Movies like Mehmet Salih (2016)
The best movies like Mehmet Salih (2016) are Paper Lives (2021), Skin (2009) and The Color of Friendship (2000). If Mehmet Salih hooked you with its drama, 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
- NewestAbout Dry Grasses (2023)Released 2023
Paper 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 · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisSkin (2009)
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHounddog (2008)
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside (2012)
Muharrem faces his life, thoughts, and inner darkness at a party he does not want to attend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlock C (1994)
Tulay, a restless woman whose marriage is slowly disintegrating sets out to come to terms with various traumas while continually being watched by Halit, a resident in her apartment complex.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Angel (2007)
The film is a love story. However, it is not a story about the love between two people, but rather a story about the love and affection that a group of people feel for life and for each other. The film depicts all kinds of love, from east to west, from schoolchildren to villagers, from young to old, in both an emotional and humorous way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisİstanbul Tales (2005)
Five interconnected stories set in modern-day Istanbul based on the fairytales Snow White, Cinderella, Pied Piper, Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbout Dry Grasses (2023)
A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCharm City Kings (2020)
Mouse desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, the infamous Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax, takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Tale of Three Sisters (2019)
A stagnant and gloomy village in the 1980s. Reyhan, Nurhan, and Havva, three sisters were sent to town as 'besleme' (foster child and maid). Since they fail their foster parents for different reasons, they are sent back to their father's house in their poor village. Deprived of their dreams of a better life, they try to hold on to each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972)
Middle-aged widow Beatrice Hunsdorfer and her daughters Ruth and Matilda are struggling to survive in a society they barely understand. Beatrice dreams of opening an elegant tea room but does not have the wherewithal to achieve her lofty goal. Epileptic Ruth is a rebellious adolescent, while shy but highly intelligent and idealistic Matilda seeks solace in her pets and school projects, including one designed to show how small amounts of radium affect marigolds.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMommy, I'm Scared (2006)
Reha Erdem’s innovative group portrait of the inhabitants of an apartment building in Istanbul serves as a comic exploration of what it means to be human. The drama revolves around hapless taxi driver Ali, who suffers from amnesia as a result of an accident the cause of which he does not remember. As he struggles to regain his memory, his neighbors—embodying a variety of physical, mental, and emotional states—wrestle with their own difficulties, helping one another along the way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Dry White Season (1989)
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 · 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 thisHome Run (2013)
A pro ball player with a substance abuse problem is forced into rehab in his hometown, finding new hope when he gets honest about his checkered past, and takes on coaching duties for a misfit Little League team
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInside I'm Dancing (2004)
Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Girl in the Book (2015)
The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisHala (2019)
Seventeen-year-old Pakistani American teenager Hala struggles to balance desire with her family, cultural, and religious obligations. As she comes into her own, she grapples with a secret that threatens to unravel her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
Like Mehmet Salih and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Mehmet Salih?
The closest matches to Mehmet Salih are Paper Lives (2021), Skin (2009) and The Color of Friendship (2000). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Mehmet Salih?
Start with Paper Lives (2021), the closest match to Mehmet Salih.
What is the highest-rated movie like Mehmet Salih?
Paper Lives (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 426 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Mehmet Salih?
About Dry Grasses (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Mehmet Salih chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Mehmet Salih, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.



















