroyed palace of the exhibition – has become part of the Hiroshima memorial. In 2007, French sculptor, painter and film director Jean-Gabriel Périot assembled this cinematic collage from hundreds of multi-format, color and black and white photographs of different years’ of “Genbaku Dome”.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
Girls in Summer Dresses: Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 (1988)
In 1945, the second- and third-year students of a Hiroshima girls' school are taken away to work in war factories. The remaining 220 girls of the first year try to make the best of their new-found status as the only teenagers in an almost deserted town, even amid the deprivations of wartime. On the seventh of August, an American bomber changes their lives forever. Broadcast on the 43rd anniversary of Hiroshima in memory of "the girls who lost their lives to the atom bomb." (Source: Anime Encyclopedia)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
Hiroshima (2005)
The documentary recounts the world's first nuclear attack and examines the alarming repercussions. Covering a three-week period from the Trinity test to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the program chronicles America's political gamble and the planning for the momentous event. Archival film, dramatizations, and special effects feature what occurred aboard the Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped the bomb) and inside the exploding bomb.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Beginning or the End (1947)
The research, development, and deployment of the first atomic bomb, as well as the bombing of Hiroshima, are detailed in this docudrama.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
Hiroshima: The Race Toward the Apocalypse (2025)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
Hiroshima: The Aftermath (2015)
Brand new documentary marking the 70th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings which ended WWII and began the nuclear age. Features interviews with survivors from both sides.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary & war
Tokyo Phoenix (2017)
In 150 years, twice marked by total destruction —a terrible earthquake in 1923 and incendiary bombings in 1945— followed by a spectacular rebirth, Tokyo, the old city of Edo, has become the largest and most futuristic capital in the world in a transformation process fueled by the exceptional resilience of its inhabitants, and nourished by a unique phenomenon of cultural hybridization.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both documentary
The Silent Service: The Battle of Arctic Ocean (2025)
In the freezing northern seas, the Yamato nuclear submarine begins its deep underwater voyage to the tune of Mozart, heading for the United Nations headquarters in New York. In the Bering Strait between the US and Russia, another submarine approaches: an American nuclear submarine that overwhelmingly dwarfs the Yamato. Now, a battle commences among the cracking floes of the cold Arctic Ocean.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both war
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima?
The closest matches to Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima are Father Soldier Son (2020), 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025) and Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1942). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima?
Start with Father Soldier Son (2020), the closest match to Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima.
What is the highest-rated movie like Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima?
For Sama (2019), rated 8.2/10 by 323 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima?
The Silent Service: The Battle of Arctic Ocean (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima?
Yes: The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (1987), Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (2017) and Effects of the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1946).
How are movies similar to Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.





























