Movies like This Is How Destiny Wanted (1968)
The best movies like This Is How Destiny Wanted (1968) are Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014), İstanbul Tales (2005) and The Girl with the Red Scarf (1977). If This Is How Destiny Wanted hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPaper Lives (2021)8.0/10 from 426 votes
- NewestTwo Worlds One Wish (2025)Released 2025
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014)
Exiled artist and poet Mustafa embarks on a journey home with his housekeeper and her daughter; together the trio must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in Mustafa's words will incite rebellion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisİstanbul Tales (2005)
Five interconnected stories set in modern-day Istanbul based on the fairytales Snow White, Cinderella, Pied Piper, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Girl with the Red Scarf (1977)
İlyas, a truck driver from Istanbul, arrives in a remote village to work on a dam construction project and meets a young village woman named Asya. They fall madly in love and get married. However, their life together is fraught with conflict. When İlyas cheats on Asya, the final straw in their relationship, she takes her son and begins wandering without knowing where she is going, until a familiar hand reaches out to help her selflessly.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Postman (1984)
Sevtap and Adem, the postman in the neighborhood, are in love with each other. Sevtap remained single until the age of 30 because no one liked her, so she is still a virgin and has settled for Adem. However, there is someone who opposes this love, her older brother Latif, who was raised in German culture but can be described as a complete fool. One day, Sevtap and Adem send a telegram from Sevtap's father's mouth to convince him to accept the situation. After this telegram, wedding preparations begin. However, during this time, Latif returns permanently from Germany to Turkey, and the truth about the couple is revealed. Latif opposes the marriage at any cost, even if it means harming Adem. Later, despite his reservations, he accepts the marriage and fulfills Adem's every request.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisComidark Films 2: Insane (2020)
Güven, a taxi driver is desperately in love with Meral, but he’s too shy to open up to her. One day he picks up a customer, gets accused of a crime he didn’t commit and his world is turned upside down.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPaper Lives (2021)
In the streets of Istanbul, ailing waste warehouse worker Mehmet takes a small boy under his wing and must soon confront his own traumatic childhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies 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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove Likes Coincidences (2011)
Year 1977, a September morning in Ankara... Yilmaz tries to rush his pregnant wife Neriman to the hospital and he crushes into Omer's car. This accident causes Omer's pregnant wife Inci, who was in the back seat, to have a pre-term labor. The babies are born on the same day. They see each other for the first time... This accident is the threshold of the coincidences that bring Ozgur and Deniz together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFate (2001)
Musa, a customs clerk, sees life as absurd. He drifts with events; his mother's death, though loved, brings him strange joy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKaçma Birader (2016)
A family with diversified members travels to İstanbul from Yozgat after their youngest son fell in love with a girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbout Dry Grasses (2023)
A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOh Dear (2010)
Hüseyin is a young man who lives with his grandfather and grandmother in a village in Thracian Turkey. The two great loves of his life are his clarinet and Müjgan, a nurse. Although Hüseyin is content with his life, with his music and dreams of Mügan, due to an unexpected development he leaves his village. He ends up in Istanbul where he finds support first in his clarinet and then in the friendship of the singer Firuzan. Firuzan is a popular nightclub performer who is eagerly working on an album as she leads a colorful but complicated life. When Firuzan meets Huseyin, the course of events gives away to a hilarious adventure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo Worlds One Wish (2025)
Twenty-one years after a magical meeting at a children's hospital, Bilge and Can suddenly begin hearing each other's voices telepathically. What seems like a miracle soon reveals a hidden secret, as fate-reuniting them after decades-has much more in store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChampion (2018)
The mid 90’s. Turkey’s political instability, inflation and hopelesness on people were increased. In those years when all hope was lost, people deeply bond with Bold Pilot and Halis Karataş who win every race coming from the last place. People see themselves at the point where this horse and jockey are: at the back. This duo make people to believe that everybody can win. The race ends at the finish line and the first to cross this line are Bold Pilot and Halis riding it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisŞendul Şaban (1985)
She works as a factory worker alongside Şaban Ali. One day, they are fired for asking their boss for a raise. They search for work for a long time but cannot find any. Necla tells Şaban that it is easier for women to find work, and the couple make a bet. The next day, Necla starts working as a secretary. The roles at home change. Necla becomes the man of the house, and Şaban becomes the woman of the house. However, the couple is unhappy because of Necla's long working hours.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Promise (2016)
Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, a love triangle develops between Mikael, a brilliant medical student, the beautiful and sophisticated artist Ana, and Chris, a renowned American journalist based in Paris.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEverything About Mustafa (2004)
A man is forced to confront his past after he loses everything in an accident. Mustafa is a successful business man living a seemingly great life with his family when an accident takes it all away from him and leaves him with many questions and a cab driver, Fikret, who can answer it all. Mustafa is due to get a lot more than what he bargained for, however, as his interrogations take him to long-forgotten childhood memories and force him to see his formerly perfect life from a very different perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this10 Days of a Curious Man (2024)
When a young woman goes missing in Istanbul, a jaded writer gets tangled up in a deadly chain of events as he sets out to find her—and a good story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMidnight Express (1978)
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this99 River Street (1953)
A former boxer turned taxi driver earns the scorn of his nagging wife and gets mixed up with jewel thieves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like This Is How Destiny Wanted?
The closest matches to This Is How Destiny Wanted are Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014), İstanbul Tales (2005) and The Girl with the Red Scarf (1977). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after This Is How Destiny Wanted?
Start with Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014), the closest match to This Is How Destiny Wanted.
What is the highest-rated movie like This Is How Destiny Wanted?
Paper Lives (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 426 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like This Is How Destiny Wanted?
Two Worlds One Wish (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to This Is How Destiny Wanted chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside This Is How Destiny Wanted, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.