Movies like Madrabaz (1979)
The best movies like Madrabaz (1979) are Fate (2001), Midnight Express (1978) and About Dry Grasses (2023). If Madrabaz hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedPaper Lives (2021)8.0/10 from 426 votes
- NewestNot Without Hope (2025)Released 2025
Fate (2001)
Musa, a customs clerk, sees life as absurd. He drifts with events; his mother's death, though loved, brings him strange joy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMidnight Express (1978)
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbout Dry Grasses (2023)
A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNorth Sea Hijack (1980)
When terrorists take over two oil rigs, and threaten to blow them up if their demands are not met, an eccentric anti-terrorism expert volunteers his unique commando unit to stop them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKedi (2017)
A profile of Istanbul and its unique people, seen through the eyes of the most mysterious and beloved animal humans have ever known, the Cat.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAutumn (2008)
Arrested while a student in university, Yusuf is released from prison after ten years. He returns home and is welcomed by his sick and elderly mother. Soon he will meet Eka, a beautiful Georgian girl who is a sex worker, and love becomes a final desperate attempt to grasp life and elude loneliness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRevenge (1990)
Michael ‘Jay’ Cochran has just left the Navy after 12 years and he's not quite sure what he's going to do, except that he knows he wants a holiday. He decides to visit Tiburon Mendez, a powerful but shady Mexican businessman who he once flew to Alaska for a hunting trip. Arriving at the Mendez mansion in Mexico, he is immediately surprised by the beauty and youth of Mendez’s wife, Miryea.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInnocence (1997)
Yusuf is released from prison after serving a ten year sentence. Because of unexpected problems at his sister’s house, he finds himself in a cheap hotel where he meets a man, a woman, and a child who will change his life in unexpected ways…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCaptain Phillips (2013)
The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNot Without Hope (2025)
A group of friends' fishing boat capsizes off the coast of Mexico and they're left alone stranded at sea and struggling for survival.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisG.O.R.A. (2004)
Carpet dealer and UFO photo forger Arif is abducted by aliens and must outwit the evil commander-in-chief of G.O.R.A., the planet where he is being held.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPaper Lives (2021)
In the streets of Istanbul, ailing waste warehouse worker Mehmet takes a small boy under his wing and must soon confront his own traumatic childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTales of the Black Freighter (2009)
A mariner survives an attack from the dreaded pirates of the Black Freighter, but his struggle to return home to warn it has a horrific cost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFrenzy (2015)
With Istanbul mired in political violence, Kadir is offered release after 15 years in prison if he’ll work as an informant. In a shantytown he stumbles upon his brother Ahmet, working for the city rounding up stray dogs and shutting himself in his home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA-X-L (2018)
The life of a teenage boy is forever altered by a chance encounter with cutting edge military technology.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCape Fear (1962)
Sam Bowden witnesses a rape committed by Max Cady and testifies against him. When released after 8 years in prison, Cady begins stalking Bowden and his family but is always clever enough not to violate the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGod's Creatures (2022)
In a windswept fishing village, a mother is torn between protecting her beloved son and her own sense of right and wrong. A lie she tells for him rips apart their family and close-knit community.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBilo the Banker (1980)
Bilo is a goodhearted man who wants to marry the cutest girl in the village but needs money to take the consent from her father. His best friend Mahmut offers him a way to go to Germany and work in a factory to save up the money he needs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEscape from Alcatraz (1979)
San Francisco Bay, January 18, 1960. Frank Lee Morris is transferred to Alcatraz, a maximum security prison located on a rocky island. Although no one has ever managed to escape from there, Frank and other inmates begin to carefully prepare an escape plan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Madrabaz?
The closest matches to Madrabaz are Fate (2001), Midnight Express (1978) and About Dry Grasses (2023). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Madrabaz?
Start with Fate (2001), the closest match to Madrabaz.
What is the highest-rated movie like Madrabaz?
Paper Lives (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 426 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Madrabaz?
Not Without Hope (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Madrabaz chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Madrabaz, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



















