Movies like Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada) (1980)
The best movies like Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada) (1980) are Death and the Maiden (1994), Simón (2023) and Chile '76 (2022). If Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada) hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPapillon (1973)7.8/10 from 2,232 votes
- NewestHidden Beach (2025)Released 2025
- In SpanishChile '76 (2022)Also in Spanish
Death and the Maiden (1994)
A political activist is convinced that her guest is a man who once tortured her for the government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSimón (2023)
Simón, a Venezuelan freedom fighter exiled in Miami, copes not only with trauma, but also deep guilt over a choice he must make: stay in Miami and start a new life, or return home to the losing fight against a tyrannical regime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisChile '76 (2022)
Chile, 1976. Carmen heads off to her beach house. When the family priest asks her to take care of a young man he is sheltering in secret, Carmen steps onto unexplored territories, away from the quiet life she is used to.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdú (2020)
In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGarage Olimpo (1999)
María is eighteen years old, she lives with her mother in an old house in Buenos Aires in 1978, subletting rooms and giving classes to poor illiterate adults. Suddenly she is abducted by a military squad and finds herself accused of subversion and submitted to torture in the hideous underground of the Garage Olimpo, while her mother desperately tries to find her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUtama (2022)
In the Bolivian altiplano, Virginio and Sisa, an elderly Quechua couple who have lived a quiet life for years, face an impossible dilemma during an unusually long drought: resist or be defeated by the hostile environment and the relentless passage of time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo (2012)
In 1988, Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet, due to international pressure, is forced to call a plebiscite on his presidency. The country will vote ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Pinochet extending his rule for another eight years. Opposition leaders for the ‘No’ vote persuade a brash young advertising executive, René Saavedra, to spearhead their campaign. Against all odds, with scant resources and while under scrutiny by the despot’s minions, Saavedra and his team devise an audacious plan to win the election and set Chile free.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKamchatka (2002)
In 1976, Argentina fell into the hands of a de facto government. Thousands of citizens are persecuted and kidnapped. This is the case of the parents of two children, who, knowing they are wanted, decide to hide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMachuca (2004)
Santiago, capital of Chile during the Marxist government of elected, highly controversial president Salvador Allende. Father McEnroe supports his leftist views by introducing a program at the prestigious "collegio" (Catholic prep school) St. Patrick to allow free admission of some proletarian kids. One of them is Pedro Machuca, slum-raised son of the cleaning lady in Gonzalo Infante's liberal-bourgeois home. Yet the new classmates become buddies, paradoxically protesting together as Gonzalo gets adopted by Pedro's slum family and gang. But the adults spoil that too, not in the least when general Pinochet's coup ousts Allende, and supporters such as McEnroe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Artist and the Model (2012)
In occupied France in summer 1943, a world-weary famous sculptor finds the desire to work again with the arrival of a beautiful young Spanish refugee.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPacto de Fuga (2020)
During the last years of Pinochet's military regime, a group of militants from the "Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front" plan a prison break of political prisoners, through a tunnel that will take them 18 months to dig.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSecrets of the Heart (1997)
Javi and his friend Carlos visit an old house on the outskirts of a small Spanish village. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMissing (1982)
Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman. A conservative American businessman travels to Chile to investigate the sudden disappearance of his son after a military takeover. Accompanied by his son's wife he uncovers a trail of cover-ups that implicate the US State department which supports the dictatorship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrayers for the Stolen (2021)
Ana and her two best friends, Maria and Paula, navigate life in their oppressive countryside village. Whilst their families struggle in the poppy fields harvesting opium, the girls try to grow alongside the creeping terror of their cartel oppressors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLand of the Blind (2006)
A soldier recounts his relationship with a famous political prisoner attempting to overthrow their country's authoritarian government.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisI Am David (2003)
A 12-year-old boy manages to flee a Communist concentration camp on his own, through sheer will and determination. All he has in his possession is a loaf of bread, a letter to deliver to someone in Denmark, and a compass to help get him there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Neighbor Adolf (2022)
South America, 1960. A lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor convinces himself that his new neighbor is none other than Adolf Hitler. Not being taken seriously, he starts an independent investigation to prove his claim, but when the evidence still appears to be inconclusive, Polsky is forced to engage in a relationship with the enemy in order to obtain irrefutable proof.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPapillon (1973)
A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Translator (2019)
A Russian Literature professor at the University of Havana is ordered to work as a translator for child victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster when they are sent to Cuba for medical treatment. Based on a true story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe White Countess (2005)
In 1930s Shanghai, 'The White Countess' is both Sofia, a fallen member of the exiled Russian aristocracy, and a nightclub created by a blind American diplomat who asks Sofia to be the centerpiece of the world he wants to create.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHalf Moon (TBA)
Yeri and Ah-Jin, a niece and aunt, are strangers to each other, as they spend a fractured summer together on a remote North Sea island. Yeri is isolated at school and emotionally neglected at home. Ah-Jin lives in self-imposed exile, working as a caregiver while carrying the physical and psychological wounds of her past. Over the course of the vacation, they learn to understand and respect each other, and eventually accept who they are.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hidden Beach (2025)
After an argument with his father, Tomás (26) leaves with his best friend Lucas (25) and other members of the ballet company to the family’s beach house. While living in Playa Escondida, Tomás indulges his desires by paying local men for casual sex, while also uncovering secrets about his family. When he decides to resume his career as a dancer, his activities are discovered, and his life takes a violent turn.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sebastiane (1976)
Rome, AD 303. Emperor Diocletian demotes his favourite, Sebastian, from captain of the palace guard to the rank of common soldier and banishes him to a remote coastal outpost where his fellow soldiers, weakened by their desires, turn to homosexual activities to satisfy their needs. Sebastian becomes the target of lust for the officer Severus, but repeatedly rejects the man's advances. Castigated for his Christian faith, he is tortured, humiliated and ultimately killed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThere Will Be Spring (2020)
Late 40’s after the war. Strange languaged and religioned immigrants fleeing from Karelia region are hated by Finns in the countryside. 19-year old Anni is living her life wanting to forget the war and hostility surrounding her. Falling in love with a man who hasn’t left fighting, threatens Anni’s whole family’s future and hope for mutual forgiveness..
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fetish in E(x)ile (2025)
They met onstage at the Mr Leather Russia contest. One of them won the title, the other won the titleholder. 'A tale of two Doms', gay fetish and BDSM activists who tried to make a difference. But soon their world came crashing down.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Steel Trap (1952)
Joseph Cotten plays an assistant bank manager who steals $1,000,000 from the safe late on a Friday and then plans to flee to Brazil over the weekend.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bastards in Paradise (2000)
A shootout in the center of Stockholm, which is the cause of a tragic and casual reunion after a long time, between Manuel - a gang leader - Lena, who it was his great love, aspiring to police officer, and Kalle, who was his great friend and now he is a janitor of a discoteque; in a night they will never forget and that would change their lives forever
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Book of Fish (2021)
When the scholar Jeong Yak-jeon is exiled to Heuksando Island during the Catholic Persecution of 1801, he decides to write a fish-based encyclopaedia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMichael M. (TBA)
In 1930s Buenos Aires, exiled writer Michael attempts to continue his work, though the overwhelming city make his hands tremble. Decades later, he reenters the life of Argentine artist Mari through a book. She engages with his fantasies and begins to follow him, until one day he hears her whistling.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada)?
The closest matches to Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada) are Death and the Maiden (1994), Simón (2023) and Chile '76 (2022). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada)?
Start with Death and the Maiden (1994), the closest match to Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada).
What is the highest-rated movie like Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada)?
Papillon (1973), rated 7.8/10 by 2,232 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada)?
Hidden Beach (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada)?
Yes: Chile '76 (2022), Adú (2020) and Garage Olimpo (1999).
How are movies similar to Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada) chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Gracias a la Vida (o la Pequeña Historia de una Mujer Maltratada), then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.