Movies like An American Rhapsody (2001)
The best movies like An American Rhapsody (2001) are Between Borders (2025), The Good Lie (2014) and In America (2003). If An American Rhapsody hooked you with its drama and family, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedChildren of Heaven (1997)7.9/10 from 764 votes
- NewestBetween Borders (2025)Released 2025
Between Borders (2025)
In a crumbling Soviet Union, the Petrosyan family finds themselves as outcasts—wherever they go. Their Armenian heritage marks them for discrimination, first in their home country of Azerbaijan and then in Russia. After finding their eternal hope through a church planted by American missionaries, the hostility of everyday life pushes them to seek refuge in the United States. In the shadow of exile, hope became their home. Based on a riveting true story of faith and hope set amidst great oppression.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Good Lie (2014)
A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn America (2003)
A family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Kite Runner (2007)
After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhen We Leave (2010)
Umay is a young woman of Turkish descent, fighting for an independent and self-determined life in Germany against the resistance of her family. Her struggle initiates a dynamic, which results in a life-threatening situation.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Little Comrade (2018)
In the midst of Stalinist tyranny, six-year-old Leelo's mother is sent to a prison camp. Haunted by her mother's last words telling her to be a good kid, Leelo vows to be on her best behaviour in the confusing grown-up world in the hope that it will bring her mother back.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Children of Heaven (1997)
Zohre's shoes are gone; her older brother Ali lost them. They are poor, there are no shoes for Zohre until they come up with an idea: they will share one pair of shoes. School awaits.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Visitor (2008)
A college professor travels to New York City to attend a conference and finds a young couple living in his apartment.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Namesake (2007)
The American-born son of Indian immigrants strives to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Better Life (2011)
An Indigenous Latino American gardener in East L.A. struggles to keep his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to perform landscaping work for the city's wealthy landowners.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Other Side of Heaven (2001)
John H. Groberg, a middle class kid from Idaho Falls, crosses the Pacific to become a Mormon missionary in the remote and exotic Tongan island kingdom during the 1950's. He leaves behind a loving family and the true love of his life, Jean. Through letters and musings across the miles, John shares his humbling and sometimes hilarious adventures with "the girl back home", and her letters buoy up his spirits in difficult times. John must struggle to overcome language barriers, physical hardship and deep-rooted suspicion to earn the trust and love of the Tongan people he has come to serve. Throughout his adventure-filled three years on the islands, he discovers friends and wisdom in the most unlikely places. John H. Groberg's Tongan odyssey will change his life forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dog of Flanders (1999)
Poor but happy, young Nello and his grandfather live alone, delivering milk as a livelihood, in the outskirts of Antwerp, a city in Flanders (the Flemish or Dutch-speaking part of modern-day Belgium). They discover a beaten dog (a Bouvier, a large sturdy dog native to Flanders) and adopt it and nurse it back to health, naming it Patrasche, the middle name of Nello's mother Mary, who died when Nello was very young. Nello's mother was a talented artist, and like his mother, he delights in drawing, and his friend Aloise is his model and greatest fan and supporter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Whale Rider (2003)
A contemporary story of love, rejection, and triumph as a young Māori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Color of Paradise (1999)
Mohammad joyfully returns to his tiny village on summer vacation from the Institute for the Blind, unaware of his widowed father's intentions to disown him in order to win the hand—and dowry—of a local woman. With the wedding swiftly approaching, Mohammad's future hangs precariously in the balance as his father struggles against his destiny, unable to see the wonder of life and love that's so clear to his son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Best Two Years (2004)
Follows the lives of two pairs of American LDS missionaries serving in the Dutch city of Haarlem: Elder Johnson, the District Leader who oversees and reports their efforts; the vain and position-climbing Elder Van Pelt; the capable but disillusioned Elder Rogers; and the "greenie" (newcomer) Elder Calhoun, who arrives to Haarlem with limited language training and all the eagerness to serve and work.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Secret Life of Words (2005)
A solitary nurse bonds with a badly burned patient who survived an accident on an oil rig.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKabluey (2007)
Leslie is left with few options when her husband is sent back to war in the Middle East. A modest amount of help arrives in the form of his brother, Salman, who is less than prepared to care for the couple's two preadolescent boys. When Leslie still can't make ends meet on her own, Salman is forced to find employment, but, with minimal qualifications, his only option is to become a mascot for a digital company by donning a bulbous blue costume.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEllis (2015)
Ellis, a fourteen-minute film directed by JR and written by Academy Award winner Eric Roth, tells the elusive story of countless immigrants whose pursuit of a new life led them to the now-shuttered Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital. Following its opening in 1902, approximately 1.2 million people passed through the facility, where the Statue of Liberty can be seen from the windows. Languishing in a sort of purgatory awaiting their fate, many were never discharged.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Jade Pendant (2017)
Fleeing an arranged marriage in China, the independent Peony signs a contract to work as a “flower girl” in America, where she meets Tom, an American Born Chinese cook whose father works on the Transcontinental Railroad. Thwarted by a Hong Kong Triad boss seeking to extend his power into America, theirs is the tale of the first great Chinese immigration to the United States – a story of romance, bigotry, passion, food and a search for everlasting love – set against the largest mass lynching in American history, in Los Angeles’ Chinatown, in 1871.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Bless Me, Ultima (2013)
In a village in New Mexico, the life of young farm boy Antonio is dramatically changed when an old medicine woman joins his household. This affecting coming-of-age tale recounts Antonio's experiences to reveal the spiritual conflict in his community.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Holly (2006)
Shot on location in Cambodia, including many scenes in actual brothels in the notorious red light district of Phnom Penh, HOLLY is a captivating, touching and emotional experience. Patrick, an American card shark and dealer of stolen artifacts, has been 'comfortably numb' in Cambodia for years, when he encounters Holly, a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, in the K11 red light village. The girl has been sold by her impoverished family and smuggled across the border to work as a prostitute.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Journey of Hope (1990)
In a village in eastern Turkey, tales of the economic success of Turks in Switzerland inspire Haydar to convince his wife Meryem that they must go. He sells their livestock and small plot of land in exchange for passage for two. He wants to leave their seven children in the care of the eldest and his parents; his father advises him to take one son to be educated in Europe. Will anyone reach the land of promise?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Sophie and the Rising Sun (2016)
In a small Southern town in the autumn of 1941, Sophie’s lonely life is transformed when an Asian man arrives under mysterious circumstances. Their love affair becomes the lightning rod for long-buried conflicts that erupt in bigotry and violence with the outbreak of World War ll.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Have a Little Faith (2011)
At age 82, Mitch Albom's former rabbi Albert Lewis wants the famous Detroit sportswriter to give his eulogy when the time comes. Albom makes a visit to his former home town in New Jersey, where Rabbi Lewis has served a congregation for about 50 years. Albom doesn't feel worthy, especially since he is no longer a practicing Jew and, in fact, he has married a Christian (who apparently isn't active either). Nevertheless, Rabbi Lewis says he is the one to do the job, and over the next eight years, Albom makes several visits back home and even attends some Sabbath services, where the good rabbi is determined to continue working and inspiring his flock even as his health declines.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Safety of Objects (2002)
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTuesday (2024)
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInheritance (2020)
The patriarch of a wealthy and powerful family suddenly passes away, leaving his wife and daughter with a shocking secret inheritance that threatens to unravel and destroy their lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoly 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 thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIron Jawed Angels (2004)
Defiant young activists take the women's suffrage movement by storm, putting their lives at risk to help American women win the right to vote.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like An American Rhapsody?
The closest matches to An American Rhapsody are Between Borders (2025), The Good Lie (2014) and In America (2003). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after An American Rhapsody?
People who watched An American Rhapsody most often go on to Between Borders (2025), The Good Lie (2014) and In America (2003).
What is the highest-rated movie like An American Rhapsody?
Children of Heaven (1997), rated 7.9/10 by 764 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like An American Rhapsody?
Between Borders (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like An American Rhapsody?
Yes: Between Borders (2025), The Good Lie (2014) and In America (2003).
How are movies similar to An American Rhapsody chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside An American Rhapsody, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.