Movies like Zhaleika (2016)
The best movies like Zhaleika (2016) are Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), Hounddog (2008) and Farming (2018). If Zhaleika 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
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
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 thisFarming (2018)
Based on the writer/director's childhood, FARMING tells the story of a young Nigerian boy, 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he becomes the feared leader of a white skinhead gang.
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 thisThe Visit (1964)
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSalomé (2013)
After the lewd and frenetic Dance of the Seven Veils, and with the solemn pledge from the very lips of Herod himself that she could have whatever her heart desires up to half his kingdom, wanton and proud young Salomé comes before her king with an unreasonable demand. Beguiled by John the Baptist, and then scorned for the sake of his god, lascivious Salomé—encouraged by her mother, the vindictive, Herodias—commands that John be executed and his head delivered on a silver platter.
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 thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisEl Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
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 thisThe 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 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 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 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 this40 Acres (2025)
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they make one last stand against a vicious militia hell-bent on taking their 40 Acres.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCall Me Crazy: A Five Film (2013)
A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSkin (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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Road Dance (2022)
A young girl lives in the Outer Hebrides in a small village in the years just before WWI. Isolated and hard by the shore, her life takes a dramatic change when a terrible tragedy befalls her.
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 thisRogue Agent (2022)
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lesson (2014)
An honest, hard-working schoolteacher in a small Bulgarian town is driven to desperate measures to avoid financial ruin.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMeraklii (2025)
18-year-old gamer Spas exchanges flirty and erotic messages with a girl posing as the sexy playmate Zhaneta Osipova. The same girl invites him to visit a strange, remote village so they can take their virtual relationship to the next level. Spas, along with his two friends, Gosho and Blackie, and the girl from their group, Ivka, set out to find the village to figure out whether this girl is really Zhaneta or some kind of dangerous scam.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Because I Love Bad Weather (2024)
On a rainy spring day, Irina returns to the seaside town where she used to spend the summer holidays as a child. There she meets Boris, whom she has not seen for 20 years. The two set out to rediscover the past, which may change their future.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
All She Wrote (2018)
When Aaron, an ex-fighter, turns to music after years of being knocked around and left with permanent mental disabilities, he falls for Jana, an off-centered Bulgarian immigrant living in New York. While he recognizes that she is as crazy as he is, Jana does not share the same opinion. But her brother, Bobby, an up and coming wannabe fighter, decides to convince her she is that crazy in order to get Aaron in the ring against him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Judgement (2014)
This is the story of Mityo and his son Vasko, who live in a poor area, near to the Bulgarian-Turkish-Greek Border. Mityo had lost everything that has mattered to him – his wife, his work, the confidence of his son, Vasko. In order to get him back, Mityo has to find forgiveness and pay for his sin, done 25 years ago.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Art of Falling (2022)
Bori (17) refuses to be harassed by the boys. Her artistic, but unstable mother does not give her the support she needs. Her caring grandfather enrolls her in a judo school. There, she realizes that before beating others, one must win the battles within oneself.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
January (2023)
Two men and a bird, trapped in a snowstorm in the middle of nowhere, try to solve a mystery as it slowly devours them.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Voice Over (2010)
The end of the 70s. Anton Krastev, a DOP and his wife Diana are separated by the Iron curtain - she fled with their son Antoan to Western Berlin while he stayed in Bulgaria. She believes that Antoan can only be cured in Germany. But Anton can't live without his job. He works with the best film director who is a high ranking Communist. The State Security Services are keeping a zealous eye on Anton. His phone calls are being taped, his letters are being read. His close relations to the power people of the day make him even more suspicious. The State Security Services put an end to Anton's relation with his wife. Thorn apart, Anton and Diana go through love, alienation and hate. There comes a time though when the powerful friends of Anton lose their power and he loses everything that he's ever loved - his work, his wife and son. Thirty years later Anton shoots the story of his own life. But those who now direct the movie are the very same people who once persecuted him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Living Legends (2014)
Group of friends meet again, 13 years after their prom because of a problem of one of them, and face the opportunity to experience the things in life they have always put aside in life so far.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Windless (2024)
Kaloyan returns home to handle the sale of his late father's apartment. At the beginning the process starts as a routine mundane task, but soon transcends into a journey of self-discovery that tries to track the connection between childhood trauma, memory and the passage of time.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Zhaleika and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Zhaleika?
The closest matches to Zhaleika are Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), Hounddog (2008) and Farming (2018). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Zhaleika?
Start with Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), the closest match to Zhaleika.
What is the highest-rated movie like Zhaleika?
What Maisie Knew (2013), rated 7.1/10 by 466 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Zhaleika?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Zhaleika?
Yes: Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), Hounddog (2008) and Farming (2018).
How are movies similar to Zhaleika chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Zhaleika, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.