Best movies like Blackout
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Blackout? Contribute your expertise to steer others toward tv shows and films you've watched previously that might likewise entrance them. Assist in growing the circle of people referring videos among each other. We value your engagement!
Plot Summary:
Paris, April 1994. Young freelance journalist Antoine Rives is making a report on Westerners who have been repatriated from Rwanda, fleeing the massacres. He meets Clément, a student of Hutu origin whose Tutsi fiancée Alice hasn’t been able to leave Rwanda. Antoine convinces Clément to go back with him to look for Alice, and to let him film the journey. Their pact soon becomes untenable as they find themselves thrown into chaos. This is a journey through horror during which a young man’s First World illusions are stripped away as he wakes up to human tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 78
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: factual
Best tv shows and movies like Blackout (2009):
Similar in 89%
The Journey Is the Destination (2016)
Plot Summary:
The inspiring life story of the late photojournalist, artist and activist Dan Eldon, who abandoned a comfortable life in London to document the struggle, heartbreak and hope of a war-torn and famine-ridden region of Africa.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 678
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Togetherness Supreme (2010)
Plot Summary:
Based on true events and the ethnic conflict that tore apart a country. TOGETHERNESS SUPREME is the story of Kamau, an artist, searching for change in the midst of ethnic tension in the slums. Kamau goes against his father and his tribe to join the other side with his friend Otieno. Kamau and Otieno fight for political change for those living in dire poverty. After a presidential contested election, the slums erupt in violence and Kamau's world is tore apart.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 36
Genere: Drama
Country: Kenya, Venezuela
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining
Similar in 77%
The Murmuring Coast (2004)
Plot Summary:
During the war of in-dependency Evita moves from Lisbon to Mozambique to marry Luís. She slowly discovers how different and disturbing life is in a country of war and when her husband is send on a military mission she starts to fight loneliness. Over time she finds out more about her husband and Mozambique than she would have imagined in her peaceful European home. Racism, violence, injustice and fatalism make life unbearable.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 307
Genere: Drama
Country: Portugal
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: exotic
Similar in 90%
Hollow City (2004)
Plot Summary:
A group of children, fleeing the war, is taken to Luanda accompanied by a nun. When they reach the aeroplane, 12-year-old N'Dala decides to leave the group and to reconnoitre the city. The nun then starts her unceasing quest for the missing boy. N'Dala, only carrying a textile bag and a doll made of wire, walks through the busy streets filled with people and traffic. Later he finds the tranquility of the island off the coast, where he meets the old fisherman Antonio, with whom he becomes friends. Not much later, he meets the lively, whimsical Zé, who is a little older than he is. N'Dala starts to experience the city and its inhabitants as increasingly forbidding and he would most like to return to the countryside from whence he came. Then he meets Joka, a fringe figure who persuades him to help with a robbery in exchange for money. With this film, Maria Joao Ganga wanted to provide a realistic sketch of the bitter political situation in Angola. One of her most important motivations.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 279
Genere: Drama
Country: Angola, Portugal
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: social
Similar in 89%
Lucky (2011)
Plot Summary:
A 10-year-old South African orphan leaves his Zulu village to make his own life in the city... only to find no one will help him, except a formidable Indian woman.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 265
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Children of the Mountain (2016)
Plot Summary:
Against the picturesque Ghanaian backdrop, Children of the Mountain is an honest exploration of a mother’s will in the face of much adversity. When her baby is born with a cleft lip, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, Essuman is led to believe that she has a ‘dirty womb.’ Her promising future as a wife and mother is shattered as her lover disowns her and the community eyes her with suspicion.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 75
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Ghana
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Black Jesus (1968)
Plot Summary:
A thinly-disguised biography of African leader Patrice Lumumba, here called Lalubi. Lalubi, a Christ-like leader determined to save his people, by passive resistance, from the dictatorial regime propped up by European colonialists, is imprisoned and tortured, along with a thief who comes to a greater understanding through his contact with Lalubi.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 310
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: political, grindhouse
Similar in 83%
Harvest: 3,000 Years (1975)
Plot Summary:
In this meditative film, the everyday lives of poor Ethiopian peasants are shown using documentary as well as storytelling techniques, and the drama arises out of the timeless but still contemporary issues of their lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 216
Genere: Drama
Country: Ethiopia
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 90%
We Are the Children (1987)
Plot Summary:
A doctor and a photo-journalist try to help famine victims in Africa.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 35
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Small Country: An African Childhood (2020)
Plot Summary:
Gabriel, aged 10, lives in a comfortable ex-pat neighborhood in Burundi, his ‘small country’. Gabriel is a normal kid, happy, carefree and having adventures with his friends and little sister. Then in 1993, tensions in neighboring Rwanda spill over, threatening his family and his innocence.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 791
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: captivating, tense, sentimental, sincere, thought provoking, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, social
Similar in 77%
Sambizanga (1972)
Plot Summary:
Domingos is a member of an African liberation movement, arrested by the Portuguese secret police, after bloody events in Angola. He does not betray his companions, but is beaten to death in prison, and not knowing he is dead, his wife goes from a prison station to another, trying in vain to know where he is.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 614
Genere: Drama
Country: Angola, France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 85%
Sleeping Sickness (2011)
Plot Summary:
Ebbo and Vera Velten have spent the better part of the past twenty years living in different African countries. Ebbo is the manager of a sleeping sickness programme. His work is fulfilling. Vera, however, feels increasingly lost in Yaounde’s ex-pat community. She can’t bear the separation from her 14-year-old daughter, Helen, who is attending boarding school in Germany. Ebbo must give up his life in Africa or he risks losing the woman he loves. But his fear of returning to a land now remote to him increases with each passing day. Years later. Alex Nzila, a young French doctor of Congolese origin, travels to Cameroon to evaluate a development project. It’s been a long time since he set foot on this continent, but, instead of finding new prospects, he encounters a destructive, lost man. Like a phantom, Ebbo slips away from his evaluator.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 695
Genere: Drama
Country: Germany, France, Netherlands
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, emotional, psychological, serious, realistic, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 89%
Morning Dew (2008)
Plot Summary:
The Ethiopian intellectual Anberber returns to his native country during the repressive totalitarian regime of Haile Mariam Mengistu and the recognition of his own displacement and powerlessness at the dissolution of his people's humanity and social values. After several years spent studying medicine in Germany, he finds the country of his youth replaced by turmoil. His dream of using his craft to improve the health of Ethiopians is squashed by a military junta that uses scientists for its own political ends. Seeking the comfort of his countryside home, Anberber finds no refuge from violence. The solace that the memories of his youth provide is quickly replaced by the competing forces of military and rebelling factions. Anberber needs to decide whether he wants to bear the strain or piece together a life from the fragments that lie around him.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 612
Genere: Drama
Country: Ethiopia, Germany, France
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: captivating, serious, realistic, rough
Similar in 82%
Ceddo (1977)
Plot Summary:
When King Demba War sides with the Muslims, the Ceddo kidnap his daughter, Princess Dior Yacine, to protest their forcible conversion to Islam.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Senegal, France
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
Irene (2009)
Plot Summary:
A video diary shot and recorded by the filmmaker, using little more than his imagination and the happenstance and flow of the everyday, finally layering in a lifetime of memories.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 83 min
Plot tags: psychological, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, factual
Similar in 86%
Trees of Peace (2021)
Plot Summary:
In April of 1994, four women from different backgrounds and beliefs are trapped and hiding during the Rwandan genocide. Their fight for survival against all odds unites the women in an unbreakable sisterhood.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, suspense, disturbing
Similar in 87%
Destiny (1997)
Plot Summary:
Though gay-themed stories about "coming out" and accepting one's sexuality are not uncommon in Western countries, such tales are still rare in many conservative African nations. Considered a ground-breaking film in its native Guinea, and filmed amidst a storm of controversy, Mohamed Camara's Dakan is the first of its nations films to directly address issues surrounding homosexuality. The story centers on the romance between two 20-year-old men, Manga and Sory who are first seen making out in a car. The trouble begins when Manga tells his widowed mother about his love for Sory, who is busy contending with his outraged father. The parents insist that the two never see each other again. Manga's mother then uses witchcraft to cleanse her son and change him into a heterosexual. Time passes and eventually Manga begins to date a girl. But it soon becomes apparent that try as he might, Manga's heart belongs to Sory.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 188
Genere: Drama
Country: Guinea, France
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
The Jewel (2011)
Plot Summary:
Amanzio Rastelli appointed several of his relations to managerial positions in his firm. They decided to think internationally and now business is heavily in debt. Luckily for the Rastellis, Bolta the accountant uses all the tricks of his art to cook the books, but catastrophe awaits.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: serious, thought provoking, realistic, tense, clever, factual
Similar in 85%
Flower (2011)
Plot Summary:
Hua, a young woman from Beijing, is a recent arrival in Paris. Exiled in an unknown city, she wanders between her tiny apartment and the university, drifting between former lovers and recent French acquaintances. She meets Matthieu, a young worker who falls madly in love with her. Possessed by an insatiable desire for her body, he treats Hua like a dog. An intense affair begins, marked by Matthieu’s passionate embraces and harsh verbal abuse. When Hua determines to leave her lover, she discovers the strength of her addiction, and the vital role he has come to play in her life as a woman.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 588
Genere: Drama
Country: China, France
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic, psychological, sexy, captivating, disturbing, tense, sincere, controversial, sexual
Similar in 87%
Dry Season (2006)
Plot Summary:
Chad, 2006. After a forty-year civil war, the radio announces the government has just amnestied the war criminals. Outraged by the news, Gumar Abatcha orders his grandson Atim, a sixteen-year-old youth, to trace the man who killed his father and to execute him. Atim obeys him and, armed with his father's own gun, he goes in search of Nassara, the man who made him an orphan. It does not take long before he finds him. Nassara, who now goes straight, is married, goes to the mosque and owns a small bakery. After some hesitation Atim offers him his services as an apprentice. He is hired then it will be easy for him to gun down the murderer of his father. At least, that is what he thinks.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 966
Genere: Drama
Country: Chad, France, Belgium, Austria
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, realistic, bleak, captivating, islamic, thought provoking, serious
Similar in 75%
Grigris (2013)
Plot Summary:
A 25 year old young man with dreams of becoming a dancer despite the fact that he's paralyzed from the waist down. His dreams are shattered when his uncle falls seriously ill. To save him, he decides to go work for petrol traffickers.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 590
Genere: Drama
Country: Chad, France, Belgium
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 87%
The Secret of the Grain (2007)
Plot Summary:
At the port of Sète, Mr. Slimani, a tired 60-year-old, drags himself toward a shipyard job that has become more and more difficult to cope with as the years go by. He is a divorced father who forces himself to stay close to his family despite the schisms and tensions that are easily sparked off and that financial difficulties make even more intense. He is going through a delicate period in his life and, recently, everything seems to make him feel useless: a failure. He wants to escape from it all and set up his own restaurant. However, it appears to be an unreachable dream given his meager, irregular salary that is not anywhere near enough to supply what he needs to realize his ambition. But he can still dream and talk about it with his family in particular. A family that gradually gives its support to this project, which comes to symbolize the means to a better life. Thanks to its ingeniousness and hard work, this dream soon becomes a reality...or almost.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 8000
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 151 min
Plot tags: sincere, serious, touching, realistic, culinary, clever, contemplative, talky, beautiful
Similar in 77%
A Screaming Man (2010)
Plot Summary:
Present-day Chad. Adam, sixty something, a former swimming champion, is pool attendant at a smart N'Djamena hotel. When the hotel gets taken over by new Chinese owners, he is forced to give up his job to his son Abdel. Terribly resentful, he feels socially humiliated. The country is in the throes of a civil war. Rebel forces are attacking the government. The authorities demand that the population contribute to the "war effort", giving money or volunteers old enough to fight off the assailants. The District Chief constantly harasses Adam for his contribution. But Adam is penniless; he only has his son.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Belgium, Chad
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: realistic, thought provoking, serious, captivating, contemplative, psychological, atmospheric, tense, sincere, bleak
Similar in 84%
Live and Become (2005)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Israel, Belgium, Italy
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: sincere, touching, psychological, serious, contemplative, sexy, indie film, realistic, gloomy, cult film
Similar in 80%
Dreamchild (2020)
Plot Summary:
François and Noémie run a sawmill in the mountains not far from the Swiss border. François has taken over his family's business, making him the fourth generation. He dreams of having a child. After years of failed fertility assistance, they give up on having a baby of their own and turn to adoption. But then François meets Patricia, new to the neighborhood. They begin a passionate affair. Soon after, Patricia gets pregnant.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 154
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Un Dimanche à Kigali (2006)
Plot Summary:
In April 1994, the middle-aged Canadian journalist Bernard Valcourt is making a documentary in Kigali about AIDS. He secretly falls in love for the Tutsi waitress of his hotel Gentille, who is younger than him, in a period of violent racial conflicts. When the genocide of the Tutsis by the Hutus in Rwanda begins, Bernard does not succeed in escaping with Gentille to Canada. When the genocide finishes in July 1994, Bernard returns to the chaotic Kigali seeking out Gentille in the middle of destruction and dead bodies. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 706
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 118 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, emotional, political, bleak, captivating, realistic, contemplative, touching
Similar in 85%
Vanished (2012)
Plot Summary:
A mother of two mysteriously disappears one morning. Her husband isn't worried as they've had rough patches; his wife just wanted to give him a scare and will come home soon. But her lover is convinced she has been murdered by her husband.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 87
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Shake Hands with the Devil (2007)
Plot Summary:
Canadian Lt. General Romeo Dallaire was the military commander of the UN mission in Rwanda and this movie is personal and, all too true, story of his time there during the genocide of 1994. It is not quite as moving as the earlier Hotel Rwanda and is less geared to drama and emotional manipulation, but it is still grim and upsetting.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: Canada
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: disturbing, serious, rough, bleak, realistic, sad, sincere, political
Similar in 87%
Shooting Dogs (2005)
Plot Summary:
Two westerners, a priest and a teacher find themselves in the middle of the Rwandan genocide and face a moral dilemna. Do they place themselves in danger and protect the refugees, or escape the country with their lives? Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 12000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: UK, Germany
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: disturbing, bleak, sad, emotional, sincere, christian film, breathtaking, inspirational, depressing, epic
Similar in 88%
Sometimes in April (2005)
Plot Summary:
Debra Winger, Oris Erhuero and Idris Elba star in this drama framed by the Rwandan genocide.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama, History, War
Country: France, Rwanda, USA
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: rough, bleak, serious, realistic, sad, disturbing, inspirational, political, informative, bilingual