Movies like Pigeon's Milk (1986)
The best movies like Pigeon's Milk (1986) are El Chicano (2019), My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985) and What Maisie Knew (2013). If Pigeon's Milk hooked you with its drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks
- Highest ratedInside I'm Dancing (2004)7.4/10 from 244 votes
- NewestThe Out (2022)Released 2022
El Chicano (2019)
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985)
Russian provincial town in the middle of the 1930s Stalin's Great Purge. Ivan Lapshin, the head of the local police, does what he has to do. And he does it well.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhat Maisie Knew (2013)
In New York City, six-year-old Maisie is caught in the middle of a bitter custody battle between her self-absorbed parents—an aging rock singer mother and a distracted art dealer father. As both quickly marry new partners to strengthen their legal standing, Maisie is shuttled back and forth in an endless game of emotional point-scoring. Yet amid the chaos and upheaval, Maisie begins to find true comfort and affection in her new step-parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBrotherly Love (2015)
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAll Day and a Night (2020)
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMost (2003)
A poetic and powerful story of a father forced to choose between love and duty.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Nest (2020)
Rory is an ambitious entrepreneur who brings his American wife and kids to his native country, England, to explore new business opportunities. After abandoning the sanctuary of their safe American suburban surroundings, the family is plunged into the despair of an archaic '80s Britain and their unaffordable new life in an English manor house threatens to destroy the family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Question of Faith (2017)
When Tragedy Strikes three Families, their Destiny forces them on a coverging path and mercy as the challenges of their fate could also resurrect their beliefs
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 thisCome Sunday (2018)
Evangelist Carlton Pearson is ostracized by his church for preaching that there is no Hell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisSergio (2020)
A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVanya on 42nd Street (1994)
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 'Uncle Vanya' plays out by a company of actors. The setting: their run-down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten.
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 thisThree Christs (2017)
Dr. Alan Stone breaks new ground for treatment of the mentally ill through an experiment on three paranoid schizophrenic patients who believe they are Jesus Christ.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisCardboard Boxer (2016)
Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.
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 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 Kindness of Strangers (2019)
Clara and her two sons escape from her abusive husband with little more than their car and plan to start over in New York. After the car towed away, the family meets Alice, who gets them into an emergency shelter. While stealing food at a Russian restaurant called ‘Winter Palace’, Clara meets Marc, who has been given the chance to help the old eatery regain its former glory. The ‘Winter Palace’ soon becomes a place of unexpected encounters between people who are all undergoing some sort of crisis and whom fate has now brought together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like this1 Chance 2 Dance (2014)
When a 17-year old aspiring dancer is uprooted in her high school senior year, she finds herself divided between two boys, and she will have one last shot at making her dream a reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThondan (2017)
A righteous ambulance driver rubs a politician on the wrong side, and the latter decides to teach him a lesson.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Verna (2017)
A married couple's life falls apart as they face extraordinary circumstances.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dark Wind (2017)
In a village affected by climate change and scanty rainfall, a blind farmer strikes a deal with the debt recovery agent to save his son from a debt trap.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Dhoop Chhaon (1935)
A remake of the Bengali film Bhagya Chakra, it was the first Hindi film to use playback singing. It was director Nitin Bose who came up with the idea of playback singing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
The Out (2022)
A recovering heroin addict looks after his young daughter for the first time since being out of prison and getting clean.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Doll House (2020)
Doll House is the story of an 11-year-old runaway who arrives at a care home with her only possession a dolls house. She refuses to speak and won’t ever let go of her doll. The other children tease her. People start to disappear and seem to appear as tiny dolls inside the doll house. An evil entity haunts the doll and doll house and is collecting the souls of the children for its ultimate cause, to be alive.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Aandan Adimai (2001)
Sivaraman belongs to a low caste and is a cobbler by profession. He was orphaned as a little boy and has since been brought up by a couple belonging to the lower caste. A trip to the 'agraharam' brings back memories of his childhood and he realises that he is in fact a Brahmin and the son of the head priest at the temple. Wishing to help his real family while at the same time unable to forget the parents who adopted him, he shuffles between the two vastly different worlds. Maheswar, a lower caste woman, waits for him back home while Gayatri falls in love with him in his new life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Palaivana Rojakkal (1986)
Palaivana Rojakkal is about the struggle between corrupt politicians and angry heroes.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Beneath a Rougher Sea (2021)
Two radical youths embark on a journey to a house on a mountain.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kandam Becha Kottu (1961)
The film focused mainly on the evil of dowry system which was rampant in the Muslim community of Kerala
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Pigeon's Milk and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Pigeon's Milk?
The closest matches to Pigeon's Milk are El Chicano (2019), My Friend Ivan Lapshin (1985) and What Maisie Knew (2013). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Pigeon's Milk?
Start with El Chicano (2019), the closest match to Pigeon's Milk.
What is the highest-rated movie like Pigeon's Milk?
Inside I'm Dancing (2004), rated 7.4/10 by 244 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Pigeon's Milk?
The Out (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Pigeon's Milk chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Pigeon's Milk, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.




























