Movies Like Heliopolis

If you liked Heliopolis (2021), a drama and history movie directed by Djaffar Gacem, 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
Lion of the Desert (1981)
★ 7.3/10Also history and war
Resistance leader Omar Mukhtar opposes Italian colonization before World War II. The brutal guerrilla war against Italian General Rodolfo Graziani and the Fascist forces of Benito Mussolini highlights the struggle for…
2
The Last Rifleman (2023)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and history
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his…
3
Tobruk (1967)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and history
In September 1942, the German Afrika Korps under Rommel have successfully pushed the Allies back into Egypt. A counter-attack is planned, for which the fuel dumps at Tobruk are a critical impediment. In order to aid…
4
The Scarlet and the Black (1983)
★ 7.1/10Also drama and history
Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him…
5
Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin (2024)
★ 6.7/10Also history and drama
As the world teeters on the brink of annihilation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer joins a deadly plot to assassinate Hitler, risking his faith and fate to save millions of Jews from genocide.
6
Zulu (1964)
★ 7.4/10Also drama and history
In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, man-of-the-people Lt. Chard and snooty Lt. Bromhead are in charge of defending the isolated and vastly outnumbered Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes.
7
Palestine 36 (2025)
★ 7.6/10Also drama and history
Year 1936. As villages across Palestine rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. But history is…
8
A United Kingdom (2016)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and history
The inspiring true story of Seretse Khama, the King of Bechuanaland (modern Botswana), and Ruth Williams, the London office worker he married in 1948 in the face of fierce opposition from their families and the British…
9
Shepherd: The Story of a Jewish Dog (2020)
★ 6.8/10Also drama and war
Follow the perilous journey to freedom when a young boy and his dog attempt to escape a concentration camp during World War II. Based on true events.
10
Six Minutes to Midnight (2020)
★ 6.2/10Also drama and history
Summer 1939. Influential families in Nazi Germany have sent their daughters to a finishing school in an English seaside town to learn the language and be ambassadors for a future looking National Socialist. A teacher…
11
A Call to Spy (2020)
★ 6.8/10Also history and drama
The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These…
12
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)
★ 6.5/10Also drama and history
Beginning just after the bloody Sioux victory over General Custer at Little Big Horn, the story is told through two unique perspectives: Charles Eastman, a young, white-educated Sioux doctor held up as living proof of…
13
The Battle of the River Plate (1956)
★ 6.4/10Also drama and history
In the early years of the World War II, the Royal Navy is fighting a desperate battle to keep the Atlantic convoy routes open to supply the British Isles, facing the great danger posed by the many German warships, such…
14
Waiting for Anya (2020)
★ 6.3/10Also drama and war
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
15
The Zone of Interest (2023)
★ 7/10Also drama and history
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.
16
The Longest Day (1962)
★ 7.6/10Also war and drama
The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall…
17
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951)
★ 6.7/10Also drama and history
The life and career of Erwin Rommel and his involvement in the plot to assassinate Hitler.
18
The One That Got Away (1957)
★ 6.8/10Also war and drama
Based on the true story of Oberleutnant Franz von Werra, the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain to escape back to Germany during the Second World War.
19
Zulu Dawn (1979)
★ 6.1/10Also drama and history
In 1879, the British suffer a great loss at the Battle of Isandlwana due to incompetent leadership.
20
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
★ 7.8/10Also drama and history
The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson, the…