Movies Like Willem and Frieda: Defying the Nazis
If you liked Willem and Frieda: Defying the Nazis (2023), a history and documentary movie directed by John Hay, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.
- 1

Welcome to Chechnya (2020)
★ 7/10Also documentaryThis searing investigative work shadows a group of activists risking unimaginable peril to confront the ongoing anti-LGBTQ program raging in the repressive and closed Russian republic. Unfettered access and a…
- 2

Night Will Fall (2014)
★ 7.6/10Also documentaryWhen Allied forces liberated the Nazi concentration camps in 1944-45, their terrible discoveries were recorded by army and newsreel cameramen, revealing for the first time the full horror of what had happened. Making…
- 3

Come See Me in the Good Light (2025)
★ 7.1/10Also documentaryIn an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.
- 4

Salinger (2013)
★ 6.4/10Also documentaryAn in-depth investigation into the private world of the American writer J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), who lived most of his life behind the impenetrable wall of a self-imposed seclusion: how his dramatic experiences…
- 5

David Bowie: Five Years (2013)
★ 7.5/10Also documentaryFeaturing a wealth of previously unseen archive, this film looks at how Bowie continually evolved: from Ziggy Stardust to the Soul Star of Young Americans, to the ‘Thin White Duke’. It explores his regeneration in…
- 6

Another Day of Life (2018)
★ 7.4/10Also documentary and historyIn 1975, Ryszard Kapuściński, a veteran Polish journalist, embarked on a seemingly suicidal road trip into the heart of the Angola's civil war. There, he witnessed once again the dirty reality of war and discovered a…
- 7

Untold: Chess Mates (2026)
★ 7/10Also documentaryMagnus Carlsen, widely regarded as the greatest chess player of all time, is challenged by Hans Niemann, a rising star who capitalizes on the meteoric growth of online chess. Niemann’s ascension culminated in an epic…
- 8

How to Survive a Plague (2012)
★ 6.8/10Also documentary and historyA story of two coalitions – ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) – whose activism and innovation turned AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Despite having no scientific training, these self-made…
- 9

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)
★ 7.2/10Also documentaryThe life of internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin is told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family…
- 10

Audrey (2020)
★ 7.1/10Also documentary and historyAn unprecedented and intimate look at the life, work and enduring legacy of British actress Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993).
- 11

Why We Fight: Prelude to War (1942)
★ 6.4/10Also documentaryPrelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the…
- 12

Nazi Concentration Camps (1945)
★ 7.7/10Also documentary and historyProduced and presented as evidence at the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Hermann Göring and twenty other Nazi leaders, this film consists primarily of dead and surviving prisoners and of facilities used to kill and…
- 13

Cameraperson (2016)
★ 6.7/10Also documentaryAs a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What…
- 14

Gilbert (2017)
★ 6.7/10Also documentaryThe life and career of one of comedy's most inimitable modern voices, Mr. Gilbert Gottfried.
- 15

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (2019)
★ 6.9/10Also documentary and historyThe history of cinematic sound, told by legendary sound designers and visionary filmmakers.
- 16

Louis Theroux: Louis and the Nazis (2003)
★ 7.2/10Also documentaryLouis Theroux travels to California to meet the man dubbed "the most dangerous racist in America"; Tom Metzger. Louis meets him, his family and his publicity manager as well as following him to skinhead rallies and on…
- 17

Fuck (2006)
★ 6.4/10Also documentaryA documentary on the expletive's origin, why it offends some people so deeply, and what can be gained from its use.
- 18

We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company (2001)
★ 7.4/10Also documentaryOver a period of two years, Mark Cowen and his crew travelled to thirty U.S. states and ten European cities, to interview the veterans of Easy Company. The stories told by the veterans themselves, create a history of…
- 19

Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures (2016)
★ 6.9/10Also documentaryNude men in rubber suits, close-ups of erections, objects shoved in the most intimate of places—these are photographs taken by Robert Mapplethorpe, known by many as the most controversial photographer of the twentieth…
- 20

Frida (2024)
★ 6.8/10Also documentaryAn intimately raw and magical journey through the life, mind, and heart of iconic artist Frida Kahlo. Told through her own words for the very first time — drawn from her diary, revealing letters, essays, and print…