Movies like A People in the Shadows (2008)
The best movies like A People in the Shadows (2008) are Septembers of Shiraz (2015), Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024) and The Operative (2019). If A People in the Shadows hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Hate U Give (2018)8.1/10 from 2,266 votes
- NewestReading Lolita in Tehran (2024)Released 2024
Septembers of Shiraz (2015)
In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Operative (2019)
A young Western woman is recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler and her subject.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisMammal (2016)
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFear the Invisible Man (2023)
A young British widow shelters an old medical school colleague, a man who has somehow turned himself invisible. As his isolation grows and his sanity frays, he schemes to create a reign of wanton murder and terror across the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWatchmen (2009)
In a gritty and alternate 1985, the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown. But after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so they uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSight (2023)
Ming Wang is an impoverished Chinese prodigy who flees Communist China to become a pioneering eye surgeon in America. When tasked with restoring the sight of an orphan in India, who was blinded by her stepmother, Wang must confront the trauma of living through the violent uprising in his youth, the Cultural Revolution.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThey Cloned Tyrone (2023)
A series of eerie events thrusts an unlikely trio onto the trail of a nefarious government conspiracy lurking directly beneath their neighborhood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAs Above, So Below (2014)
When a team of explorers venture into the catacombs that lie beneath the streets of Paris, they uncover the dark secret that lies within this city of the dead.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Saint of Fort Washington (1993)
Matthew, a young schizophrenic, finds himself out on the street when a slumlord tears down his apartment building. Soon, he finds himself in even more dire straits, when he is threatened by Little Leroy, a thug who is one of the tough denizens of the Fort Washington Shelter for Men. He reaches out to Jerry, a streetwise combat veteran, who takes Matthew under his wing as a son. The relationship between these two men grows as they attempt to conquer the numbing isolation of homelessness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hate U Give (2018)
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Eternal Daughter (2022)
An artist and her elderly mother confront long-buried secrets when they return to a former family home, now a hotel haunted by its mysterious past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisRoom 237 (2012)
A subjective documentary that explores various theories about hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Shining. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this6 Days (2017)
London, England, April 1980. Six terrorists assault the Embassy of Iran and take hostages. For six days, tense negotiations are held while the authorities decide whether a military squad should intervene.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAmerican Wrestler: The Wizard (2017)
In 1980, a teenage boy escapes the unrest in Iran only to face more hostility in America, due to the hostage crisis. Determined to fit in, he joins the school's floundering wrestling team.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSometimes They Come Back (1991)
Desperate for a job to help him support his family, Jim Norman takes a position teaching high school in the town where his brother was murdered in front of him by teenage bullies twenty-seven years before. The teens who committed the crime are long dead, but now the kids in Jim's new class keep dying and being replaced by new students who look like the deceased hoodlums.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisAppropriate Behavior (2015)
Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2018)
Over the course of 12 years, and three stages of life, Sidney Hall falls in love, writes the book of a generation and then disappears without a trace.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like A People in the Shadows?
The closest matches to A People in the Shadows are Septembers of Shiraz (2015), Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024) and The Operative (2019). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after A People in the Shadows?
Start with Septembers of Shiraz (2015), the closest match to A People in the Shadows.
What is the highest-rated movie like A People in the Shadows?
The Hate U Give (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,266 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like A People in the Shadows?
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like A People in the Shadows?
Yes: Septembers of Shiraz (2015), Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024) and The Operative (2019).
How are movies similar to A People in the Shadows chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside A People in the Shadows, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.