Movies like Wait for Me (1980)
The best movies like Wait for Me (1980) are The Young One (1960), Skin (2009) and Hounddog (2008). If Wait for Me hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Enforcer (2022)7.0/10 from 533 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
The 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 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 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 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 thisThe Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
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 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 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 thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
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 Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
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 thisMost (2003)
A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSergio (2020)
A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Parts You Lose (2019)
An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enforcer (2022)
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
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 thisPomegranate Orchard (2017)
Inspired by Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, the film follows a prodigal son who returns after 12 years. His reappearance at the family home in rural Azerbaijan significantly alters their way of life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Hostage (2006)
During the late 1980s and early 1990s the Armenian minority in Nagorono-Karabakh attempted to break away from Azerbaijan, one of the former Soviet republics. Overnight these former neighbors became enemies, and simple village folk were suddenly made hostages in a complex power game. One of the Azerbaijani villages right on the border is home to the family of the peasant farmer Kerim, who has just been captured by the Armenians. The village council decides to take an Armenian in order to arrange a hostage exchange. They imprison the wounded man in the barn next to Kerim's house, where his wife and three children desperately await the husband's return. The captive from the other side of the border finds himself in exactly the same situation - he, too, has three children, he finds it hard to scrape a living together, he has never done anything to harm anyone and, like Kerim, he just wants to go back home. But life in Karabakh is far more complex now. Blood calls for blood.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Mailbox (1967)
Novruzali brings a gift from the village to the Khan as usual. The Khan writes a letter to his friend living in Yerevan, promising to come there with his wife and to tidy and heat the house where they will stay. He sends Novruzali to the post office to put the letter in the mailbox. And instructs him not to give it to anyone. Novruzali, who does not know what mail is, puts a letter in the mailbox for the first time in his life. Not knowing the rules, he waits near the mailbox. When the postal worker takes the letters from the mailbox, Novruzali thinks he is a thief and confronts him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sevil (1970)
The film takes place in Baku in 1918-19 and then several years later. The film is based on the opera of the same name by Fikret Amirov. Sevil became the first film opera in the history of Azerbaijani cinema.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Shadows are Crawling (1958)
Young scientist Jamal Zakhidov is convinced that the ruins of the ancient city of Aran are located in Azerbaijan. Zakhidov is seeking to organize an expedition to the area where he believes Aran is located. Zahidov's friend, a young archaeologist named Jalil, is also well versed in geology. He believes that the rocks he accidentally found at the foot of Gyzyl-Gaya contain valuable materials. But Imam-zade, a secret agent of a foreign intelligence service, steals these samples. The expedition members meet an old man named Murtaz. The old man recognizes Imam-zade as the son of Suleiman-bek, the former ruler of these lands, who killed geologist Karimov, who was conducting research here in 1920. Realizing that he has been exposed, Imam-zade blows up the cave in an attempt to destroy the expedition. But the locals rescue the expedition members. Imam-zade is detained by MGB officers. Uranium is found in the rocks discovered by Jalil at the excavation site...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sabuhi (1941)
The film is dedicated to the life and creative work of the great Azerbaijani educator, playwright, and philosopher, Mirza Fatali Akhundov, affectionately known as Sabuhi, meaning “man of the morning.”
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Both a Visit and a Business (1995)
Geography teacher Mustafa and his wife visit Istanbul to meet his long-lost cousin, and maybe sell some goods while they're at it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
I Will Burn in the Fire of Purification (1991)
It tells the story of a writer who lost his inspiration to write after becoming involved in politics, and only after several stages of inner and moral purification did he find the strength to pick up his pen again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Poet (1991)
The film is dedicated to the memory of the great Azerbaijani poet Muhammad Fuzuli by the relic-gazalakh, and the lyric poet Aliaga Vahid. The poet's life is presented in chronological order. The authors do not clearly indicate the names of the people who covered Vahid. They tried to create a generalized artistic image using some of the master poet's masterpieces from his difficult life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Invincible Battalion (1965)
The film is about events which has happened with the "Potyomkin" ship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Wait for Me and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Wait for Me?
The closest matches to Wait for Me are The Young One (1960), Skin (2009) and Hounddog (2008). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Wait for Me?
Start with The Young One (1960), the closest match to Wait for Me.
What is the highest-rated movie like Wait for Me?
The Enforcer (2022), rated 7.0/10 by 533 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Wait for Me?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Wait for Me chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Wait for Me, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.