Movies like Tsotsi (2005)
The best movies like Tsotsi (2005) are Zulu (2013), Gomorrah (2008) and City of God (2002). If Tsotsi hooked you with its crime and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCity of God (2002)8.4/10 from 8,607 votes
- NewestAbang Adik (2023)Released 2023
Zulu (2013)
As a child, Ali Neuman narrowly escaped being murdered by Inkhata, a militant political party at war with Nelson Mandela's African National Congress. Only he and his mother survived the carnage of those years. But as with many survivors, the psychological scars remain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGomorrah (2008)
An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice and are forced to obey the rules of the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCity of God (2002)
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisA Prophet (2009)
Sentenced to six years in prison, Malik El Djebena is alone in the world and can neither read nor write. On his arrival at the prison, he seems younger and more brittle than the others detained there. At once he falls under the sway of a group of Corsicans who enforce their rule in the prison. As the 'missions' go by, he toughens himself and wins the confidence of the Corsican group.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAmandla (2022)
Amandla is an anti-apartheid resistance slogan and means power. Apartheid in South Africa is still in full force when, in 1987, the two brothers Impi and Nkosana grew up on a farm as the sons of servants. The white owners are liberal people who aren't too particular about racial segregation. Black Africans have it relatively good there. Even a tender love bond develops between Impi and the blond daughter Elizabeth. But they have to be on their guard when neighboring farmers come to visit. When three racist upstart Boers arrive on the farm one day, tragic incidents occur with terrible consequences. The two Zulu boys are now on their own. Several years after surviving this childhood tragedy, the now grown brothers each find themselves on the opposing sides of the law. One is a gangster, the other is a police officer. A heinous gang crime tests their loyalty to one another.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Pixote (1980)
10-year-old Pixote endures torture, degradation, and corruption at a local youth detention center where two of its members are murdered by policemen who frame Lilica, a 17-year-old trans hustler. Pixote helps Lilica and three other boys escape and they start to make their living by a life of crime which only escalates to more violence and death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMi Vida Loca (1994)
Two Indigenous Latina bestfriends, Mousie and Sad Girl live in a contemporary Los Angeles poor Indigenous Hispanic American neighborhood. But when Sad Girl becomes pregnant by Mousie's boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ernesto, the two become bitter enemies. While their dispute escalates towards violence, the violence of the world around them soon also impacts their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
City of Men (2007)
Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeaven (2002)
A woman takes the law into her own hands after police ignore her pleas to arrest the man responsible for her husband's death, and finds herself not only under arrest for murder but falling in love with an officer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGangster's Paradise: Jerusalema (2008)
This South African movie tracks the rise of a once-petty criminal to the heights of the criminal underworld. After cutting his teeth on hijacking, before moving onto bigger game, an ambitious man hits a setback when most of his gang are shot.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbang Adik (2023)
Abang and Adi are undocumented orphans living in present-day Malaysia. While the older brother, a deaf mute, has resigned himself to a life of poverty, his younger sibling burns with indignation. A brutal accident upsets the fragile balance of their relationship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Salaam Bombay! (1988)
When a revengeful Krishna destroys his brother's motorbike, his mother asks him to return home only when he earns INR 500 to repair it. In a turn of events, he finds himself in a Bombay slum.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHotel Rwanda (2004)
Inspired by true events, this film takes place in Rwanda in the 1990s when more than a million Tutsis were killed in a genocide that went mostly unnoticed by the rest of the world. Hotel owner Paul Rusesabagina houses over a thousand refuges in his hotel in attempt to save their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFour Corners (2014)
Directed by Ian Gabriel, “Four Corners” revolves around a 13-year-old chess whiz drawn into the Cape Town’s well-known child-gang culture. Touted as the first film to delve into the 100-year-old war between South Africa’s so-called Number gangs, the 26 and the 28, it blends the Sabela, Tsotsi-taal and Cape Afrikaans dialects and mixes established talents with non-actors and first-time thesps from schools and communities across the Cape Flats.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime
La Haine (1995)
After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisEndgame (2009)
The time is the late '80s, a crucial period in the history of South Africa. President P.W. Botha is hanging on to power by a thread as the African National Congress (ANC) takes up arms against apartheid and the country tumbles toward insurrection. A British mining concern is convinced that their interests would be better served in a stable South Africa and they quietly dispatch Michael Young, their head of public affairs, to open an unofficial dialogue between the bitter rivals. Assembling a reluctant yet brilliant team to pave the way to reconciliation by confronting obstacles that initially seem insurmountable, Young places his trust in ANC leader Thabo Mbeki and Afrikaner philosophy professor Willie Esterhuyse. It is their empathy that will ultimately serve as the catalyst for change by proving more powerful than the terrorist bombs that threaten to disrupt the peaceful dialogue.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSlumdog Millionaire (2008)
A teenager reflects on his life after being accused of cheating on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?".
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYesterday (2004)
After falling ill, Yesterday learns that she is HIV positive. With her husband in denial and young daughter to tend to, Yesterday's one goal is to live long enough to see her child go to school.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Last King of Scotland (2006)
Young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan decides it's time for an adventure after he finishes his formal education, so he decides to try his luck in Uganda, and arrives during the downfall of President Obote. General Idi Amin comes to power and asks Garrigan to become his personal doctor.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAli Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2001)
Ali, Kwita, Omar and Boubker are street kids. The daily dose of glue sniffing represents their only escape from reality. Since they left Dib and his gang, they have been living on the portside of Casablanca. They live in constant fear of Dib's revenge. Ali wants to become a sailor - when he was living with his mother, a prostitute, he used to listen to a fairy tale about the sailor who discovered the miracle island with two suns. Instead of finding his island in the dream, Ali and his friends are confronted with Dib's gang. Matters are getting serious.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHorses of God (2013)
The film follows two brothers over the course of a decade. While they begin as kids in search of thrills in the sprawling slums of Morocco’s Sidi Moumen, we witness their gradual, and ultimately shocking, radicalisation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLive and Become (2005)
In 1980, the black Falashas in Ethiopia are recognised as genuine Jews and are secretly carried to Israel. The day before the transport the son of a Jewish mother dies. In his place and with his name (Schlomo) she takes a Christian 9-year-old boy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoyz n the Hood (1991)
Three friends growing up in South Central Los Angeles navigate a neighborhood plagued by violence, unemployment, and crime, each responding differently to the harsh realities of street life. As tragedy strikes close to home, their friendship, choices, and hopes for a better future are put to the ultimate test.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & crime
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLila Says (2005)
Chimo develops a crush on the pretty, blond Lila, a girl who recently moved into his Arab ghetto with her aunt. When the leader of a rival gang also falls for Lila, the ensuing love triangle initiates a journey of sexual discovery -- and sets off a chain of devastating events.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)
In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in tragedy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBound by Honor (1993)
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the "Vatos Locos", and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a "home" for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his "carnal", Miklo.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisI Am Slave (2010)
Based on the real-life experiences of Mende Nazer, the story unfolds as twelve-year-old Malia, daughter of champion wrestler Bah, is abducted from her Sudanese village in the Nubar Mountains by pro-government Arab militia and sold into slavery to a woman in Khartoum, who beats her for touching her daughter. After six years she is sent to London, where her name is changed, but her miserable life of servitude continues. Her passport is taken and she is told that her father will die if she goes to the authorities. Fortunately she meets a sympathetic person who seems to offer her the hope of escape and reunion with Bah ,back in Sudan. For all the film's optimism an end title states that there are around 5,000 'slave' workers currently in Britain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Les Misérables (2019)
Stéphane has recently joined the Anti-Crime Squad in Montfermeil, in the suburbs of Paris, France, where Victor Hugo set his famed novel “Les Miserables”. Alongside his new colleagues Chris and Gwada – both experienced members of the team – he quickly discovers tensions running high between local gangs. When the trio finds themselves overrun during the course of an arrest, a drone captures the encounter, threatening to expose the reality of everyday life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & 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: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDheepan (2015)
Three war-torn strangers posing as a family flee Sri Lanka’s civil war to start over in a troubled Paris suburb, but their past traumas resurface as they struggle to survive in their new environment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both crime & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tsotsi?
The closest matches to Tsotsi are Zulu (2013), Gomorrah (2008) and City of God (2002). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tsotsi?
People who watched Tsotsi most often go on to Zulu (2013), Gomorrah (2008) and City of God (2002).
What is the highest-rated movie like Tsotsi?
City of God (2002), rated 8.4/10 by 8,607 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tsotsi?
Abang Adik (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Tsotsi chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tsotsi, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.