Movies like When We Leave (2010)
The best movies like When We Leave (2010) are Children of Heaven (1997), The Color of Paradise (1999) and An American Rhapsody (2001). If When We Leave 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 ratedCapernaum (2018)8.1/10 from 2,065 votes
- NewestReading Lolita in Tehran (2024)Released 2024
- In GermanThe Edge of Heaven (2007)Also in German
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 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 thisAn American Rhapsody (2001)
A Hungarian family forced to flee the Communist country for the United States must leave a young daughter behind. Six years later, the family arranges to bring the absent daughter to the United States where she has trouble adjusting. The daughter then decides to travel to Budapest to discover her identity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisMustang (2015)
In a Turkish village, five orphaned sisters live under strict rule while members of their family prepare their arranged marriages.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFatima (2015)
Fatima, an Algerian-born woman who now lives in France with her two teenage daughters, with whom she is barely able to communicate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCapernaum (2018)
After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWhale 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 thisHere Without Me (2011)
The story is about the world of a small family with familiar dreams and not so remarkable problems. The mother is trying to lead everything to save her family, but small events disarrange all her plans.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Big Man, Little Love (2001)
An orphaned Kurdish child (Hêjar) and a Turkish pensioner (Rıfat) are thrown together by circumstance. Rıfat, a widowed retired judge, refuses to get involved in politics. He is forced out of his solitude, when Hêjar the only survivor of a police raid on his Kurdish neighbors, takes refuge at his home. Gradually, he warms up to the kid and decides to reunite her with her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The White Balloon (1995)
Several people try to take advantage of a little girl's innocence to hustle money her mom gave to her to buy a goldfish with.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wolves (2020)
Max and Leo are 8 and 5 years old and have just immigrated to the US with their mother. Their days pass inside a tiny apartment, while they wait for their mother to come back, as they hold on to the hope of traveling to Disney.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOsama (2004)
After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a preteen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Edge of Heaven (2007)
The lives of six German-Turkish immigrants are drawn together by circumstance: An old man and a prostitute forging a partnership, a young scholar reconciling his past, two young women falling in love, and a mother putting the shattered pieces of her life back together.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReading Lolita in Tehran (2024)
In 1979, amidst censorship and religious extremism, a revolutionary literature professor in Tehran gathers seven of her most dedicated female students to immerse themselves in banned literary classics.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhere Do We Go Now? (2011)
In a remote, isolated Lebanese village surrounded by land mines, Muslims and Christians live together in peace. As civil strife starts to engulf the country around them, the women in the village try, by various means and to varying success, to keep their men in the dark by sabotaging the village radio, and then destroying the village TV.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdam (2019)
Abla runs a modest local bakery from her home in Casablanca where she lives alone with her 8-year-old daughter Warda. Their routine of housework and homework is interrupted one day by a knock on the door. It is Samia, a young woman looking for a job and a roof over her head. The little girl is immediately taken with the newcomer, but her mother initially refuses to allow a pregnant stranger into their home. Gradually, however, Abla's resolve softens and Samia's arrival begins to offer all of them the prospect of a new life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMy Favourite Fabric (2018)
Damascus, Spring 2011. It's the early stages of the civil war. 25-year-old Nahla is torn between her desire for freedom and the hope of leaving the country thanks to her arranged marriage with Samir, a Syrian expatriate in the USA. When he chooses her younger, more docile sister Myriam, Nahla finds refuge at her neighbor's, the mysterious Ms Jiji.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Song of Sparrows (2008)
When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes into a world alien to him - incredibly hectic Tehran, where sudden opportunities for independence, thrill and challenge him. But his honor and honesty, plus traditional authority over his inventive clan, are tested, as he stumbles among vast cultural and economic gaps between his village nestled in the desert, and a throbbing international metropolis.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWomen Without Men (2009)
Against the tumultuous backdrop of Iran's 1953 CIA-backed coup d'état, the destinies of four women converge in a beautiful orchard garden, where they find independence, solace and companionship.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)
In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in tragedy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLive and Become (2005)
In 1980, the black Falashas in Ethiopia are recognised as genuine Jews and are secretly carried to Israel. The day before the transport the son of a Jewish mother dies. In his place and with his name (Schlomo) she takes a Christian 9-year-old boy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSugar Cane Alley (1983)
Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for the smallest infraction. The way to advance is to do well in school. José studies hard and succeeds in an exam allowing him to attend school in the capital. With only a partial scholarship, the tuition is very costly. José and his grandmother move to Fort-de-France to make José's studies easier...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Wadjda (2012)
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Insult (2017)
After an emotional exchange between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee escalates, the men end up in a court case that gets national attention.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Separation (2011)
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision – to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisShayda (2023)
Shayda, a young Iranian woman living in Australia, finds refuge in a women’s shelter with her 6-year-old daughter, Mona. Having fled her husband, Hossein, and filed for divorce, Shayda struggles to maintain normalcy for Mona. Buoyed by the approach of Nowruz, she tries to forge a fresh start with new and unfettered freedoms. But when a judge grants Hossein visitation rights, he reenters their life, stoking Shayda’s fear that he’ll attempt to take Mona back to Iran.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Syrian Bride (2004)
In Majdal Shams, the largest Druze village in Golan Heights on the Israeli-Syrian border, the Druze bride Mona is engaged to get married with Tallel, a television comedian that works in the Revolution Studios in Damascus, Syria. They have never met each other because of the occupation of the area by Israel since 1967; when Mona moves to Syria, she will lose her undefined nationality and will never be allowed to return home. Mona's father Hammed is a political activist pro-Syria that is on probation by the Israeli government. His older son Hatten married a Russian woman eight years ago and was banished from Majdal Shams by the religious leaders and his father. His brother Marwan is a wolf trader that lives in Italy. His sister Amal has two teenager daughters and has the intention to join the university, but her marriage with Amin is in crisis. When the family gathers for Mona's wedding, an insane bureaucracy jeopardizes the ceremony.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLemon Tree (2008)
A Palestinian widow fights to save her beloved lemon grove after an Israeli defence minister moves next door and security forces order the trees removed, leading her to challenge the authorities with the help of a young lawyer.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlame It on Fidel! (2006)
A 9-year-old girl weathers big changes in her household as her parents become radical political activists in 1970-71 Paris.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like When We Leave?
The closest matches to When We Leave are Children of Heaven (1997), The Color of Paradise (1999) and An American Rhapsody (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after When We Leave?
People who watched When We Leave most often go on to Children of Heaven (1997), The Color of Paradise (1999) and An American Rhapsody (2001).
What is the highest-rated movie like When We Leave?
Capernaum (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,065 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like When We Leave?
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like When We Leave?
Yes: The Edge of Heaven (2007).
How are movies similar to When We Leave chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside When We Leave, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.