Best movies like Sambizanga
Last updated March 2024
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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
Best tv shows and movies like Sambizanga (1972):
Similar in 85%
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 90%
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 85%
The Hero (2004)
Plot Summary:
A 20-year veteran of the Angolan civil war returns to the capital city of Luanda where he faces the challenges of assimilation and survival.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 164
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Angola, France, Portugal
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining
Similar in 79%
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 80%
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%
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 76%
Babylon (1980)
Plot Summary:
Drama telling the story of Blue, a young man of Jamaican descent living in Brixton in 1980, as he hangs out with his friends, fronts a dub sound system, loses his job, struggles with family problems and has his friendships tested by racism.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Italy
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
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 82%
Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (2007)
Plot Summary:
Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation is a 2007 epic film on the Namibian independence struggle against South African occupation as seen through the life of Sam Nujoma, the leader of the South-West Africa People's Organisation and the first president of the Republic of Namibia.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 103
Genere: Drama
Country: Namibia
Duration: 161 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Mister Johnson (1990)
Plot Summary:
In 1923 British Colonial Nigeria, Mister Johnson is an oddity -- an educated black man who doesn't really fit in with the natives or the British. He works for the local British magistrate, and considers himself English, though he has never been to England. He is always scheming, trying to get ahead, which lands him in a lot of hot water.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: sad, independent film, psychological, atmospheric, uplifting, touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
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 87%
The Curse (1975)
Plot Summary:
It is the dawn of Senegal's independence from France, but as the citizens celebrate in the streets we soon become aware that only the faces have changed. White money still controls the government. One official, Aboucader Beye, known by the title "El Hadji," takes advantage of some of that money to marry his third wife, to the sorrow and chagrin of his first two wives and the resentment of his nationalist daughter. But he discovers on his wedding night that he has been struck with a "xala," a curse of impotence. El Hadji goes to comic lengths to find the cause and remove the xala, resulting in a scathing satirical ending.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Senegal
Duration: 123 min
Plot tags: clever, humorous, realistic, witty, cynical, semi serious, biting, sex comedy, suspense
Similar in 88%
Chocolate (1988)
Plot Summary:
A young French woman returns to the vast silence of West Africa to contemplate her childhood days in a colonial outpost in Cameroon. Her strongest memories are of the family's houseboy, Protee - a man of great nobility, intelligence and beauty - and the intricate nature of relationships in a racist society.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: France, West Germany, Cameroon
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, contemplative, psychological, sincere, atmospheric, thought provoking, serious, erotic, sentimental
Similar in 75%
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 81%
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 89%
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 87%
Little Senegal (2000)
Plot Summary:
Passionné par l'histoire de son peuple, Alloune, un vieux guide du musée africain "La Maison des Esclaves" à Gorée, part en pèlerinage pour retrouver les descendants de ses ancêtres aux Etats-Unis. Cet émouvant voyage va le mener des côtes de Caroline du Sud au quartier de Harlem où vit la communauté africaine, Little Senegal. Alloune, animé par l'idée de réunir sa famille par delà les siècles et les frontières, remonte jusqu'à une lointaine cousine, Ida, qui ignore tout de son passé. Le vieil homme croise également les chemins de son neveu Hassan, chauffeur de taxi clandestin, de sa fiancée Biram, d'Eileen, enceinte et fugueuse, et de Karim, qui cherche à faire un mariage blanc pour obtenir la carte verte. Tous les quatre comprennent mal la quête d'Alloune.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 437
Genere: Drama
Country: Algeria, France, Germany
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere
Similar in 80%
Adwa (1999)
Plot Summary:
In 1896, Ethiopia, an African nation, largely armed with spears and knives, defeats a well-equipped and organized Italian military bent on colonization.
IMDB Rating: 8.0
IMDB Votes: 71
Genere: Documentary, Drama, War
Country: USA, Germany, Ethiopia
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 81%
Black Girl (1966)
Plot Summary:
Eager to find a better life abroad, a Senegalese woman becomes a mere governess to a family in southern France, suffering from discrimination and marginalization.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Drama
Country: Senegal, France
Duration: 65 min
Plot tags: black and white, sincere, thought provoking, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, black cinema, cult film
Similar in 79%
Sankofa (1993)
Plot Summary:
A self-absorbed Black American fashion model on a photo shoot in Africa is spiritually transported back to a plantation in the West Indies where she experiences first-hand the physical and psychic horrors of chattel slavery, and eventually the redemptive power of community and rebellion as she becomes a member of a freedom-seeking Maroon colony.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 784
Genere: Drama
Country: USA, Ghana, Burkina Faso, UK, Germany, Ethiopia
Duration: 125 min
Plot tags: inspirational, independent film, thought provoking, serious, captivating, realistic, disturbing
Similar in 78%
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 79%
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 87%
Mother of George (2013)
Plot Summary:
A story about a woman willing to do anything and risk everything for her marriage.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama
Country: Nigeria, USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: realistic, touching, serious, psychological, captivating, visually stunning, sincere, independent film
Similar in 76%
Native Son (2019)
Plot Summary:
A young African-American man named Bigger Thomas takes a job working for a highly influential Chicago family, a decision that will change the course of his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: bleak, suspenseful, psychological, surprise ending, disturbing
Similar in 86%
The Negro (2002)
Plot Summary:
A black teenager vandalizes a racist lawn ornament.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 519
Genere: Drama
Country: Canada
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: tense, sincere, serious, disturbing, thought provoking, realistic
Similar in 77%
The Kitchen Toto (1987)
Plot Summary:
The son of a priest slain by the Mau Mau moves in with a police officer and his wife in 1950 Kenya.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 266
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: independent film, grindhouse, sincere, thought provoking, serious, realistic, disturbing, biting, suspense
Similar in 81%
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 82%
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 76%
Ezra (2007)
Plot Summary:
Ezra, jeune ex-soldat Sierra-Léonais, essaie tant bien que mal de retrouver des repères pour revenir à une vie normale après la guerre civile qui a ravagé son pays. Son quotidien est partagé entre un centre de réhabilitation psychologique et un tribunal de réconciliation nationale organisé sous l'égide de l'ONU. Durant le procès en réhabilitation auquel Ezra participe, il doit affronter sa soeur qui l'accuse du meurtre de leurs parents. Ezra, qui a traversé cette violente guerre civile complètement drogué et alcoolisé, ne se souvient de rien. Ezra reconnaîtra-t-il l'horreur et par ce fait, permettra-t-il à sa soeur et à sa communauté villageoise d'accéder au pardon ?.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 288
Genere: Drama
Country: France, Nigeria, USA, UK, Austria
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: captivating, rough, thought provoking, disturbing, bleak, serious, realistic
Similar in 86%
Camp de Thiaroye (1988)
Plot Summary:
A historical drama based on the Thiaroye transit camp massacre, Camp de Thiaroye dismantles the myth of colonial assimilation to expose ingrained social and cultural mechanisms of racism, exploitation, and privilege. In 1944, the French army massacred several units of West African conscripts recently returned from the battlefields of Europe. What was essentially a demand by African veterans that they be paid the same wages as their French counterparts led to an attack on soldiers who had only recently been fighting the Nazis in Italy and Germany.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 626
Genere: Drama, War
Country: Senegal, Algeria, Tunisia
Duration: 157 min
Plot tags: thought provoking, bleak, serious, realistic, disturbing