Movies like When Children Play in the Sky (2006)
The best movies like When Children Play in the Sky (2006) are Hands of Stone (2016), Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) and Girl in the Box (2016). If When Children Play in the Sky hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhat Maisie Knew (2013)7.1/10 from 466 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
- In ItalianLoro (2018)Also in Italian
Hands 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 thisBastard Out of Carolina (1996)
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAgainst the Ice (2022)
In 1909, two explorers fight to survive after they're left behind while on a Danish expedition in ice-covered Greenland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Fugitive (1947)
Anti-Catholic and anti-cleric policies in the Mexican state of Tabasco lead the revolutionary government to persecute the state's last remaining priest.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSmilla's Sense of Snow (1997)
Smilla Jaspersen attempts to understand the death of a small boy who falls from the roof of her apartment building. Suspecting wrongdoing, Smilla uncovers a trail of clues leading towards a secretive corporation that has made several mysterious expeditions to Greenland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Congress (2013)
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young One (1960)
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHurry Sundown (1967)
A ruthless Southern opportunist tries to buy his cousin's land, and when thwarted, brings several tragedies to the lives of his loved ones.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lords of Discipline (1983)
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism. The racists come in the form of The Ten, a secret group of the elite students. They want Pearce to leave on his own free will, but are prepared to torture him to make it 'his free will'. Will is forced to help Pearce and he is prepared to risk his own career to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLoro (2018)
Internationally released Director's Cut of "Loro 1" and "Loro 2", which were released separately as two movies in Italy. The film talks about the group of businessmen and politicians – the Loro (Them) from the title – who live and act near to media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi in the years between 2006 and 2009.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBebo's Girl (1964)
At the end of World War II, shallow, self-centered Mara is the prettiest girl in her small Italian village; Bebo is a Communist partisan who is finding it difficult to adjust to the dull banalities of life in peacetime. When Mara’s father, a passionate Communist, declares that his daughter will marry the returning hero, her reactions range from joy to bitter resentment.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Price of a Story (2024)
A rich Czech tourist and his translator come to an Inuit shaman – an Angakkoq. The meeting, arranged at a local museum, is to discuss a legendary encounter between the Angakkoq’s ancestors with the ancestors of the Czech tourist. The foreigner is willing to pay a lot of money for the story. The shaman’s evocative narration brings to life a fictional story from the time of the first Christian missionaries in Greenland. This short film about the clash of different cultures and mentalities is the first Czech-Greenlandic co-production.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Qivitoq (1956)
A young teacher, Eva Nygaard, arrives in Greenland from Denmark to surprise her fiancé, the Doctor Erik Halsøe, but is crushed to find he has not waited for her and he is about to be married to his assisting nurse. Eva travels to a small fishing village to await the next ship back to Denmark. There she enters into a tense and often confrontational relationship with Jens, a quiet moody Dane who manages a trading company outpost. Meanwhile, Jens is trying to persuade a Greenlander named Pavia to become a company fisherman, despite Pavia's fear of alienating his fellow villagers and upsetting the spirit, Qivitoq.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Good Traitor (2020)
The Danish ambassador to Washington declares himself to be the sole representative of a free Denmark during the Nazi occupation of the country.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Endless Night (2015)
Ellesmere Island, northern Canada, 1908. Josephine, a brave but naive woman, embarks on a dangerous journey through inhospitable regions in search of her husband, the explorer Robert Peary, who tries to find a route to the North Pole.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Experiment (2010)
THE EXPERIMENT is the story of the nurse Gert, who is appointed as headmistress of a special children's home, owned by the Danish state in Greenland, 1951. The children's home is intended to accommodate 16 carefully selected Greenlandic children, who have just come home after a year of civilization in Denmark. Now they are to be introduced into the Greenlandic community as role models. Gert, who lives alone and has no family, accepts the assignment with pride. She is idealistic and ambitious and feels passionate about saving Greenland from destitution. The means to this end is to educate and civilize the 16 children in the Danish language and culture, so they can spearhead Greenland's transformation from being a poor hunter society to being an equal part of Denmark. Due to her blind faith in the experiment, Gert underestimates the obvious personal costs to the children. And when the children as well as the Danish state fail her...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Inuk (2012)
Several years after losing his father, Inuk learns the way of his people again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Journey to Greenland (2016)
Thomas and Thomas are going through a rough patch: they are both thirty-something actors living in Paris. They randomly decide to leave the city and fly away to Kullorsuaq, one of the most remote villages of Greenland, where Thomas' father Nathan lives. Among the Inuit community, they will discover the charms of the local customs and their friendship will be challenged.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Wedding of Palo (1934)
The movie tells of the contest between two rivals for the love of an Inuk woman. The forces of nature will determine the winner.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Heart of Light (1998)
When the humiliation and grief of his eldest son's shooting rampage and subsequent suicide threatens to pull him under, Rasmus leaves his family and tight-knit community and heads into Greenland's bleak landscape. As he journeys forth aimlessly on an old dogsled, he eventually finds solace in the form of a mystical hermit.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Nuummioq (2009)
A love-struck man discovers he has an incurable illness shortly after meeting the woman of his dreams.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When Children Play in the Sky?
The closest matches to When Children Play in the Sky are Hands of Stone (2016), Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) and Girl in the Box (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When Children Play in the Sky?
Start with Hands of Stone (2016), the closest match to When Children Play in the Sky.
What is the highest-rated movie like When Children Play in the Sky?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 466 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When Children Play in the Sky?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like When Children Play in the Sky?
Yes: Loro (2018) and Bebo's Girl (1964).
How are movies similar to When Children Play in the Sky chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When Children Play in the Sky, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.