Movies like The Swindlers (1959)
The best movies like The Swindlers (1959) are The Butcher (1998), Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981) and Eleanor the Great (2025). If The Swindlers hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedOn My Skin (2018)8.0/10 from 1,908 votes
- NewestThings We Don't Say (2026)Released 2026
- In ItalianThe Butcher (1998)Also in Italian
The Butcher (1998)
Alina is a brilliant and enterprising woman who runs a successful art gallery in Palermo. Her husband Daniele, a successful orchestra conductor, cultured and intelligent, is not a regular presence. One day, while accompanying Daniele to the airport, Alina feels a sense of emptiness. She will try to fill it with a butcher who is always joking and full of erotic allusions and who arouses a strong attraction in her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981)
The son of the owner of a large Italian cheese factory is kidnapped, but as the factory is on the verge of bankruptcy the owner hatches a plan to use the ransom money as reinvestment in the factory.
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 thisThe Railroad Man (1956)
Train operator Andrea Marcocci has to witness the suicide of a desperate man who jumps in front of his train. Under the influence of this shock he starts making mistakes. A check up by a doctor reveals that he's at the brink of becoming an alcoholic. Due to this evaluation he is degraded and must accept a salary cut.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThings We Don't Say (2026)
Carlo and Elisa are a successful couple. He’s a university professor and writer facing a creative block; she’s a brilliant, sharp-witted journalist, known for her internationally published editorials. They live in Rome, moving between accomplishments and routine, affection and something that might be fading. In search of new energy, they travel to Morocco with their lifelong friends, Anna and Paolo, and their thirteen-year-old daughter Vittoria—bright, curious, a little eccentric. Tensions soon rise.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNostalgia (2022)
Felice returns to his native Rione Sanità in Naples to look after his dying mother, having lived abroad for the last forty years. Here he discovers that his old friend Oreste has become a notorious crimeboss.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Tales (2020)
In a small suburb on the outskirts of Rome, the cheerful heat of summer camouflages a stifling atmosphere of alienation. From a distance, the families seem normal, but it’s an illusion: in the houses, courtyards and gardens, silence shrouds the subtle sadism of the fathers, the passivity of the mothers and the guilty indifference of adults. But it’s the desperation and repressed rage of the children that will explode and cut through this grotesque façade, with devastating consequences for the entire community.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLoro (2018)
Internationally released Director's Cut of "Loro 1" and "Loro 2", which were released separately as two movies in Italy. The film talks about the group of businessmen and politicians – the Loro (Them) from the title – who live and act near to media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi in the years between 2006 and 2009.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Lady Without Camelias (1953)
A Milanese shop assistant becomes an overnight film sensation when fate lands her the leading role in a prominent producer's romantic drama.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShun Li and the Poet (2011)
A study of the friendship between a Chinese woman and a fisherman who came to Italy from Yugoslavia many years ago, who live in a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOn My Skin (2018)
The incredible true story behind the most controversial Italian court cases in recent years. Stefano Cucchi was arrested for a minor crime and mysteriously found dead during his detention. In one week's time, a family is changed forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like this40 Seconds (2025)
It explores the tragic events leading up to the murder of 21-year-old Willy Monteiro Duarte, highlighting the intertwining of chance encounters, rivalries, and latent tensions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Family (1987)
Formal portraits, bookends in this 80-year saga, enclose the central story, which opens with the baptism of Carlo, a baby in his grandfather's lap, and ends with Carlo as a grandfather with a baby in his arms. And never once do we get out of the house, whose rooms provide structure. Comfort or passion? Carlo can't really decide until it's too late.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Consequences of Love (2004)
Lugano, Switzerland. Titta Di Girolamo is a discreet and sullen man who has been living for almost a decade in a modest hotel room, a prisoner of an atrocious routine, apparently without purpose. His past is a mystery, nobody knows what he does for a living, he answers indiscreet questions evasively. What secrets does this enigmatic man hide?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 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 thisGiordano Bruno (1973)
Fleeing from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for 'heresy'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFinally Dawn (2024)
A young Roman woman during the 1950s is on the verge of becoming engaged to a man. She goes to Cinecittà to do an audition as an extra and is thrust into this almost infinite night during which she discovers herself.
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 Mass Is Ended (1985)
Young Father Giulio returns to Rome, where he was born and raised, to replace a priest who has left the clergy to start a family. He is delighted to reunite with his loved ones, especially his mother, sister, and old friends. Once radical leftists like Giulio himself, the latter are now each coping in their own way with the defeat of the revolution. Soon, however, Giulio realizes that despite his best efforts, he seems unable to solve the problems troubling those around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNight Working (2017)
Lin, a migrant female worker from Cambodia, and Yeon-hee, a Korean, are friends who work together at a factory at night. One day, the two will go to the sea together for the weekend. However, the factory manager only forces Lin to work overtime on the weekend, while Lin finds out that Yeon-hee is leaving Korea for Australia soon.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Land Imagined (2019)
A cop in Singapore investigates the disappearance of a Chinese migrant construction worker who spent sleepless nights playing a mysterious video game.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisKola Loompor (TBA)
Naeem, a Bangladeshi migrant worker employed as a street sweeper, initially feels fearful and keeps his distance from the locals. However, his encounter with Zainab, a 20-year-old local woman living on the streets, slowly captures his attention. As their bond deepens, Naeem finds himself navigating unfamiliar emotions in a city that remains distant and indifferent.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Solino (2002)
The movie portrays the story of an Italian family emigrated in Germany in the 1970s. Romano (Gigi Savoia), the father, decides to open a pizzeria which, by mutual decision with the wife Rosa (Antonella Attili), will call Solino, leaving his sons Gigi and Giancarlo to work there. A hostile relationship comes to life between the father and his sons, which will end up in the escape of the boys from family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGlorious 39 (2009)
A mysterious tale set around a traditional British family on the eve of World War Two. Oblivious to the looming shadow of World War II, the wealthy Keyes maintain a confident façade in the British countryside until daughter Anne becomes an unexpected pawn. Her accidental discovery of secret recordings creates a rift in the family.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVisaranai (2016)
Pandi and his friends, immigrant workers in Andhra Pradesh, are picked up by cops for a crime they never committed. And thus begins their nightmare, where they become pawns in a vicious game where the voiceless are strangled by those with power.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPlan 75 (2022)
In a Japan of the near future, the government program Plan 75 encourages senior citizens to be voluntarily euthanized to remedy a super-aged society. An elderly woman whose means of survival are vanishing, a pragmatic Plan 75 salesman, and a young Filipino laborer face choices of life and death.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRichelieu (2023)
A French-to-Spanish interpreter working for a food processing plant that hires seasonal workers from Guatemala is, at first determined to obey the sometimes excessive directives of the young boss, but she befriends the workers and tries to defend them against the exploitation they suffer.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Absent (2014)
An old man lives alone in a shabby cabin in a remote mountainous area of Mexico. His house is set to be demolished in order to facilitate the redevelopment of the area. He doesn't know how to protect his house. Time goes by and one day a young man shows up on his doorstep. Looking exhausted, he starts his new routine here, cooking and doing laundry just like the old man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Swindlers?
The closest matches to The Swindlers are The Butcher (1998), Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981) and Eleanor the Great (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Swindlers?
Start with The Butcher (1998), the closest match to The Swindlers.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Swindlers?
On My Skin (2018), rated 8.0/10 by 1,908 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Swindlers?
Things We Don't Say (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Italian movies like The Swindlers?
Yes: The Butcher (1998), Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981) and The Railroad Man (1956).
How are movies similar to The Swindlers chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Swindlers, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.