Movies like Shortage of Children (2015)
The best movies like Shortage of Children (2015) are House of Voices (2004), Monsieur Batignole (2002) and Strayed (2003). If Shortage of Children hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedForbidden Games (1952)7.8/10 from 368 votes
- NewestPlease Don't Feed the Children (2025)Released 2025
- In FrenchHouse of Voices (2004)Also in French
House of Voices (2004)
In 1958, in the French Alp, the young servant Anna Jurin arrives in Saint Ange Orphanage to work with Helena while the orphans moved to new families. Anna, who is secretly pregnant, meets the last orphan, Judith, left behind because of her mental problems, and they become closer when Anna find that Judith also hear voices and footsteps of children.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisMonsieur Batignole (2002)
In 1942, in an occupied Paris, the apolitical grocer Edmond Batignole lives with his wife and daughter in a small apartment in the building of his grocery. When his future son-in-law and collaborator of the German Pierre-Jean Lamour calls the Nazis to arrest the Jewish Bernstein family, they move to the confiscated apartment. Some days later, the young Simon Bernstein escapes from the Germans and comes to his former home. When Batignole finds him, he feels sorry for the boy and lodges him, hiding Simon from Pierre-Jean and also from his wife. Later, two cousins of Simon meet him in the cellar of the grocery. When Pierre-Jean finds the children, Batignole decides to travel with the children to Switzerland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrayed (2003)
Fleeing the June 1940 arrival of Hitler's army in Paris, a young war widow and her two children are rescued from dive-bombing German fighters by a cocky, reckless teenager. He finds them refuge in an abandoned house, but despite the fact that the family quickly comes to be depending much on his cunning and survival abilities, their cohabitation proves uneasy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisSurviving with Wolves (2007)
In 1942, the young Jewish girl Misha, her Russian mother Gerusha and her German father Reuven hide from the Germans in a small house in Ardennes, Belgium. Misha is very connected to her mother that advises her that if one day a person comes to her saying "love of my life", she would follow him or her without any question. When her parents are captured by the Nazis, Misha is delivered to a German family and the abusive matriarch gives a bad treatment to the girl. However, she finds support in the family of Ernest and his deranged wife Marthe that supplies groceries to foster family. Misha loves Ernest's dogs and the old man gives a compass to her and tells that her parents have been sent to East to forced labor. When the old couple is denounced for sheltering the girl and arrested by the Germans, Misha flees through the woods heading east. Along her journey seeking out her parents...
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisForbidden Games (1952)
Orphaned after a Nazi air raid, Paulette, a young Parisian girl, runs into Michel, an older peasant boy, and the two quickly become close. Together, they try to make sense of the chaotic and crumbling world around them, attempting to cope with death as they create a burial ground for Paulette's deceased pet dog. Eventually, however, Paulette's stay with Michel's family is threatened by the harsh realities of wartime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Passage (1979)
During WW 2, a Basque shepherd is approached by the underground, who wants him to lead a scientist and his family across the Pyrenees. While being pursued by a sadistic German.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPlease Don't Feed the Children (2025)
After a viral outbreak ravaged the country’s adult population, a group of orphans heads south in search of a new life, only to find themselves at the mercy of a deranged woman harboring a dangerous secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sower (2017)
In 1852, the mountain village in Provence where Violette lives is brutally deprived of all its men after the repression of the republicans ordered by Napoleon III. Women spend months in total isolation, desperate to see their men again. In this situation, they make an oath in case a man arrives in the village.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChild 44 (2015)
Set in Stalin-era Soviet Union, a disgraced MGB agent is dispatched to investigate a series of child murders -- a case that begins to connect with the very top of party leadership.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappening (2021)
France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing. With her final exams fast approaching and her belly growing, Anne resolves to act, even if she has to confront shame and pain, even if she must risk prison to do so.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Safe Hands (2018)
Théo is given up for adoption by his biological mother on the very day he is born. After this anonymous birth, the mother has two months to change her mind… Or not. The child welfare services and adoption service spring into action… The former have to take care of the baby and support it during this limbo-like time, this period of uncertainty, while the latter must find a woman to become his adoptive mother. She is called Alice, and she has spent the last ten years fighting to have a child.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEvelyn (2002)
Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonsieur Ibrahim (2003)
Paris, 1960s. Momo, a resolute and independent Jewish teenager who lives with his father, a sullen and depressed man, in a working-class neighborhood, develops a close friendship with Monsieur Ibrahim, an elderly Muslim who owns a small grocery store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man Who Planted Trees (1987)
The story of one shepherd's single-handed quest to re-forest a desolate valley in the foothills of the French Alps throughout the first half of the 20th century.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBelle and Sebastian (2013)
Belle and Sebastian is set high in the snowy Alps during the Second World War. The resourceful Sebastian is a lonely boy who tames and befriends a giant, wild mountain dog, Belle – even though the villagers believe her to be ‘the beast’ that has been killing their sheep.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man Who Laughs (2012)
During a winter storm, Ursus offers shelter to two orphans, Gwynplaine and Déa; some years later, they are still living together. Gwynplaine has become a famous star, but his success threatens his relationships with Déa and Ursus.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe African Doctor (2016)
1975. When Seyolo Zantoko, a doctor from the Congo who has managed, along with his family, to flee tyranny, is hired by the mayor of a small town in northern France, he begins a struggle to adapt to a new life and gain the trust of the prejudiced villagers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApaches: Gang of Paris (2023)
Paris, 1884. The lives of three orphaned children wandering the streets dominated by ruthless criminals change tragically when they carry out a daring robbery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Bag of Marbles (2017)
At the beginning of the 1940s, in a France occupied by Nazi forces, lived the Jewish Joffo family. Happy and tight-knit, she sees her future darken when all members of the family are forced to wear the yellow star. Fearing the worst, the parents organized their family to flee to the free zone in the south of the country. Maurice, twelve years old, and Joseph, ten years old, will therefore leave alone in order to maximize their chances of finding their older brothers already settled in Nice. The brothers left to their own devices demonstrate an incredible amount of cleverness, courage, and ingenuity to escape the enemy invasion and to try to reunite their family once again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHave Dreams, Will Travel (2007)
West Texas, in the 1960's. A tale of two 12-year-olds who embark on an adventure to find new parents in order to escape their unhappy and emotionally unsatisfying family life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Shortage of Children?
The closest matches to Shortage of Children are House of Voices (2004), Monsieur Batignole (2002) and Strayed (2003). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Shortage of Children?
Start with House of Voices (2004), the closest match to Shortage of Children.
What is the highest-rated movie like Shortage of Children?
Forbidden Games (1952), rated 7.8/10 by 368 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Shortage of Children?
Please Don't Feed the Children (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Shortage of Children?
Yes: House of Voices (2004), Monsieur Batignole (2002) and Strayed (2003).
How are movies similar to Shortage of Children chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Shortage of Children, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.