Movies like Sestra (2025)
The best movies like Sestra (2025) are It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Shack (2017) and Spencer's Mountain (1963). If Sestra hooked you with its family and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedIt's a Wonderful Life (1946)8.3/10 from 5,158 votes
- NewestReplika (2026)Released 2026
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Shack (2017)
A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called 'The Shack'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpencer's Mountain (1963)
Clay Spencer and his wife, Olivia, live in a small town deep in the mountains. When Clay isn't busy drinking with his buddies or railing against the town minister, he's building the house he's always promised Olivia. He is overjoyed when he learns his eldest son will be the first Spencer to attend college, if he can resist the charms of a pretty local girl and rustle up the money for tuition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret Life of Bees (2008)
Set in South Carolina in 1964, this is the tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrimer (2004)
A group of fledgling inventors discover a complex method to manipulate reality. At first, they successfully game the stock market with it, but the consequences of the invention start to catch up with them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Gift (2015)
Simon and Robyn are a young married couple whose life is going as planned until a chance run-in with Simon's high school acquaintance sends their world into a tailspin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Taste of Honey (1961)
While out to avoid spending time with her narcissistic and promiscuous mother, sixteen-year-old Jo has a brief affair that leaves her pregnant and abandoned. When her mother remarries, Jo's only support becomes her friend Geoffrey, a homosexual.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Jazz Singer (1927)
A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHomestead (2024)
A nuclear bomb is detonated in Los Angeles, and the nation devolves into unprecedented chaos. Ex-Green Beret Jeff Eriksson and his family escape to The Homestead, an eccentric prepper’s fortress nestled in the mountains. As violent threats and apocalyptic conditions creep toward their borders, the residents of The Homestead are left to wonder: how long can a group of people resist both the dangers of human nature and the bloodshed at their doorstep?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIf Anything Happens I Love You (2020)
Grieving parents journey through an emotional void as they mourn the loss of a child after a tragic school shooting.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParis, Texas (1984)
A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his family and disappeared four years earlier.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this13 Minutes (2021)
As a new day begins in the small American town of Minninnewah, the residents start their day as ordinary as the next. Mother Nature, however, has other plans for them. Inhabitants have just 13 minutes to seek shelter before the largest tornado on record ravages the town, leaving them struggling to protect their loved ones and fighting for their lives. Left to deal with the aftermath, four families must overcome their differences and find strength in each other in order to survive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisKramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Ted Kramer is a career man for whom his work comes before his family. His wife Joanna cannot take this anymore, so she decides to leave him. Ted is now faced with the tasks of housekeeping and taking care of himself and their young son Billy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBefore and After (1996)
Two parents deal with the effects when their son is accused of murdering his girlfriend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Sleepover (2020)
Two siblings who discover their seemingly normal mom is a former thief in witness protection. Mom is forced to pull one last job, and the kids team up to rescue her over the course of an action-packed night.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGood One (2024)
On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Glass Castle (2017)
A young girl is raised in a dysfunctional family constantly on the run from the FBI. Living in poverty, she comes of age guided by her drunkard, ingenious father who distracts her with magical stories to keep her mind off the family's dire state, and her selfish, nonconformist mother who has no intention of raising a family, along with her younger brother and sister, and her other older sister. Together, they fend for each other as they mature in an unorthodox journey that is their family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMarjorie Prime (2017)
A service which creates holographic projections of late family members allows an elderly woman to spend time with a younger version of her deceased husband.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sound of Silence (2019)
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Red House (1947)
An old man and his sister are concealing a terrible secret from their adopted teen daughter, concerning a hidden abandoned farmhouse, located deep in the woods.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHome Without Walls (2025)
While staying with her mother for the summer, a teenage girl must adjust to the sudden arrival of mom's new boyfriend and his daughter.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & family
Life Is Beautiful (2000)
Vinayachandran and Sindhu are an ideal couple, who are so fond of each other that the greatest thing that they love, according to their neighbours Nambiarettan and Shoshammetathi. Vinayan has just joined a reputed public school as a teacher of Malayalam. The fact that he wants to teach Malayalam is projected as a politically correct stand, which Vinayan promptly starts elaborating with his unconventional ways of teaching.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family & drama
A Woman in Flames (1983)
Eva, an upper-class housewife, frustratedly leaves her arrogant husband and decides to enter the call girl business. She lets Yvonne, a prostitute, teach her the basics and both set out for prey together, until Eva starts an affair with Chris, who turns out to be a call boy, as well. Consequently, she moves into his penthouse, large enough for both to offer their services separately.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Killing of Two Lovers (2021)
In a rural Utah town, David, a father of four, grapples with his separation from wife Nikki as she pursues a new relationship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn the Jam Jar (2021)
n the Jam Jar is an invitation to the intimacy of 81-year-old Joan’s final days, whose musings silently echo with Dan’s, her 50-year-old son. This fiction short-movie is a dive into death and grief, a tribute to maternal love comprised of nail clippings, aquarelle, strawberry jam and a ghost radar.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Was Octomom: The Natalie Suleman Story (2025)
The movie follows Suleman’s journey starting from her decision to have one more IVF procedure to complete her then family of six, to becoming a mother of 14, having survived her life being torn apart by the tabloid media.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Coxless Pair (2008)
The film tells the story of the friendship between Johann and Ludwig as they strive for the ultimate “buddy” relationship. Going beyond, well beyond, what would be considered good and healthy, the pair attempt to become the ideal twins, driving their relationship based on their partnership in competitive rowing (coxless pairs) to the ultimate, to perfect harmony in mind, word, thought and deed. But their symbiotic relationship is thrown out of balance: Ludwig strives to tighten the bonds ever closer, but Johann discovers happiness in the form of love for Ludwig’s sister, Vera. But because Ludwig hates her, the couple keep their relationship secret. But secrets have a way of coming out and Ludwig is wounded to the core. As the finals of the rowing competition draw closer, Ludwig has already set his sights on a greater goal: to preserve their friendship forever, no longer in life but in death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Gods (2008)
A Peruvian teen lusts after his wild sister while the new wife of their difficult, wealthy father tries to hide her lower-class background.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Replika (2026)
When two sisters are travelling by car with their ageing, heart-sick mother, they receive the news that their brother has suddenly died. In a tightly drama, the sisters are confronted with an ethical dilemma as they choose to let a lie take precedence over the truth out of concern for their mother’s fragile health.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Sestra?
The closest matches to Sestra are It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Shack (2017) and Spencer's Mountain (1963). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Sestra?
Start with It's a Wonderful Life (1946), the closest match to Sestra.
What is the highest-rated movie like Sestra?
It's a Wonderful Life (1946), rated 8.3/10 by 5,158 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Sestra?
Replika (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Sestra?
Yes: It's a Wonderful Life (1946), The Shack (2017) and Spencer's Mountain (1963).
How are movies similar to Sestra chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Sestra, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.