Movies like A Separation (2011)
The best movies like A Separation (2011) are Fireworks Wednesday (2006), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) and Fathers and Daughters (2015). If A Separation 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 Prestige (2006)8.2/10 from 18,422 votes
- NewestDie schönste Bescherung (2024)Released 2024
Fireworks Wednesday (2006)
Rouhi, a young bride-to-be, is hired as a maid for an affluent family in Tehran. Upon arriving, she is suddenly thrust into an explosive domestic conflict. The wife is convinced her husband is having an affair and enlists Rouhi as a spy, to follow her husband, and confirm her suspicions. What Rouhi discovers, however, threatens not only their marriage but her own future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFathers and Daughters (2015)
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Salesman (2016)
Forced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighboring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young couple’s life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStill Alice (2014)
Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words. When she receives a devastating diagnosis, Alice and her family find their bonds tested.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReading Lolita in Tehran (2024)
In 1979, amidst censorship and religious extremism, a revolutionary literature professor in Tehran gathers seven of her most dedicated female students to immerse themselves in banned literary classics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLeila's Brothers (2022)
At the age of 40, Leila has spent her entire life caring for her parents and four brothers. A family that is constantly arguing and under pressure from various debts in the face of sanctions against Iran. While her brothers are struggling to make ends meet, Leila makes a plan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLucky (2017)
Follows the journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. He finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boy Who Could Fly (1986)
Milly and Louis, and their recently-widowed mom, Charlene, move to a new neighborhood. Once there, they all deal with a variety of personal problems, but Milly finds a friend in Eric, her autistic next door neighbor. Eric has a fascination with flight, and as the story progresses, he exerts an enthralling force of change on all those around him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Am Sam (2001)
Sam, a neurodivergent man, has a daughter with a homeless woman who abandons them when they leave the hospital, leaving Sam to raise Lucy on his own. But as Lucy grows up, Sam's limitations as a parent start to become a problem and the authorities take her away. Sam convinces high-priced lawyer Rita to take his case pro bono and in turn teaches her the value of love and family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbout 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou're Not You (2014)
When an accomplished pianist is diagnosed with the devastating and incurable disease ALS, she hires a directionless young woman who becomes her full-time caregiver. Complete opposites, the strangers form a life-changing bond inspiring each other to live life to fullest, while being brought together by the most challenging of circumstances.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFast Girls (2012)
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTatami (2024)
Iranian female judokas Leila and her coach Maryam, travel to the Judo World Championship, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. Midway through the Judo World Championships, they receive an ultimatum from the Islamic Republic ordering Leila to fake an injury and lose, or she will be branded a traitor of the state. With her own and her family’s freedom at stake, Leila is faced with an impossible choice: comply with the Iranian regime as her coach Maryam implores her to do, or fight on, for the gold.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFalling (2020)
John Peterson lives with his partner Eric and their adopted daughter in Southern California. When he is visited by his aging father Willis from Los Angeles who is searching for a place to retire, their two very different worlds collide.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHead Full of Honey (2018)
A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrdinary Angels (2024)
Inspired by the incredible true story of a hairdresser who single-handedly rallies an entire community to help a widowed father save the life of his critically ill young daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Age for Love (1931)
A comedy-drama about marriage and divorce. A wife does not want children, her husband leaves her and marries a woman who does.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Part-Time Divorce (1986)
While heading to Spain to spend their honeymoon there, Siniša and Svetlana find themselves at Montenegrin coast due to mistake made by travel agency. They get back disappointed to Belgrade, where new problems expect them: Svetlana applied for an apartment, but divorced mothers with children are those who have advantage. Svetlana and Siniša decide to divorce for a part-time period so they could trick the housing board and get an apartment.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Prestige (2006)
A mysterious story of two magicians whose intense rivalry leads them on a life-long battle for supremacy -- full of obsession, deceit and jealousy with dangerous and deadly consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisLovers of the Arctic Circle (1998)
As young children, Otto and Ana become best friends, leading to the marriage of Ana's mother to Otto's father. When Otto and Ana become teenagers, they begin a sexual relationship, which they hide from their parents. The two fall deeply in love and seem destined to spend the rest of their lives together. However, their relationship is tested when Otto's mother dies and the two are separated.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDie schönste Bescherung (2024)
Nobody in the Rigi family is really looking forward to the Christmas Child this year. 13-year-old Sima and her little brother Elyas know: Mom Leonie and dad Kian are going to split up! Even Kian's parents Britta and Navid, who want to spread Christmas cheer, can't turn the tide. Only after a false alarm about Elyas, who has suddenly disappeared, do the tensions ease. The newlyweds make a discovery on their doorstep: a baby just a few weeks old. After a confession from him, the search begins for the mother - and the reason why the foundling should be with parents who are separating.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dash Akol (1971)
Dash Akol is greatly respected in Shiraz as an honorable man who has lost his family's money through helping his friends. He has an enemy, however, named Kaka Rostam, a mean and spiteful person. Dash Akol, who is in his forties, falls in love with Marjan, daughter of the late Haji Samad, for whose estate he is the executor. But he keeps his love secret. One day a suitor asks for Marjan's hand, and Dash Akol considers it against his code of honor to refuse. On the night of the wedding, Dash Akol hands over responsibility for the family to the bridegroom. As he is leaving the house, however, Kaka Rostam is waiting for him and a fight ensues. Kaka Rostam stabs him in the back, but Dash Akol succeeds in killing him. On his deathbed, Dash Akol sends his parrot to Marjan with the confession of love he has taught it.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Way of the Gun (2000)
Two criminal drifters without sympathy get more than they bargained for after kidnapping and holding for ransom the surrogate mother of a powerful and shady man.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisElsa & Fred (2014)
After his daughter persuades him to move into a new apartment, aged widower Fred strikes up a friendship with his eccentric 74-year-old neighbour Elsa, who convinces him it's never too late to keep enjoying life. Although he seemed resigned to a miserable bedridden existence, Fred embraces Elsa's youthful enthusiasm as she introduces him to the path of life and entertains him with outlandish stories about her past life. But when he discovers Elsa's terminally ill, Fred decides to accompany her on the trip of her dreams to the eternal city of Rome to help her fulfil a lifelong ambition.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNowhere in Africa (2001)
A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisParty Monster (2003)
The New York club scene of the 80s and 90s was a world like no other. Into this candy-colored, mirror ball playground stepped Michael Alig, a wannabe from nowhere special. Under the watchful eye of veteran club kid James St. James, Alig quickly rose to the top... and there was no place to go but down.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A Separation?
The closest matches to A Separation are Fireworks Wednesday (2006), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) and Fathers and Daughters (2015). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A Separation?
Start with Fireworks Wednesday (2006), the closest match to A Separation.
What is the highest-rated movie like A Separation?
The Prestige (2006), rated 8.2/10 by 18,422 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A Separation?
Die schönste Bescherung (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to A Separation chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A Separation, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.