Movies Like Small Country: An African Childhood

If you liked Small Country: An African Childhood (2020), a drama movie directed by Eric Barbier, 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
Skin (2009)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
2
24 Days (2014)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
When Ilan Halimi is kidnapped for ransom because Jewish and supposedly rich, his family and the police start a race against time to save him from the tortures of the "gang of barbarians".
3
Three Days and a Life (2019)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
Christmas 1999, in a peaceful little village in the Ardennes. The life of a young boy named Antoine will soon be devastated by three tragic events : the death of a dog, the vanishing of a child, and a big ravaging storm.
4
Bloody Milk (2017)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
Pierre, in his thirties, is a breeder of dairy cattle. His life revolves around his farm, his veterinarian sister and his parents whose livestock he took over. As the first cases of a zoonotic outbreak are reported in…
5
Wild Diamond (2024)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Liane, 19 years old, daring and fiery, lives with her mother and little sister under the dusty sun of Fréjus in the South of France. Obsessed with beauty and the need to become “someone”, she sees reality TV as her…
6
Richard Jewell (2019)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime…
7
The Sound of Silence (2019)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
8
Young Mothers (2025)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
Housed in a shelter for young mothers, Jessica, Perla, Julia, Ariane, and Naïma, all of whom have grown up in difficult circumstances, struggle to obtain a better life for themselves and their children.
9
Houria (2023)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
A young woman who is passionate about ballet dancing and experiences a trauma, and then she meets other women who have experienced similar situations and they find a creative way to pursue their passion.
10
The Beasts (2022)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
Antoine and Olga, a French couple, have been living in a small village in Galicia for a long time. They practice eco-responsible agriculture and restore abandoned houses to facilitate repopulation. Everything should be…
11
Hereafter (2010)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
12
Belfast (2021)
★ 7/10Also drama
Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a…
13
Eleanor the Great (2025)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
14
The Truth About Emanuel (2013)
★ 6/10Also drama
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
15
The Parts You Lose (2019)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
16
The Kid with a Bike (2011)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
Abandoned by his father, a young boy is left in the hands of an unqualified childcare provider.
17
Omar Killed Me (2011)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
In the summer of 1991 an elderly woman Ghislaine Marchal is found murdered in the basement of her home with the message "Omar M'a Tuer" (Omar has kill me) written beside in her own blood. Despite a lack of forensic or…
18
The Color of Friendship (2000)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from…
19
Chaos (2001)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
A bourgeois couple, modern yet conventional. One night by accident, a young prostitute barges into their lives. Hounded down, beaten up, threatened, she will continue to struggle, with the help of a well off lady…
20
Angel Face (2018)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
8-year-old Elli and her mother, Marlène, live in a small town by the French Riviera where they act out to relieve boredom and hide from social services. When Marlène caves in to yet another night of excess, she chooses…