Movies Like Topowa! Never Give Up

If you liked Topowa! Never Give Up (2020), a movie directed by Inigo Gilmore and Philip Sansom, 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
Sarafina! (1992)
★ 6.2/10
A Soweto schoolgirl named Sarafina is galvanized to protest apartheid after her teacher is arrested for her activism, leading her to join the student resistance movement.
2
The Choral (2025)
★ 6.4/10
As World War I rages on, Dr Henry Guthrie takes over a British choral society that's lost most of its men to the army. The community soon discovers that the best response to the chaos of war is to make beautiful music…
3
Lemonade Mouth (2011)
★ 7.4/10
When five ragtag freshman first meet in detention, it seems they have nothing in common. But, through music, they form an unbreakable bond and discover they have the makings of the greatest high school garage band in…
4
Clouds (2020)
★ 8.2/10
Young musician Zach Sobiech discovers his cancer has spread, leaving him just a few months to live. With limited time, he follows his dream and makes an album, unaware that it will soon be a viral music phenomenon.
5
The Young One (1960)
★ 7/10
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
6
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
★ 7.9/10
Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.
7
Amazing Grace (2007)
★ 6.9/10
The true story of William Wilberforce and his courageous quest to end the British slave trade. Along the way, Wilberforce meets intense opposition, but his minister urges him to see the cause through.
8
August Rush (2007)
★ 7.4/10
Evan, a musically gifted orphan, runs away from his orphanage and searches New York City for his birth parents. On his journey, he's taken under the wing of the Wizard, a homeless man who lives in an abandoned theater…
9
The Glenn Miller Story (1954)
★ 7/10
A vibrant tribute to one of America's legendary bandleaders, charting Glenn Miller's rise from obscurity and poverty to fame and wealth in the early 1940s.
10
Playing for Time (1980)
★ 6.9/10
When a Jewish songstress is plucked from the stage and sent to Auschwitz, she and other musicians find themselves assigned to a terrible task—using their talents to soothe fellow prisoners who are sentenced to die in…
11
Hardball (2001)
★ 6.5/10
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
12
Whiplash (2014)
★ 8.4/10
Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.
13
The Power of One (1992)
★ 7.4/10
PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and…
14
Fisherman's Friends (2019)
★ 6.8/10
Ten fishermen from Cornwall are signed by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of Sea Shanties. Based on the true-life story of Cornish folk band, Fisherman's Friends.
15
Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)
★ 7.3/10
Mufasa, a cub lost and alone, meets a sympathetic lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.
16
Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
★ 7.9/10
Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez.
17
Blood Diamond (2006)
★ 7.6/10
An ex-mercenary turned smuggler. A Mende fisherman. Amid the explosive civil war overtaking 1999 Sierra Leone, these men join for two desperate missions: recovering a rare pink diamond of immense value and rescuing the…
18
Desert Flower (2009)
★ 7.6/10
The autobiography of a Somalian nomad who was sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against female genital…
19
The Pianist (2002)
★ 8.4/10
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his…
20
Clika (2026)
★ 8.3/10
Aspiring small-town musician Chito is determined to make it big. When a clip of him performing one of his songs goes viral, he seizes the opportunity and pushes to carve out a place for himself in the new wave of…