Movies like Ghosts
The best movies like Ghosts (2021) are Paper Lives (2021), About Dry Grasses (2023) and Yellow Letters (2026). If Ghosts hooked you with its drama, these 30 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
- NewestYellow Letters (2026)Released 2026
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 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 thisYellow Letters (2026)
The marriage of Derya and Aziz is under pressure after losing their jobs because of state arbitrariness and moving to Istanbul to live with Aziz's parents. They and their 13-year-old daughter Ezgi have to redefine their way of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies 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 · 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 thisThe Bride (1973)
The struggles of a migrant Anatolian family to adapt to and survive in the very different conditions of urban Istanbul. A young woman moves with her husband and small child to her husband's family in Istanbul. Her son becomes ill and the doctor tells her that he will soon die if he doesn't get an operation. The family refuses to help her because they can't see anything wrong with the boy. What happens on a Eid morning becomes a breaking point for the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSomething Useful (2017)
A chance meeting on a train in the Turkish countryside leads two women to a journey that shows them the importance of setting a path for one's life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this10 Days of a Curious Man (2024)
When a young woman goes missing in Istanbul, a jaded writer gets tangled up in a deadly chain of events as he sets out to find her—and a good story.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Saw the Sun (2009)
In the southeast region of Turkey, the Kurdish family of Altun lives in a small mountainside village plagued by a 25-year war that makes their daily lives a hellish struggle. As the war intensifies, the family is forced to migrate west to the city of Istanbul.
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 Good Neighbor (2022)
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
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 thisHardball (2001)
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Truth About Emanuel (2013)
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHands of Stone (2016)
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSkater Girl (2021)
Prerna, a teenager growing up in rural India, comes of age when she’s introduced to the sport of skateboarding. As a result, she has to fight the odds to follow her dreams and compete in the national championship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKisses (2008)
Two kids, Dylan and Kylie, run away from home on Christmas Day and spend a night of magic and terror on the streets of inner-city Dublin.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAdopt a Highway (2019)
Russ Millings has just been released from prison after serving 21 years for a 3rd strike conviction for possessing an ounce of marijuana. As he tries to adapt to a world he doesn’t recognize – including trying to learn how to use the internet – he finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind the fast food restaurant where he works as a dishwasher. Unsure of what to do, and caught between impulses of kindness and panic, Russ soon realizes this could be his chance at redemption.
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 thisFor Love and Honor (2007)
Ali Osman is a former bully of city of Istanbul. But lately he gives up bully and starts to operate a synthetic pitch. He often meets his old friends, former bullies, too. One day Ali Osman receives a news which is related with his previous passionate life. Then the whole action stats as a chain of events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLatitudes (2014)
Olívia, a fashion executive, and José, a photographer, gets together in Paris, having casual sex and talking a little about relationships. And, in some days, they meet again in another city. And another one. And another... Latitudes is a trip around the world, the love and the poem of living.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Girl on the Bridge (1999)
It's night on a Paris bridge. A girl leans over Seine River with tears in her eyes and a violent yearning to drown her sorrows. Out of nowhere someone takes an interest in her. He is Gabor, a knife thrower who needs a human target for his show. The girl, Adele, has never been lucky and nowhere else to go. So she follows him. They travel along the northern bank of the Mediterranean to perform.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLove Likes Coincidences (2011)
Year 1977, a September morning in Ankara... Yilmaz tries to rush his pregnant wife Neriman to the hospital and he crushes into Omer's car. This accident causes Omer's pregnant wife Inci, who was in the back seat, to have a pre-term labor. The babies are born on the same day. They see each other for the first time... This accident is the threshold of the coincidences that bring Ozgur and Deniz together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStamboul Quest (1934)
In 1915, German Counter-Intelligence Chief Von Sturm learns that someone is providing the British with critical strategic planning for the Turkish theater. He suspects Ali Bey, Turkish commander for the Dardanelles, and dispatches Annemarie to Constantinople to secure the proof. En route, she becomes involved with Douglas Beall, a footloose American. Complications ensue, requiring Annemarie to engage in some dangerous improvisations.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
A Shore Away (2022)
Newly employed in an emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness, Geneviève is shaken to meet a young woman there whom she believed to have succeeded in reintegrating when she was her social worker.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Before/After (2025)
Jérémy meets Baptiste. Their shared baldness takes them to Istanbul, where clinics claim to reverse the course of time. Amid shifting winds and silent unrest, they search for meaning in a city not their own. Day by day, a fragile bond forms, in the hope of change.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
She's Out of His Mind (2022)
On the eve of the wedding of an old flame, a young man must come to terms with every woman he has ever loved and lost. No sleep tonight.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
10 to 11 (2009)
Mithat passionately collects newspapers in his Istanbul flat. The other tenants ridicule him and he lives a lonely life. As the building is to be renovated, Mithat develops a friendship with concierge Ali, another loner, who helps him save his collection. They involuntarily change each other’s fate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisElbow (2024)
Hazal is 17 and lives in Berlin. Her biggest wish: to be given a chance. For her 18th birthday she wants to escape the everyday grind and party with her friends. But an incident changes everything. Hazal is forced to flee.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Steam: The Turkish Bath (1997)
Francesco and Marta run a husband-and-wife design company in Rome. When Francesco's aunt dies in Istanbul he travels there to sort out the hamam Turkish steam bath that she left him. He finds a love and warmth in his relatives' Istanbul home that is missing from his life in Italy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Ghosts?
The closest matches to Ghosts are Paper Lives (2021), About Dry Grasses (2023) and Yellow Letters (2026). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Ghosts?
Start with Paper Lives (2021), the closest match to Ghosts.
What is the highest-rated movie like Ghosts?
Paper Lives (2021), rated 8.0/10 by 426 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Ghosts?
Yellow Letters (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Ghosts chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Ghosts, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.