Movies like Kavga (1986)
The best movies like Kavga (1986) are Midnight Express (1978), Bronson (2009) and Paper Lives (2021). If Kavga 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
- NewestSing Sing (2024)Released 2024
Midnight 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 thisBronson (2009)
A young man who was sentenced to 7 years in prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.
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 thisPoor (1986)
Kemal is a young man who does all kinds of work to make ends meet and is passionate about football. The young man who makes his living from the hardest, one day finds a baby abandoned on the side of the road. Kemal, who adopted the orphaned baby, raises and takes care of the girl like the baby's father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAutumn (2008)
Arrested while a student in university, Yusuf is released from prison after ten years. He returns home and is welcomed by his sick and elderly mother. Soon he will meet Eka, a beautiful Georgian girl who is a sex worker, and love becomes a final desperate attempt to grasp life and elude loneliness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)
Dito Montiel, a successful author, receives a call from his long-suffering mother, asking him to return home and visit his ailing father. Dito recalls his childhood growing up in a violent neighborhood in Queens, N.Y., with friends Antonio, Giuseppe, Nerf and Mike.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRebel Without a Cause (1955)
After moving to a new town, troublemaking teen Jim Stark is supposed to have a clean slate, although being the new kid in town brings its own problems. While searching for some stability, Stark forms a bond with a disturbed classmate, Plato, and falls for local girl Judy. However, Judy is the girlfriend of neighborhood tough, Buzz. When Buzz violently confronts Jim and challenges him to a drag race, the new kid's real troubles begin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStuart: A Life Backwards (2007)
Story about the remarkable friendship between a reclusive writer and illustrator and a chaotic homeless man, whom he gets to know during a campaign to release two charity workers from prison.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInnocence (1997)
Yusuf is released from prison after serving a ten year sentence. Because of unexpected problems at his sister’s house, he finds himself in a cheap hotel where he meets a man, a woman, and a child who will change his life in unexpected ways…
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRoom (2015)
Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSing Sing (2024)
Divine G, imprisoned at Sing Sing for a crime he didn't commit, finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men in this story of resilience, humanity, and the transformative power of art.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisZübük (1980)
This is the story of the politician named Zübük. He gets expelled from the political party that he is a member of, due to corruption. The journalist Yaşar wants to make a news story about his case and investigates Zübük's doings. Yaşar gets baffled at the sly tricks Zübük played on his village people. In the end, he feels sorry about Zübük's present situation, however, as things happen he becomes aware that Zübük has been tricking him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHouse Party (1990)
Young Kid has been invited to a party at his friend Play's house. But after a fight at school, Kid's father grounds him. None the less, Kid sneaks out when his father falls asleep. But Kid doesn't know that three of the thugs at school have decided to give him a lesson in behavior.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Super (1991)
Louie Kritski is a heartless landlord who has been so negligent in keeping up his ghetto apartment that he is threatened with jail time. The judge gives him another option -- he must live in his rat-infested hell hole until he brings it up to liveable standards.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Jungle Book (1967)
The boy Mowgli makes his way to the man-village with Bagheera, the wise panther. Along the way he meets jazzy King Louie, the hypnotic snake Kaa and the lovable, happy-go-lucky bear Baloo, who teaches Mowgli "The Bare Necessities" of life and the true meaning of friendship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhite Men Can't Jump (2023)
Seemingly opposite street hoopers, Jeremy, an injury prone former star, and Kamal, a has-been prodigy, team up to take one final shot at living out their dreams.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Grifters (1990)
A small-time conman has his loyalties torn between his estranged mother and his new girlfriend, both of whom are high-stakes grifters with their own angles to play.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPoor Cow (1967)
Joy lives a life filled with bad choices. At a young age, she marries and has a child–with an abusive thief who quickly ends up incarcerated. Left alone, she takes up with the guy's mate, another thief, who seems to give her some happiness but who also ends up locked up. She then takes up with a series of seedy types who offer nothing but momentary pleasure–if that.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Great Gilly Hopkins (2015)
Young and feisty Gilly Hopkins devises a scheme to escape from her new foster home and reunite with her birth mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBad Boys (1983)
Mick O'Brien is a young Chicago street thug torn between a life of petty crime and the love of his girlfriend. But when the heist of a local drug dealer goes tragically wrong Mick is sentenced to a brutal juvenile prison where violence is a rite of passage and respect is measured in vengeance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
Like Kavga and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Kavga?
The closest matches to Kavga are Midnight Express (1978), Bronson (2009) and Paper Lives (2021). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Kavga?
Start with Midnight Express (1978), the closest match to Kavga.
What is the highest-rated movie like Kavga?
Paper Lives (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 426 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Kavga?
Sing Sing (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Kavga chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Kavga, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



















