Movies like Being an Elephant (2013)
The best movies like Being an Elephant (2013) are Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996), Bear Story (2016) and Adú (2020). If Being an Elephant hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBrokeback Mountain (2005)7.8/10 from 7,814 votes
- NewestUntil the End of the World (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishBear Story (2016)Also in Spanish
Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996)
A dramatization of the life of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (Don Cheadle), with a lot of factual based occurrences. A reformed junkie returns from prison to clean up his act and devote the rest of his life to the young kids of Harlem. 1996 was the 25th anniversary of the first tournament named after him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBear Story (2016)
An old bear goes out every day to a busy street corner. Through a tin marionette theater of his own making, the bear will tell us his life story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdú (2020)
In a desperate attempt to reach Europe and crouched before an airstrip in Cameroon, a six-year-old boy and his older sister wait to sneak into the holds of an airplane. Not too far away, an environmental activist contemplates the terrible image of an elephant, dead and fangless. Not only do you have to fight against poaching, but you will also have to meet the problems of your newly arrived daughter from Spain. Thousands of kilometers to the north, in Melilla, a group of civil guards prepare to face the furious crowd of sub-Saharan people who have begun the assault on the fence. Three stories linked by a central theme, in which none of its protagonists know that their destinies are doomed to cross and that their lives will no longer be the same.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDeseo (2013)
Eight short stories of seduction and illicit encounters between lovers, filled with humor and eroticism, which use a circular structure located in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of a colonial city of Mexico.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBeast (2026)
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Month in the Country (1987)
A destitute WWI veteran is hired to help carry out restoration work on a medieval mural in a rural Yorkshire church. While living in the quiet village, he forms a close friendship with an archaeologist and begins to come to terms with his trauma.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGirl in the Box (2016)
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (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
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 thisOn the Road (2026)
Veneno, a rebellious young drifter, frequents roadside diners where he sleeps with truck drivers. Urgently needing a ride, he meets Muñeco, a hard-edged driver who keeps to himself. He convinces Muñeco to take him deep into the hyper-masculine world of long-haul trucking across the north of Mexico. As they travel together and an unexpected intimacy builds between them, shadows from Veneno’s past resurface, putting both their lives at risk.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMy Brother the Devil (2012)
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Hunter, Black Heart (1990)
Renowned filmmaker John Wilson travels to Africa to direct a new movie, but constantly leaves to hunt elephants and other game, to the dismay of his cast and crew. He eventually becomes obsessed with hunting down and killing one specific elephant.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Matchgirl (2006)
An animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDC Showcase: Death (2019)
Vincent, an artist with unresolved inner demons, meets a mysterious girl who helps him come to terms with his creative legacy… and eventual death.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMen of Hard Skin (2019)
Ariel is a good-looking farm boy who lives with his father and sister in a rural part of Buenos Aires province. He has become familiar with sex thanks to Omar, a priest with whom he has a secret affair.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSky High (2020)
A commentary on Spanish society dressed as a thriller about the misadventures of a gang of young petty criminals after the real estate crash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGigi & Nate (2022)
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJohnny Minotaur (1971)
Johnny Minotaur is a lyrical explosion of taboos: incest, intergenerational desire, pansexuality and autoeroticism are a few of the issues Charles Henri Ford grapples with through mythopoeic, sensual imagery, recitations of his diaries and a philosophical debate featuring an impressive narration by such artists as Salvador Dali, Allen Ginsberg, Warren Sonbert and Lynne Tillman.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
In 1960s Wyoming, two men develop a strong emotional and sexual relationship that endures as a lifelong connection complicating their lives as they get married and start families of their own.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSoliloquy (1967)
Featuring Joan Adler (who also appears in Chinese Checkers), Soliloquy is one of the four early Stephen Dwoskin films that were awarded the Solvey prize at the EXPRMNTL festival in Knokke, Belgium in 1967. “In Soliloquy a girl broods uncertainly over a failed love affair, while the camera roves over her fingers, her cigarette, her knuckles, her lips and the hand mirror in which she peers. In its dark reflection one isolated eye seems a dead thing, twitching; the split between her body and her spoken thoughts becomes a strange bilocation of consciousness; towards the end, an aeroplane drones overhead” (Raymond Durgnat)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Million Little Pieces (2019)
A young drug-addled writer approaching the bottom of his descent submits to two months of agonizing detox at a treatment center in Minnesota.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTraveling to Olympia (2001)
Johnny leaves a Washington State juvenile facility and travels to Olympia where he meets other gay men and starts to put to rights some of the wrongs done to gay youths
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Europe by Bidon (2022)
Biodun is Nigerian. In this animated documentary, he tells the story of his journey on foot from Lagos to Paris, how he survives with a container (un bidon) and thanks to his courage. With his amazing patter, he transforms the events into extraordinary adventures.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Star (2014)
Tender exploration of a disconnected relationship between a beautiful stage performer from China, who is trying to preserve her dignity, and a Malay motorcycle gangster, who clings on to their love hopelessly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Apollo (2016)
Apollon is a teenager hung up by the social ideals of masculinity. He fantasizes about having the perfect body - complete with big beefy muscles and a big banana.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beautiful Thing (2013)
This 20th anniversary production of Jonathan Harvey's play about two working class teenage boys falling in love on a south east London council estate was captured by Digital Theatre live at the Arts Theatre in London's Leicester Square.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Being an Elephant and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Being an Elephant?
The closest matches to Being an Elephant are Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996), Bear Story (2016) and Adú (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Being an Elephant?
Start with Rebound: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault (1996), the closest match to Being an Elephant.
What is the highest-rated movie like Being an Elephant?
Brokeback Mountain (2005), rated 7.8/10 by 7,814 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Being an Elephant?
Until the End of the World (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Being an Elephant?
Yes: Bear Story (2016), Adú (2020) and Deseo (2013).
How are movies similar to Being an Elephant chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Being an Elephant, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.