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Movies like River People (2008)

The best movies like River People (2008) are The River (1984), Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020) and Come Sunday (2018). If River People hooked you with its drama, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. The River (1984)

    Tom and Mae Garvey are a Tennessee farming couple battling violent floods to save their land. In addition to natural disasters, the Garveys fight to stop a selfish land developer and a local corporation from foreclosing on their farm. While Mae stays at home to care for their children and tend to the crops, Tom finds work as a scab at a steel mill to preserve his family's property.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  2. Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020)

    In the Chinese town of Fuyang, four brothers go about their day-to-day lives, their destinies shaped by love and challenges.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. Come Sunday (2018)

    Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

  4. The Nest (2020)

    Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  5. Deep in the Heart (2015)

    An unrecognizable, charred corpse discovered in a remote mountain village in China connects three local stories.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  6. Hounddog (2008)

    A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  7. Charm City Kings (2020)

    Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  8. One Second (2020)

    A movie fan escapes from a labour camp during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and strikes up a relationship with a homeless female vagabond.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  9. Buddha Mountain (2011)

    In Chengdu, China, a retired female opera singer named Master Chang takes in a trio of young tenants into her boarding home. The tenants include a rock singer and a college student who has run away from home.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  10. Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)

    Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with "Old Dan" and "Little Ann."

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  11. Blind Massage (2014)

    The employees of a massage parlour share a close bond with each other as they all share a trait in common, they are all visually impaired.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  12. Aftershock (2010)

    Tangshan, 1976. Two seven-year-old twins are buried under the rubble of the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century. The rescue team explains to their mother that freeing either child will almost certainly result in the death of the other. Forced to make the most difficult decision of her life, she finally chooses to save her son. Though left behind as dead, the little girl miraculously survives, unbeknownst to her brother and mother.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  13. Adam (2020)

    A hard-living salesman becomes a quadriplegic after an accident.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  14. Adopt a Highway (2019)

    Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  15. Skin (2009)

    Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

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  16. What Time Is It There? (2001)

    A street vendor with a grim home-life forges a connection with a young woman on her way to Paris.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  17. The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)

    Ah-Ching and his friends have just finished school in their island fishing village, and now spend most of their time drinking and fighting. Three of them decide to go to the port city of Kaohsiung to look for work. They find an apartment through relatives, and Ah-Ching is attracted to the girlfriend of a neighbor. There they face the harsh realities of the big city.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  18. Holy Lands (2019)

    When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  19. The Kindness of Strangers (2019)

    Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  20. Mindwalk (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

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Like River People and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like River People?

The closest matches to River People are The River (1984), Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020) and Come Sunday (2018). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after River People?

Start with The River (1984), the closest match to River People.

What is the highest-rated movie like River People?

Charm City Kings (2020), rated 7.8/10 by 508 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like River People?

One Second (2020) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there Chinese movies like River People?

Yes: Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (2020), Deep in the Heart (2015) and One Second (2020).

How are movies similar to River People chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside River People, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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