Movies like Once Upon a Time (1959)
The best movies like Once Upon a Time (1959) are Circumstance (2011), Tehran Taboo (2017) and Tatami (2024). If Once Upon a Time hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedClose-Up (1990)8.0/10 from 474 votes
- NewestThe Fix (2026)Released 2026
Circumstance (2011)
A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's newfound conservatism.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTehran Taboo (2017)
The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex, adultery, corruption, prostitution and drugs coexist with strict religious law. In this bustling modern metropolis, avoiding prohibition has become an everyday sport and breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTatami (2024)
Iranian female judokas Leila and her coach Maryam, travel to the Judo World Championship, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. Midway through the Judo World Championships, they receive an ultimatum from the Islamic Republic ordering Leila to fake an injury and lose, or she will be branded a traitor of the state. With her own and her family’s freedom at stake, Leila is faced with an impossible choice: comply with the Iranian regime as her coach Maryam implores her to do, or fight on, for the gold.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNot Without My Daughter (1991)
An American woman, trapped in Islamic Iran by her brutish husband, must find a way to escape with her daughter as well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClose-Up (1990)
This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFireworks Wednesday (2006)
Rouhi, a young bride-to-be, is hired as a maid for an affluent family in Tehran. Upon arriving, she is suddenly thrust into an explosive domestic conflict. The wife is convinced her husband is having an affair and enlists Rouhi as a spy, to follow her husband, and confirm her suspicions. What Rouhi discovers, however, threatens not only their marriage but her own future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)
In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in tragedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Fix (2026)
Disillusioned by the end of the war in Afghanistan, a group of disgraced, war-torn ex-CIA operatives set out to Tehran to take down a life-changing score.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Salesman (2016)
Forced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighboring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young couple’s life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSeptembers of Shiraz (2015)
In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisSketch (2025)
When a young girl’s sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life—chaotic, real, and on the loose. As the town descends into chaos, her family must reunite and stop the monsters they never meant to unleash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Souvenir (2019)
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Operative (2019)
A young Western woman is recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler and her subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Marine 3: Homefront (2013)
A Marine must do whatever it takes to save his kidnapped sister and stop a terrorist attack masterminded by a radical militia group.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBedrooms and Hallways (1998)
At the suggestion of a straight friend, gay man Leo joins a men’s group, where he causes some upsets by declaring his attraction to one of its members.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTaste of Cherry (1997)
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReading Lolita in Tehran (2024)
In 1979, amidst censorship and religious extremism, a revolutionary literature professor in Tehran gathers seven of her most dedicated female students to immerse themselves in banned literary classics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere Is The Friend's House? (1987)
An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThrough the Olive Trees (1994)
When the actor in a scene for his film Life And Nothing More… has to quit, a film director casts another man for the part. However, complications arise since the man and the woman who was cast for the scene know each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Willoughbys (2020)
When the four Willoughby children are abandoned by their selfish parents, they must learn how to adapt their Old-Fashioned values to the contemporary world in order to create something new: The Modern Family.
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 Once Upon a Time?
The closest matches to Once Upon a Time are Circumstance (2011), Tehran Taboo (2017) and Tatami (2024). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Once Upon a Time?
Start with Circumstance (2011), the closest match to Once Upon a Time.
What is the highest-rated movie like Once Upon a Time?
Close-Up (1990), rated 8.0/10 by 474 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Once Upon a Time?
The Fix (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Once Upon a Time chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Once Upon a Time, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.