Movies like The Song of Sparrows (2008)
The best movies like The Song of Sparrows (2008) are The White Meadows (2009), The Circle (2000) and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). If The Song of Sparrows hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedTurtles Can Fly (2006)7.8/10 from 253 votes
- NewestA Man of Integrity (2017)Released 2017
The White Meadows (2009)
Rahmat travels to a host of islands in a vast salt pan in order to collect the inhabitant's tears for an unknown purpose. He is joined on his mysterious journey by a young boy searching for his father. As their travel nears its end, a potent critique of Iran's political leadership emerges.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Circle (2000)
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTurtles Can Fly (2006)
Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iraq border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTaste of Cherry (1997)
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Cyclist (1989)
The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
About Elly (2009)
The mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Silence (1998)
Khorshid, a blind child growing up in Tajikistan, is constantly distracted by music and sounds. This frequently causes him to be late to his job as an instrument tuner even though he runs the risk of being fired at a time when his family is in danger of being evicted from their house.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisBab'Aziz (2006)
The story of a blind dervish named Bab'Aziz and his spirited granddaughter, Ishtar. Together they wander the desert in search of a great reunion of dervishes that takes place just once every thirty years. With faith as their only guide, the two journey for days through the expansive, barren landscape.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Man of Integrity (2017)
Reza, residing in the wilderness with his wife and son, lives a retired life and devotes himself to freshwater fish farming. A private company that has targets on his land is ready to do anything to force him to sell.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBaran (2001)
On a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMother (1990)
The film progresses along two distinct but interwoven series of events. The first series involves young members of a family who have gathered round their old mother and revive their common childhood memories. the second line focuses on the old woman's preparations for her last journey and her joyous cooperation in arranging for the ceremonies that are to be observed after her death.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
At Five in the Afternoon (2003)
Nogreh is a young Afghan woman living with her father and her sister-in-law, Leylomah, whose husband, Akhtar, is missing. Beyond the issue of Akhtar, Leylomah is most concerned with how to feed her baby. She cannot provide milk for her baby as her own hunger is preventing her from lactating. Nogreh, however, aspires toward a life in a western styled democracy. Although the Taliban are no longer in power in Afghanistan, traditional forces are still active in the country. Nogreh often displays signs of rebellion, such as wearing a pair of white pumps instead of the traditional slipper beneath her burqa. But mostly, Nogreh wants to be educated. Without her father's knowledge, Nogreh is attending a secular girls school. Ultimately, she wants to become President of Afghanistan. With the help of a Pakistani refugee who likes her as a woman, Nogreh tries to understand exactly what forces led to current world leaders being elected, those forces which she wants to emulate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Kandahar (2001)
After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShirin (2009)
A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
M for Mother (2006)
What appears to be a grand love story turns sour when parents-to-be discover that their unborn child will likely be born with serious birth defects, as a result of the mother's exposure to chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war. The father does not want to have a disabled child, but the mother insists on going through with the pregnancy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Apple (1998)
After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two Iranian sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTen (2002)
A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNo One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)
Iranian musicians Negar and Ashkan look for band members to play at a London concert ... and the visa that allows them to leave Tehran to do so.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Mirror (1997)
When a young girl's mother doesn't meet her after school, she tries to navigate the streets of Tehran by herself.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnd Life Goes On (1992)
After the earthquake of Guilan, a film director and his son travel to the devastated area to search for the actors from the movie the director made there a few years previously. In their search, they see how people who have lost everything in the earthquake still have hope and try to live life to the fullest.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
After their father dies, a family of five children are forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Traveler (1974)
Hassan Darabi, a troublesome, amoral 10-year-old boy in a small Iranian town wishes to see the Iran national football team play an important match in Tehran. In order to achieve that, he scams his friends and neighbors.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Willow Tree (2005)
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Half Moon (2006)
Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he sets out for the long and troublesome journey in a derelict bus, denying a recurring vision of his own death at half moon. Halfway the party halts at a small village to pick up female singer Hesho, which will only add to the difficulty of the undertaking, as it is forbidden for Iranian women to sing in public, let alone in the company of men. But Mamo is determined to carry through, if not for the gullible antics of the bus driver.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The 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 drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Moment of Innocence (1997)
A semi-autobiographical account of an incident in Makhmalbaf's life when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeautiful City (2004)
Akbar, 18, has been held in a rehabilitation centre for committing murder at the age of sixteen. Now, Akbar is transferred to prison to await the day of his execution. A’la, a friend of Akbar, tries desperately to gain the consent of Akbar’s plaintiff so as to stop the execution.
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 The Song of Sparrows?
The closest matches to The Song of Sparrows are The White Meadows (2009), The Circle (2000) and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Song of Sparrows?
People who watched The Song of Sparrows most often go on to The White Meadows (2009), The Circle (2000) and The Wind Will Carry Us (1999).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Song of Sparrows?
Turtles Can Fly (2006), rated 7.8/10 by 253 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Song of Sparrows?
A Man of Integrity (2017) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Song of Sparrows chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Song of Sparrows, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.