Latin American Movies on Netflix
Last updated March 08, 2025
Innocent Voices
2004 | NR | 4.1 out of 5 StarsBased on the true story of a now-grown Oscar Torres, this moving film (set in El Salvador in the mid-1980s) follows the drama of a young boy who must choose between enlisting in the Salvadoran army or joining up with a band of guerrillas. Director Luis Mandoki presents a society of innocent victims who are caught in a blinding cross fire, a life-or-death environment in which survival is a daily struggle.
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Under the Same Moon
2007 | NR | 4.1 out of 5 StarsIn this tale illuminating the plight of illegal aliens, Kate del Castillo plays Rosario, a woman working illegally in the United States to provide a better life for her son Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), who remains at home in Mexico. Longing for his mother, Carlitos stows away on a van that's headed for the border. But an already treacherous journey becomes even more so when Carlitos is separated from his smugglers (Jesse Garcia and America Ferrera).
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City of God
2002 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsGrowing up in a Rio de Janeiro favela, Rocket is able to avoid being drawn into a life of drugs and crime by having a passion for photography. Through his eyes, the dramatic stories of several of the slum's colorful residents unfold.
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Elite Squad
2007 | NR | 4.0 out of 5 StarsIn Rio de Janeiro, some cops are just as crooked as the drug lords who run the slums. On the brink of retirement -- and burnout -- Capitão Nascimento must find a trustworthy successor to lead a dangerous mission in this gritty action-thriller.
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The Secret in Their Eyes
2009 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsIn this Oscar-winning character study, a startling discovery comes to light for a retired criminal investigator as he pens a biographical novel about the unsolved case of a young newlywed's brutal rape and murder years earlier.
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For Greater Glory
2012 | NR | 3.9 out of 5 StarsIn Mexico in the late 1920s, President Calles institutes a vicious ban on Catholicism that results in many deaths and prompts retired general Gorostieta to join the motley militia groups fighting to preserve religious freedom throughout the country.
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The Mexican Suitcase
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsThis film tells the story of the recovery of 4,500 negatives taken by photographers Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and David Seymour during the Spanish Civil War. The film follows the journey of these negatives to Mexico and their recovery 70 years later.
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Que Pena Tu Boda
2011 | NR | 3.7 out of 5 StarsWhen Angela gets pregnant, commitment-phobic Javier proposes to her in this engaging sequel to Que Pena Tu Vida. But Javier's new intern, his boss's daughter, clearly wants more than his guidance, setting his relationship with Angela into a tailspin.
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Que Pena tu Familia
2013 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsJavier Fernández and Ángela de María decide to get a divorce. Javier will have to pull himself together to get his family back, but it won't be easy.
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Que Pena tu Vida
2010 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsJavier Fernández, a publicist, just lost his job and girlfriend. His best friend offers her support, but Facebook and Twitter won't let him forget.
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City of Men
2007 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsIn director Paulo Morelli's follow-up to Fernando Meirelles's Oscar-nominated City of God, 18-year-old best friends Acerola and Laranjinha are struggling to come to terms with the pressures of manhood in the midst of a bloody neighborhood gang war.
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Sidewalls
2011 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsSeparated by the wall their apartments share, Mariana and Martín are the perfect couple. They have the same quirks, same tastes, same ideals and even the same neuroses -- they're a match made in heaven. There's just one problem: They've never met.
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The Official Story
1985 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsArgentinean schoolteacher Alicia (Norma Aleandro) is forced to question her government's official story of the "Dirty War" of the 1970s when she suspects that her adopted daughter, Gaby, may be the child of a murdered political prisoner. But her quest for truth takes a heavy toll on her relationship with her conservative husband (Héctor Alterio). This wrenching historical drama won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1986.
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Last Stop 174
2008 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsBased on the true events of a 2000 bus hijacking in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this tense drama traces the human story behind the tragedy, providing an inside look at the history of the violent hostage-taker. After losing his mother, Sandro (Michel de Souza) lives on the street and becomes hardened by life. Even the efforts of a rehabilitated drug addict (Cris Vianna) who believes he's her long-lost son can't turn him away from a life of violence.
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El Mariachi
1992 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsWhen guitar player El Mariachi arrives in a small Mexican town, drug lord Moco mistakes him for an assassin who carries a trademark guitar case full of guns. Now El Mariachi must elude Moco's henchmen, who plan to shoot first and ask questions later.
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Biutiful
2010 | NR | 3.6 out of 5 StarsDiagnosed with terminal prostate cancer, Uxbal -- a divorced father raising two children -- is determined to atone for his life as a black marketeer in this engrossing character study that unfolds in the slums of Barcelona, Spain.
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Abel
2010 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsWhen 9-year-old Abel assumes his absent father's role as man of the house, he garners his family's respect, and life resumes a comfortable rhythm -- until a man arrives at the house, claiming he's the long-lost patriarch.
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La Camioneta: The Journey of One American School Bus
2012 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsThis quirky documentary follows the journey of a decommissioned school bus from the United States to Guatemala, where it's renovated and resurrected as a brightly colored vehicle that transports Guatemalans to work each day.
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The Wind Journeys
2009 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsIn the wake of his wife's death, Ignacio leaves his small Colombian town and journeys to the country's remote northern region, resolving to return his devil-cursed accordion to the teacher who once gave it to him. His traveling companion is teenager Fermín, who aspires to emulate Ignacio's past life as an accordion-playing troubadour who roamed the countryside. Marciano Martínez and Yull Núñez star in filmmaker Ciro Guerra's enthralling odyssey.
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The Violin
2005 | NR | 3.5 out of 5 StarsDon Plautarco (Ángel Tavira), his son Genaro (Gerardo Taracena) and grandson Lucio (Mario Garibaldi) earn a living as traveling musicians while also smuggling weapons to rebels fighting the country's oppressive regime. But when they return home to find their town occupied by the army and the residents forced into hiding, they make a bold play to recover the ammunition the troops have seized. Francisco Vargas directs.
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Backyard
2009 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsBased on a true story, this edgy Mexican thriller tells the tale of a string of horrific murders in Mexico's northern border city of Ciudad Juarez that prompt a complicated investigation as lawmakers struggle to uncover the serial killer. Penned by renowned writer Sabina Berman and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Carlos Carrera, the film features a stellar cast including Jimmy Smits, Joaquín Cosio and Ana de la Reguera.
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Sins of My Father
2009 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsNicolas Entel's searing documentary tells the story of Pablo Escobar -- Colombian drug kingpin, murderer and family man -- through the eyes of his son, Sebastian, as well as the sons of two of Escobar's most prominent victims.
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Cocalero
2007 | NR | 3.4 out of 5 StarsThis 2007 Sundance Film Festival competition entry from director Alejandro Landes documents Aymara Indian Evo Morales's grassroots political campaign to become the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Morales, former president of the Chapare coca growers union, solicited a groundswell of native political support during the 2002 elections, a telling response to the incumbent administration's attempts to eradicate the crop.
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XXY
2007 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsInés Efron plays Alex, an intersexed 15-year-old, in this compelling tale. Though she's living as a girl, Alex and her family begin to wonder whether she's emotionally a boy when another teenager's sexual advances bring the issue to a head. As Alex faces a final decision regarding her gender, she meets both hostility and compassion. Director Lucía Puenzo's sensitive drama co-stars Valeria Bertuccelli, Martín Piroyansky and Ricardo Darín.
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The Man of the Year
2003 | NR | 3.3 out of 5 StarsAfter losing a bet, jobless car salesman Maiquel (Murilo Benicio) bleaches his raven hair platinum, which triggers a lethal confrontation with a mocking street punk (Wagner Moura). But instead of going to jail for snuffing the scumbag, Maiquel goes from zero to hero in the eyes of his neighbors and the cops. Before you can say "contract killer," Maiquel is dispensing rough justice on the streets of Rio de Janeiro in this frenetic action flick.
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