Movies like El Abuelo (2021)
The best movies like El Abuelo (2021) are El Sur (1983), Chinas (2023) and All Day and a Night (2020). If El Abuelo hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Godfather (1972)8.7/10 from 23,971 votes
- NewestUntil the End of the World (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishEl Sur (1983)Also in Spanish
El Sur (1983)
A woman recalls her childhood growing up in the North of Spain, focusing on her relationship with her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChinas (2023)
In Madrid, Spain, Lucía and Xiang, two nine-year-old Chinese girls, meet at the beginning of the school year.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUntil the End of the World (2026)
Manuel's life is upended when Esmeralda, his lost love from 15 years ago, calls unexpectedly. Despite being set to marry another, he rediscovers Esmeralda, and they realize their love transcends time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Pumpkin Eater (1964)
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMindwalk (1991)
On the French island of Mont Saint-Michel, Jack, a failed presidential candidate, Tom, a poet and Sonia, a physicist, engage in an intellectual conversation about politics, philosophy and life over the course of a single day.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisParked (2010)
Fred Daly returns to Ireland with nowhere to live but his car. Then dope-smoking 21-year-old Cathal parks beside him, and brightens up his lonely world. Encouraged by Cathal, Fred meets attractive music teacher Jules. Growing closer, these three outsiders are set on a course that will change their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEma (2019)
Ema is a magnetic and impulsive dancer in a reggaeton troupe. Her toxic marriage to choreographer Gastón is beyond repair, following a decision to give up on their adopted child Polo. She sets out on a mission to get him back, not caring who she’ll need to fight, seduce or destroy to make it happen.
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 thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCanon (Fidelidad al límite) (2014)
Mariana and Julian are a couple that have been happily married for many years. They have two kids: Juan Maria and Bibiana. They are in love and are very successful in their professional lives. They have a wonderful sex life and in the foreplay that they enjoy in privacy, he tells her that she can have sex with other man if she tells him everything in detail.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmbattled (2020)
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMay God Save Us (2016)
Madrid, summer 2011. Economic crisis. 15-M movement and 1.5 million pilgrims waiting for the Pope’s arrival live side by side in a Madrid that’s hotter and more chaotic than ever. In this context, detectives Velarde and Alfaro must find what seems to be a serial killer. Their against-the-clock hunt will make them realise something they’d never imagined: neither of them are so very different from the killer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCarne (1968)
A woman who works in a meat packing plant is continuously preyed upon by lecherous men.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe King of Havana (2015)
Recently escaped from reformatory, Reinaldo struggles to get by in the streets of Havana in the late 90s, one of the worst decades for Cuban society. Hopes, disillusionment, rum, good humor and above all hunger, accompany him in his wanderings, until he meets Magda and Yunisleidy, survivors like himself. In one or the other's arms, he will try to escape the material and moral misery surrounding him, living love, passion, tenderness and uninhibited sex to the limit.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNobody Will Speak of Us When We're Dead (1995)
Alcoholic prostitute Gloria is in the middle of a business deal with gangsters when a fatal confrontation occurs. She flees Mexico City, returning to her native Madrid, where she's reunited with her comatose husband and his mother, while hitman Eduardo is pursuing her to retrieve information.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisImperial Dreams (2014)
A 21-year-old reformed gangster's devotion to his family and his future is put to the test when he is released from prison and returns to his old stomping grounds in Watts, Los Angeles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWWE WrestleMania XXIV (2008)
WrestleMania XXIV was the twenty-fourth annual WrestleMania PPV. The event took place on March 30, 2008, at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. The first main event was a Singles match from the SmackDown brand that featured The Undertaker challenging World Heavyweight Champion Edge for the title. The second was a Triple Threat match from the Raw brand, in which WWE Champion Randy Orton defended against challengers Triple H and John Cena. The third was a singles match featuring ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero defending against Kane. Other matches include a No DQ match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting The Big Show, a Money in the Bank ladder match with Carlito, Shelton Benjamin, MVP, CM Punk, Mr. Kennedy, Jericho, and John Morrison, and a retirement match between Shawn Michaels & Ric Flair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMadrid, 1987 (2012)
In 1987 Madrid, the unexpected encounter between a seasoned journalist and a young student leads to a profound exploration of love, desire, politics, power, and discovery of each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Godfather (1972)
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBoundary (1973)
Pajo is a hardworking, lonely but also very rich farmer. His son Toma was, however, bored with country life and tried to seek fortune in the city. Short on money, Toma returns to the farm for a handout while Pajo tries to convince him to stay.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Bhoomi (2021)
Bhoominathan, a NASA scientist, returns to his drought-affected village in Tamil Nadu and decides to fight against the evil corporates and corrupt politicians responsible for the plight of his people.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Slopes of Triglav (1932)
Miha invites his fiancée Minka to the dance, but he's tempted by another big desire of his - climbing. Frustrated Minka insists on the festivity, where she finds herself in a company of older hiker. However, all ends happily, as Minka and Miha, after many smaller adventures, meet at the top of Mount Triglav, where they sign the marriage contract, but also confirming their love for the mountains. In addition to its charming story, the movie features footage of picturesque Slovenian mountains.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) (2021)
A man and a woman in Lagos want to escape their everyday lives, but extricating themselves is no easy task. Two stories narrated with tenderness and restraint that only fleetingly touch, the dream of migrating to Europe floating above them all the while.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Anzio (1968)
American troops land unopposed on Italian beaches during World War II, but instead of pushing on to Rome, they dig in and the Germans fight back ferociously.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisLittle Forest: Summer/Autumn (2014)
Fleeing heartbreak in the big city, Ichiko returns to Komori, her rural hometown. She battles summer's rain and humidity, bakes her own bread, grows hothouse tomatoes and tills the fields. During autumn, the time for pickling and preserving fish and sweet potatoes, Ichiko begins reaping rice and recalls her departure five years before.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRadhe Shyam (2022)
Vikramaditya, a world-renowned palmist, believes love does not exist in his stars, until he meets Prerana. But when destiny tries to pull them apart, will love prevail?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929)
Dr. Johannes Krafft climbs a 12,000-foot mountain over and over again to search for his wife, who was lost on their honeymoon. Another couple makes the dangerous climb with him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Chronique Des Années Tristes (1977)
Here is a film that is, to say the least, singular. A fiction filmed under Giscard, in two farming families, one in Brittany and the other in Languedoc. One sees the Catholic mass and the mass of the television news, one hears the Benedicite and the Internationale, a rural class struggle is played out, daily peasants against the aristos in the middle of a hunt...Chronicle of the Sad Years tells the story of the new forms of subjection suffered by the workers of the land, discovering the perverse effects of the CAP and the growing influence of agribusiness. A film in which the director, Alain Aubert-Dechartre, stages a historical turning point, the forced conversion of peasants into technicians of farms of which they will be the first to be exploited
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like El Abuelo?
The closest matches to El Abuelo are El Sur (1983), Chinas (2023) and All Day and a Night (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after El Abuelo?
Start with El Sur (1983), the closest match to El Abuelo.
What is the highest-rated movie like El Abuelo?
The Godfather (1972), rated 8.7/10 by 23,971 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like El Abuelo?
Until the End of the World (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like El Abuelo?
Yes: El Sur (1983), Chinas (2023) and Until the End of the World (2026).
How are movies similar to El Abuelo chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside El Abuelo, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.