Colonia poster

Colonia (2016)

Film · 1h 46m · Rated R · In German

Drama, Foreign (non-English)

A young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend leads to a bleak, inescapable cult.

Tense and suspenseful. A full-attention watch at a measured pace. Emotionally it is devastating. Based on true events.

Not on a US subscription service as of Oct 28, 2026.

Colonia parents guide

Moderate sex and nudity, and strong violence, about what an R should carry.

Scare
Mildly scary
A few tense or eerie moments.
Jump scares
A couple
One or two sudden jolts.
Gore
Light gore
Some blood or injury, briefly.
Violence
Strong violence
Violence is frequent or intense.
Sex and nudity
Moderate
Moderate means a sex scene or nudity on screen, even brief, or sexual violence that is described or implied but never shown.
Language
Moderate
Some strong profanity, a few f-words.

How we rate: an AI reads what is known about each title and tags it 0 to 3; we check the tags against a hand-rated set and correct them by hand when readers tell us. Estimates, not a scene-by-scene review. Spot a mistake? Tell us.

Three questions

Is Colonia scary?
Only a little. Colonia has a few tense moments, nothing that follows you to bed.
How gory is Colonia?
Light gore and strong violence.
What is Colonia rated, and is it OK for kids?
Moderate sex and nudity, strong violence, and some strong language. The R is earned, so not for kids.

What is Colonia about?

A young woman's desperate search for her abducted boyfriend draws her into the infamous Colonia Dignidad, a sect nobody ever escaped from.

Does it have a happy ending? (spoiler-safe)

Bittersweet. It earns its ending, but not everyone gets what they want.

Cast and crew

Directed byFlorian Gallenberger
StarringEmma Watson, Daniel Brühl, Michael Nyqvist, Richenda Carey, Vicky Krieps, Jeanne Werner

More like Colonia

Colonia is on our German list.

More like this feeling

Prompts we typed into CouchRot, and the lists that share its tags.

Lists with the same feel: Tearjerkers.

Five more like Colonia

Say the mood. Five picks with where they stream, right here.

Uses the TMDB API; not endorsed or certified by TMDB. Intensity, content, tone and pace tags are CouchRot's own.