Movies like Butterfly Wings (1991)
The best movies like Butterfly Wings (1991) are A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019), Hungry Hearts (2015) and Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998). If Butterfly Wings hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedApocalypto (2006)7.7/10 from 6,792 votes
- NewestMexicali (2026)Released 2026
- In SpanishThe 7th Day (2004)Also in Spanish
A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019)
The recently widowed mother of two, Sarah, is desperate to know who murdered her husband in front of her young son, rendering him mute. Coerced into helping a low-life drug dealer stash narcotics stolen from the local Mr. Big, she's forced into taking drastic action to protect her children, evolving from downtrodden submissive to take-charge vigilante.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHungry Hearts (2015)
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisXiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCleveland Abduction (2015)
A single mother becomes Ariel Castro's first kidnapping victim, and finds herself trapped in his home with two other women for 11 years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJulien Donkey-Boy (1999)
Undiagnosed, untreated and generally untethered schizophrenic Julien lives with his pregnant younger sister, anorexic aspiring wrestler brother, sympathetic grandmother, and severely depressed and abusive German father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe 7th Day (2004)
Isabel Jimenez is a teenager witnessing a horrible feud between her own family and the Fuentes family, a feud involving broken hearts, property disputes and a mysterious fire that destroyed the Fuentes house. Isabel's uncle is murdered by Jeronimo Fuentes, who later tries to stab her father. After Jeronimo dies in jail, Isabel must look outside of her family for the truth, learning from the village idiot that her father may have set fire to the Fuentes home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisApocalypto (2006)
Set in the Mayan civilization, when a man's idyllic presence is brutally disrupted by a violent invading force, he is taken on a perilous journey to a world ruled by fear and oppression where a harrowing end awaits him. Through a twist of fate and spurred by the power of his love for his woman and his family he will make a desperate break to return home and to ultimately save his way of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNatural Born Killers (1994)
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Quietude (2018)
Against the backdrop of a military dictatorship, Eugenia is reunited with her estranged family following her father’s stroke and is forced to confront dark secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDon't Make Me Go (2022)
A terminally ill man and his teenage daughter embark on a road trip from California to New Orleans for his 20th college reunion. While there, he secretly hopes she can reunite with the mother who left them long ago.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPimp (2018)
An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015)
Anna Fritz is a beautiful and famous actress. Suddenly her body is found in a hotel and the news of her death goes around the planet. The young, shy caretaker Pau works at the hospital where they carried the body of Anna Fritz. He and his friends decide to take pictures of the body of Anna Fritz. They decide they could make love to her and nobody would know. They are in front of Anna Fritz ... and can do with it what they want.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMexicali (2026)
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMatador (1986)
A conflicted youth confesses to crimes he didn't commit while a man and woman aroused by death become obsessed with each other.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtremities (1986)
A woman escapes from the man who is about to rape her, but leaves her purse behind. Afraid that her attacker might come after her, she goes to the police, but with no proof of the incident, they can do nothing. In fact, the man does use the information in her bag and comes to her apartment with the intent of rape, but she sprays him in the face with insect repellent, and then holds him captive. She is then faced with deciding whether to go to the police who might not believe her and release him, or to kill him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Coming of Sin (1978)
A superstitious servant girl - who has foreboding nightmares about a naked man on horseback - comes to live with a solitary female artist at her country chateau. As the artist takes the girl under her wing, a sensuous relationship develops between them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrooklyn's Finest (2010)
Enforcing the law within the notoriously rough Brownsville section of the city and especially within the Van Dyke housing projects is the NYPD's sixty-fifth precinct. Three police officers struggle with the sometimes fine line between right and wrong.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBlonde (2022)
From her volatile childhood as Norma Jeane, through her rise to stardom and romantic entanglements, this reimagined fictional portrait of Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe blurs the lines of fact and fiction to explore the widening split between her public and private selves.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisBlindfire (2020)
A police officer who while responding to a violent hostage call, kills the African American suspect only to later learn of his innocence. Sensing this was a set-up, and facing repercussions, he must track down the person responsible while examining his own accountability and the ingrained racism which brought him to this point.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMen in War (1957)
In Korea, on 6 September 1950, Lieutenant Benson's platoon finds itself isolated in enemy-held territory after a retreat. Soon they are joined by Sergeant Montana, whose overriding concern is caring for his catatonic colonel. Benson and Montana can't stand each other, but together they must get the survivors to Hill 465, where they hope the division is waiting. It's a long, harrowing march, fraught with all the dangers the elusive enemy can summon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReveille (1917)
Countess Hedvig von Wärnfelt receives her orphaned niece Marianne to bring her up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Marianne is a spirited and vibrant young girl who is also an aspiring actress. The Countess is dismayed by her uneducated behavior and treats her severely.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
White God (2014)
13 year old Lili fights to protect her dog Hagen, and is devastated when her father sets Hagen free on the streets. Still innocently believing love can conquer any difficulty, Lili sets out to save her dog. Failing in his desperate efforts to find his beloved owner, Hagen joins a canine revolt leading a revolution against their human abusers.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdoration (2009)
For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Pleasure of Sin (1964)
A deaf and dumb girl in a village is raped by a man, becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby. Jabbar later marries the village headman's daughter but his wife can't get pregnant. Therefore, he wants to get the baby for himself and his wife.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Turnaround (2015)
A 12-year-old girl goes on a car ride with a man she met online to prove she is not a child anymore.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Blue Butterfly (2004)
Based on a true story, The Blue Butterfly tells the story of a terminally ill 10-year-old boy whose dream is to catch the most beautiful butterfly on Earth, the mythic and elusive Blue Morpho. His mother persuades a renowned entomologist to take them on a trip to the jungle to search for the butterfly, leading to an adventure that will transform their lives
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Nayakan (1987)
Velu Naicker, who witnesses the brutal murder of his father, kills a corrupt policeman and escapes to Mumbai, only to become a gangster.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisStorm (2022)
Singel mother, Elin, experiences her worst nightmare when her son dies in a drowning accident. She tries to get her life back on track after the tragedy together with her daughter Storm (10), but there are rumours around school that somebody saw Storm push her brother in the river on purpose.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Replika (2026)
When two sisters are travelling by car with their ageing, heart-sick mother, they receive the news that their brother has suddenly died. In a tightly drama, the sisters are confronted with an ethical dilemma as they choose to let a lie take precedence over the truth out of concern for their mother’s fragile health.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Romulus, My Father (2007)
The story of Romulus, his beautiful wife, Christina, and their struggle in the face of great adversity to bring up their son, Raimond. It is a story of impossible love that ultimately celebrates the unbreakable bond between father and son.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Butterfly Wings?
The closest matches to Butterfly Wings are A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019), Hungry Hearts (2015) and Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Butterfly Wings?
Start with A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2019), the closest match to Butterfly Wings.
What is the highest-rated movie like Butterfly Wings?
Apocalypto (2006), rated 7.7/10 by 6,792 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Butterfly Wings?
Mexicali (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Spanish movies like Butterfly Wings?
Yes: The 7th Day (2004), The Quietude (2018) and The Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015).
How are movies similar to Butterfly Wings chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Butterfly Wings, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.