Best movies like Hijack Stories
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Far from Hollywood eye candy, this movie has a taste of South African authenticity. No high budget action, no pretenses, just the minimum needed to support the plot that takes the audience on a journey across various aspects of contemporary South African society, most often in a humorous way. Critics about car chases and special effects are completely missing the point of that movie. It mostly revolves about the culture shock of an educated black taking a plunge into Soweto gangster culture. I found the characters quite attaching and I felt refreshed after viewing this exotic piece. I recommend it if you are looking for a simple and out of the ordinary movie.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 229
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany, UK, South Africa, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags:
Best tv shows and movies like Hijack Stories (2000):
Similar in 77%
Please Don't Bury Me Alive! (1976)
Plot Summary:
It tells his story in the turbulent days near the end of the Vietnam War, as a young Chicano man questioning his and his people’s place in society as thousands of his Latino brethren return from the war in coffins.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: aesthetic, independent film
Similar in 83%
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 86%
Daresalam (2001)
Plot Summary:
In a small Central African village, boyhood friends Djimi and Koni have come of age under a post-colonial government that levies crippling taxes and legally robs local farmers of their meager crops. When impulsive Koni savagely attacks a visiting government official, the resulting massacre forces the two friends on a journey that will transform them from boys into men, from farmers into soldiers and from villagers into revolutionaries. "We fight in one world so we can live in another," declares Koni as the two battle shoulder to shoulder against government troops. But while Koni embraces the politics and carnage of their dangerous new guerilla existence, Djimi longs for the simplicity and grace of the village life they've left behind. As the rebels move closer to victory, the two friends move closer to a clash of their own.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 66
Genere: Drama, War
Country: France, Burkina Faso, Chad
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 90%
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 81%
Grandmother (1989)
Plot Summary:
A small African village. The story focuses on Bila, a ten year old boy who befriends an old woman, Sana. Everybody calls her 'Witch' but Bila himself calls her 'Yaaba' (grandmother). When Bila's cousin Nopoko gets sick it is Sana's medicine that saves her.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 739
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Burkina Faso, Switzerland, France, West Germany
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: independent film, black cinema
Similar in 89%
Wild Is the Wind (2022)
Plot Summary:
When two corrupt police officers investigate the brutal murder of a young girl, tensions come to a head in their small, racially-segregated town.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
CHiPs '99 (1998)
Plot Summary:
Ponch (Erik Estrada) has returned to the police force, and is determined to help his friend Jon (Larry Wilcox) in investigating various car thefts.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 597
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Death Journey (1976)
Plot Summary:
Fearful that their star witness might be murdered, two attorneys hire a protector to bring him from Los Angeles to New York. Jesse Crowder (Fred Williamson) is a no-nonsense tough guy. He buddies up with the witness, an accountant, and they hit the road. Outwitting their foes means taking all manner of conveyance, including automobile, train, and airplane.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 306
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 74 min
Plot tags: grindhouse, independent film, detective
Similar in 87%
Book of Numbers (1973)
Plot Summary:
Two waiters in Depression-era Arkansas get involved in the numbers racket.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 93
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 81 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 76%
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 85%
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
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The Forgotten Kingdom (2013)
Plot Summary:
A young man reluctantly embarks on a journey to his ancestral land of Lesotho to bury his estranged father, and finds himself drawn to the mystical beauty and hardships of the people and the land he had forgotten.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 248
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, South Africa, Lesotho
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, touching, serious, realistic, stylized
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Mother and Son (2022)
Plot Summary:
In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the moving chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 385
Genere: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 116 min
Plot tags: interesting
Similar in 75%
Il capitano: A Swedish Requiem (1991)
Plot Summary:
The film is based on a true occurrence in Sweden in 1988. A Finish couple murdered a young boy and his parents when they prevented the theft of the son's bicycle. The film tries to describe the relationship between the dominant Jari, who calls himself "Il Capitano", and his more mature "soldier" Minna, that develops into mutual dependence.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 892
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Sweden, Finland, Germany
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: psychological, tense, rough, bleak, serious, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 78%
Ganga Zumba (1963)
Plot Summary:
The life of a runaway slave who founded the Quilombo dos Palmares, an outlaw community of Brazilian slaves.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 132
Genere: Drama, History
Country: Brazil
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
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 90%
Mogadischu (2008)
Plot Summary:
The incredible true story of Lufthansa Flight 181, which was hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in October of 1977, and the noble efforts of stewardess Gabriele Dillmann (Nadja Uhl) to ensure the safety of the terrified passengers throughout the harrowing ordeal. When terrorists sympathetic to the cause of the German Red Army Faction seize control of the flight, German chancellor Helmut Schmidt refuses to negotiate. Meanwhile, terrorist leader "Captain Martyr Mahmud" grows increasingly agitated, and the Yemeni government refuses to let the plane land on their soil. After Captain Schumann (Thomas Kretschmann) makes an emergency landing in the sand, he is brutally executed in front of the passengers by "Captain Martyr Mahmud" (Said Taghmaoui), who then forces the co-pilot to fly the plane to Somolia. Once there, counter terrorism measures quickly get underway as the passengers brace themselves for the worst.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: Germany, France
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: tense, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 80%
Stories of Our Lives (2014)
Plot Summary:
Created by the members of a Nairobi-based arts collective — who have removed their names from the film for fear of reprisal — this anthology film that dramatizes true-life stories from Kenya’s oppressed LGBTQ community is both a labour of love and a bold act of militancy.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Drama
Country: Kenya, South Africa
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, serious, realistic, stylized, contemplative, queer cinema
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Bamako (The Court) (2006)
Plot Summary:
Melé is a bar singer, her husband Chaka is out of work and the couple is on the verge of breaking up... In the courtyard of the house they share with other families, a trial court has been set up. African civil society spokesmen have taken proceedings against the World Bank and the IMF whom they blame for Africa's woes... Amidst the pleas and the testimonies, life goes on in the courtyard. Chaka does not seem to be concerned by this novel Africa's desire to fight for its rights.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Mali, USA
Duration: 115 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, captivating, social, biting, allegory, suspense
Similar in 80%
The Chase (1991)
Plot Summary:
In Denver, a fleeing bank robber kills a cop and kidnaps an old man to hold as a hostage. He is chased by the police and a news helicopter, which films the entire incident. Based on a true story.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 180
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags:
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Viva Riva! (2010)
Plot Summary:
Riva is an operator, a man with charm and ambition in equal measure. Kinshasa is an inviting place. With petrol in short supply in DRC's capital, he and his sidekick pursue a plot to get hold of a secret cache - barrels of fuel they can sell for a huge profit. Of course they're not the only ones who want the stuff.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: tense, serious, captivating, psychological, suspense, erotic, neo noir, hood, rough, bleak
Similar in 82%
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 85%
Shepherds and Butchers (2016)
Plot Summary:
A lawyer takes on a case of a prison guard in South Africa who is traumatized by the executions he's witnessed.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: South Africa, USA, Germany
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: rough, captivating, suspense, suspenseful, disturbing, powerful
Similar in 78%
Prison Song (2001)
Plot Summary:
Elijah has been bounced from group home to group home throughout his turbulent young life. What has sustained him is his art. After a promised scholarship is taken away, Elijah ends up in a fight that result in the death of another boy. Now, sentenced to a minimum of fifteen years, the young man must find a way to keep his soul alive behind bars or turn into a hardened bitter criminal.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 683
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, rough, serious, captivating, hood, crime drama, realistic, gloomy, independent film
Similar in 78%
Inside (1996)
Plot Summary:
An emotional and thrilling tale of life and death behind the walls of a maximum security prison. From the acclaimed director of 'Bonnie and Clyde', and featuring a powerful international cast.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 317
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film, tense, rough, thought provoking, bleak, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 81%
Life, Above All (2010)
Plot Summary:
A touching mother-daughter relationship that reflects the modern South Africa.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: South Africa, Germany
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, serious, emotional, psychological, realistic
Similar in 86%
Tsotsi (2005)
Plot Summary:
The South African multi-award winning film about a young South African boy from the ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster. Tsotsi, who left home as a child to get away from helpless parents, finds a baby in the back seat of a car that he has just stolen. He decides that it his responsibility to take care of the baby and in the process learns that maybe the gangster life isn’t the best way.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 29000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: UK, South Africa
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sincere, bleak, emotional, harsh, rough, captivating, dramatic, art house, realistic, inspirational
Similar in 88%
Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama, Crime
Country: Morocco, Tunisia, France, Belgium, USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, bleak, social, disturbing, crying, islamic, realistic, masterpiece
Similar in 83%
Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema (2008)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: rough, serious, captivating, realistic, suspenseful, hood, social, crime drama, epic
Similar in 82%
Noem My Skollie: Call Me Thief (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story takes place in the 1960’s on the impoverished Cape Flats in South Africa. Four boys form a teenage gang to protect themselves from bullying and rape and almost as soon as their childhood pact is declared do they begin the downward spiral to become hardened gangsters. Some years later the gang leader, Abraham, discovers in jail that he has a gift for telling stories and becomes the prison 'cinema' which earns him respect and status whilst his best friend becomes the concubine of the cell boss. On his release our storyteller begins to write his stories and develops a new lease on life with his childhood sweetheart, Jenny. Meanwhile his gang buddies rope him into the murder of a taxi driver for which they will all be hung if proven guilty.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 254
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: South Africa
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: captivating, disturbing, independent film