Movies like Kotowari (2025)
The best movies like Kotowari (2025) are Samba (2014), The Public Woman (1984) and Angèle and Tony (2011). If Kotowari hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Terminal (2004)7.4/10 from 9,095 votes
- NewestHere and There (2024)Released 2024
- In FrenchSamba (2014)Also in French
Samba (2014)
Samba migrated to France 10 years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burnout. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives. Samba's willing to do whatever it takes to get working papers, while Alice tries to get her life back on track until fate draws them together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Public Woman (1984)
An inexperienced young actress is invited to play a role in a film based on Dostoyevsky's 'The Possessed'. The film director, a Czech immigrant in Paris, takes over her life, and in a short time she is unable to draw the line between acting and reality. She winds up playing a real-life role posing as the dead wife of another Czech immigrant, who is manipulated by the filmmaker into commiting a political assassination.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngèle and Tony (2011)
Angèle, a beautiful young woman with a past, arrives in a small fishing harbor in Normandy. She meets Tony, a professional fisherman, who finds himself attracted to her although he dislikes her blunt ways. Tony hires her as a fishmonger, lodges her and teaches her the tricks of the trade. The relationships between Myriam, Tony's mother, and Angèle are far from easy but the young woman gradually adapts to her new environment and little by little Tony and Angèle manage to tame each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHere and There (2024)
A visa problem forces Adrien back to Paris after 15 years in Senegal with his wife Aminata. Her cousin Sékou, now distanced from his Senegalese origins, takes in Adrien. As Adrien awaits his return, Sékou shows him France, sparking surprises.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisDelicacy (2011)
A French woman mourning over the death of her husband three years prior is courted by a Swedish co-worker.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChinese Puzzle (2013)
Xavier is a 40-year-old father of two who still finds life very complicated. When the mother of his children moves to New York, he can't bear them growing up far away from him and so he decides to move there as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSaint Judy (2018)
The true story of immigration attorney Judy Wood and how she singlehandedly changed the U.S. law of asylum to save women's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThree Men and a Cradle (1985)
Three young men - Jacques, Pierre, and Michel - share an apartment in Paris, and have many girlfriends and parties. Once, during a party, a friend of Jacques' tells him he has a quite compromising package to deliver, and asks him if he can leave it discreetly at their place. Jacques agrees and, as he works as a steward, flies away for a one-month trip in Japan, telling Pierre and Michel about the package. Then, one of Jacques' former girlfriends drops a baby before their door, making Pierre and Michel believing it is the package they are waiting for. Their lives are then completely changed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Terminal (2004)
An Eastern European tourist unexpectedly finds himself stranded in JFK airport, and must take up temporary residence there.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTokyo Fiancée (2014)
A Japanophile young Belgian woman in Tokyo falls into a whirlwind romance with a Francophile Japanese student, in this charming and tender tale of young love and cultural discovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Gilded Cage (2013)
In the beautiful area of Paris, Maria and José Ribeiro lived for almost thirty years on the ground floor of a Haussmann building, in their dear little lodge.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGreen Card (1990)
Urban horticulturalist Brontë Mitchell has her eye on a gorgeous apartment, but the building's board will rent it only to a married couple. Georges Fauré, a waiter from France whose visa is expiring, needs to marry an American woman to stay in the country. Their marriage of convenience turns into a burden when they must live together to allay the suspicions of the immigration service, as the polar opposites grate on each other's nerves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParis Je T'aime (2006)
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to choose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFamily Romance, LLC (2019)
Love is a business at Family Romance, a company that rents human stand-ins for any occasion. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps make his clients’ dreams come true. But when the mother of 12-year-old Mahiro hires Ishii to impersonate her missing father, the line between acting and reality threatens to blur.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nature of Love (2023)
Sophia is a philosophy professor in Montreal and has lived as a couple with Xavier for 10 years. Sylvain is a carpenter in the Laurentians and must renovate their country house. When Sophia meets Sylvain for the first time, it’s love at first sight. Opposites attract, but can it last?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhisky Galore (2016)
The story of the inhabitants of the isolated Scottish island of Todday, in the Outer Hebrides, where gloom sets in as their wartime rationing of whisky runs out. When cargo ship the SS Cabinet Minister runs aground the shrewd islanders run rings around the buffoonish English Home Guard commander Captain Waggett and conspire to hide away cases of the precious amber nectar.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisNeuilly Yo Mama! (2009)
Samy moves from the underdeveloped crime-ridden French suburb to the riches of Neuilly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nannies (2022)
Angèle, a thirty-something from Ivory Coast, always cope thanks to the gift of gab and audacity. To escape from a bunch of dangerous criminals, she becomes a nanny in the uptown Paris, hired by Hélène, the single mom of eight years old Arthur. Discovering the work conditions of her colleagues, she decides to stand up for their rights, thanks to a young lawyer who will quickly fall for her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Is in the Air (2013)
Antoine is a lawyer living in New York. On his way back to France for the final round of a job interview, Antoine finds himself sitting right next to his ex-girlfriend Julie. With a seven-hour flight ahead of them, they are going to have to speak to each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTopaz (1969)
Copenhagen, Denmark, 1962. When a high-ranking Soviet official decides to change sides, a French intelligence agent is caught up in a cold, silent and bloody spy war in which his own family will play a decisive role.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Kotowari?
The closest matches to Kotowari are Samba (2014), The Public Woman (1984) and Angèle and Tony (2011). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Kotowari?
Start with Samba (2014), the closest match to Kotowari.
What is the highest-rated movie like Kotowari?
The Terminal (2004), rated 7.4/10 by 9,095 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Kotowari?
Here and There (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Kotowari?
Yes: Samba (2014), The Public Woman (1984) and Angèle and Tony (2011).
How are movies similar to Kotowari chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Kotowari, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.