Movies like Lingui, the Sacred Bonds (2021)
The best movies like Lingui, the Sacred Bonds (2021) are Wadjda (2012), You Will Die at Twenty (2020) and Beginning (2020). If Lingui, the Sacred Bonds hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedCapernaum (2018)8.1/10 from 2,070 votes
- NewestThe Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)Released 2024
- In FrenchA Screaming Man (2010)Also in French
Wadjda (2012)
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisYou Will Die at Twenty (2020)
Shortly after Muzamil was born, the village's holy man predicts that he will die at age 20. Muzamil's father can't stand the curse and leaves home. Sakina raises her son as a single mother, overly protective. One day, Muzamil turns 19.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeginning (2020)
In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah’s Witness community is under attack from an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict is Yana, the wife of the community leader, whose familiar world is slowly crumbling around her. Meanwhile, a detective intrudes on her home with devastating consequences.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisUnclenching the Fists (2021)
In a former mining town in North Ossetia, a young woman struggles to escape the stifling hold of the family she loves as much as she rejects.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Screaming Man (2010)
Adam Ousmane is a pool attendant at a local resort. When the new managers decide to downsize, Adam loses his job to his own son, Abdel. Shattered by the turn of events, Adam is pressured into contributing to the Chadian war effort. With no money to speak of, the only asset he can donate is his son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
My Favourite Fabric (2018)
Damascus, Spring 2011. It's the early stages of the civil war. 25-year-old Nahla is torn between her desire for freedom and the hope of leaving the country thanks to her arranged marriage with Samir, a Syrian expatriate in the USA. When he chooses her younger, more docile sister Myriam, Nahla finds refuge at her neighbor's, the mysterious Ms Jiji.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Goodbye Julia (2023)
A retired singer from northern Sudan, Mona, burdened by guilt for covering up a man's death, hires his southern widow, Julia, as her maid. Unable to confess her role in the tragedy, she hopes to move forward, but the country's growing unrest threatens to reveal her secret.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Crossing (2024)
Lia, a retired teacher from Georgia, learns from her young neighbor, Achi, that her long-lost transgender niece, Tekla, has crossed the border into Turkey. In search of Tekla, Lia travels to Istanbul with the unpredictable Achi, where they explore the hidden depths of the city.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Man Who Sold His Skin (2021)
To be able to travel to Europe and find the love of his life, Sam Ali, a Syrian refugee, accepts to have his back tattooed by one of the most sulfurous contemporary artist; becoming that way a precious work of art.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHarka (2022)
Ali is a young Tunisian who dreams of a better life and ekes out a lonely existence selling contraband oil on the black market. When his father dies, he is forced to care for his two younger sisters who have been left to their own devices in a house from which they will soon be evicted. As he wrestles with the sudden weight of responsibility and the injustices he faces, anger and indignation stir within Ali – that of a generation still fighting to be heard more than a decade after the revolution…
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Capernaum (2018)
After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)
Investigating judge Iman grapples with paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran. When his gun vanishes, he suspects his wife and daughters, imposing draconian measures that strain family ties as societal rules crumble.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTimbuktu (2014)
Just outside of the Malian city of Timbuktu, now occupied by militant Islamic rebels who impose the Sharia on civilians and inconvenience their daily life, a cattleman kills a fisherman.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Search (2014)
A woman who works for a non-governmental organization (NGO) forms a special relationship with a young boy in war-torn Chechnya.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBamako (2007)
Caught in the stranglehold of debt and structural adjustment, Africa is fighting for its survival. In the face of disaster, representatives of African society bring an action against international financial institutions. The trial takes place in Bamako, in the yard of a house, among its inhabitants.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeanpole (2019)
1945, Leningrad. World War II has devastated the city, demolishing its buildings and leaving its citizens in tatters, physically and mentally. Two young women, Iya and Masha, search for meaning and hope in the struggle to rebuild their lives amongst the ruins.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWhite Material (2010)
In the midst of a volatile regime change in a Francophone African state, Maria Vial is fighting to sustain her family’s coffee plantation. With rebels and the army struggling for control, French peacekeeping forces move out, warning the remaining white residents that they’re on their own. But Maria refuses to be driven off the land, even as tragedy looms.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFoxtrot (2017)
A troubled family must face facts when tragedy strikes their son's desolate military post.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Turin Horse (2011)
A look at the monotonous daily struggle of a father and daughter in a windswept, desolate landscape. Over six days, their routine of eating boiled potatoes and tending a failing horse crumbles, symbolizing a slow descent into darkness, emptiness, and the end of existence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSmall Country: An African Childhood (2020)
Gabriel, aged 10, lives in a comfortable ex-pat neighborhood in Burundi, his ‘small country’. Gabriel is a normal kid, happy, carefree and having adventures with his friends and little sister. Then in 1993, tensions in neighboring Rwanda spill over, threatening his family and his innocence.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHive (2021)
Fahrije’s husband has been missing since the war in Kosovo so she sets up her own small business to provide for her kids, but as she fights against a patriarchal society that does not support her, she faces a crucial decision: to wait for his return, or to continue to persevere.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeauty and the Dogs (2017)
When Mariam, a young Tunisian woman, is raped by police officers after leaving a party, she is propelled into a harrowing night in which she must fight for her rights even though justice lies on the side of her tormentors.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDry Season (2006)
Chad, 2006. After a forty-year civil war, the radio announces the government has just amnestied the war criminals. Outraged by the news, Gumar Abatcha orders his grandson Atim, a sixteen-year-old youth, to trace the man who killed his father and to execute him. Atim obeys him and, armed with his father's own gun, he goes in search of Nassara, the man who made him an orphan. It does not take long before he finds him. Nassara, who now goes straight, is married, goes to the mosque and owns a small bakery. After some hesitation Atim offers him his services as an apprentice. He is hired then it will be easy for him to gun down the murderer of his father. At least, that is what he thinks...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Tambour of Retribution (2021)
In an impoverished neighborhood, the son of a swordsman falls in love with the daughter of a wedding singer — a taboo match in a traditional society.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Turtles Can Fly (2006)
Turtles Can Fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iraq border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Perfect Candidate (2020)
A young Saudi doctor campaigns for a seat on the municipal council, finding confidence as she combats prejudice.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThis Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2020)
Amongst the mountains of Lesotho, an 80-year-old widow winds up her affairs and makes arrangements for her burial. But when her village is threatened with resettlement due to the construction of a reservoir, she finds a new will to live and ignites a spirit of resistance within her community.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAtlantics (2019)
Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDisco Boy (2023)
After a painful journey through Europe, Aleksei, a Belarusian, joins the Foreign Legion in France and clings to a confused hope of a European identity. Jomo, a Nigerian, fights for the survival and durability of his people in the Niger Delta and is ready to die to defend his ideas. These two young people who are sacrificed and smashed together will, against all odds, meet and their destinies will merge to continue across borders, bodies, life and death...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIn Bloom (2013)
Eka and Natia leave their childhood behind and ignore societal customs to escape from their turbulent family lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Lingui, the Sacred Bonds?
The closest matches to Lingui, the Sacred Bonds are Wadjda (2012), You Will Die at Twenty (2020) and Beginning (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Lingui, the Sacred Bonds?
People who watched Lingui, the Sacred Bonds most often go on to Wadjda (2012), You Will Die at Twenty (2020) and Beginning (2020).
What is the highest-rated movie like Lingui, the Sacred Bonds?
Capernaum (2018), rated 8.1/10 by 2,070 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Lingui, the Sacred Bonds?
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like Lingui, the Sacred Bonds?
Yes: A Screaming Man (2010), My Favourite Fabric (2018) and Harka (2022).
How are movies similar to Lingui, the Sacred Bonds chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Lingui, the Sacred Bonds, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.