Movies Like Birthday Candles

If you liked Birthday Candles (2018), a drama movie directed by Asiyat Gamzatova, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
100 Sundays (2023)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
Antonio, a former shipyard worker, leads a mild and peaceful life: he plays bowls with friends, takes care of his elderly mother, has an ex-wife with whom he is on excellent terms and Emilia, his only and beloved…
2
Things We Don't Say (2026)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
Carlo and Elisa are a successful couple. He’s a university professor and writer facing a creative block; she’s a brilliant, sharp-witted journalist, known for her internationally published editorials. They live in…
3
Paternal Leave (2025)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
Torn between longing and anger, 15-year-old Leo travels to the coast of northern Italy to meet her biological father. The two are complete strangers to each other. They struggle to find truth, affinity, love and the…
4
Nostalgia (2022)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
Felice returns to his native Rione Sanità in Naples to look after his dying mother, having lived abroad for the last forty years. Here he discovers that his old friend Oreste has become a notorious crimeboss.
5
The Dinner (2014)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
Story about two brothers and their wives, and the interactions between them and their two high school age children. When the kids get into serious trouble together, how will the parents relationships change with and…
6
A Daughter (2025)
★ 6.4/10Also drama
A middle-aged man, Pietro, becomes a widower and must take care of his daughter. He will never have the time to delve into his own pain, committing himself to raising his daughter with love and dedication, in an…
7
A Chiara (2021)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
The Guerrasio family and friends gather to celebrate Claudio and Carmela’s oldest daughter’s 18th birthday. There is a healthy rivalry between the birthday girl and her 15-year-old sister Chiara as they compete on the…
8
Misunderstood (2014)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
Rome, 1984, Aria is nine-year-old girl. On the verge of divorce, Aria's infantile and selfish parents are too preoccupied with their careers and extra-marital affairs to properly tend to any of Aria's needs. While her…
9
The Young One (1960)
★ 7/10Also drama
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.
10
Piranhas (2019)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
A gang of teenage boys stalk the streets of Naples armed with hand guns and AK-47s to do their mob bosses' bidding – until they decide to be the bosses themselves.
11
The Mass Is Ended (1985)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
Young Father Giulio returns to Rome, where he was born and raised, to replace a priest who has left the clergy to start a family. He is delighted to reunite with his loved ones, especially his mother, sister, and old…
12
Bandits of Orgosolo (1961)
★ 7.5/10Also drama
A Sardinian peasant is implicated in the murder of a policeman and, although innocent, he doesn’t give himself up, lacking faith in the judicial system and fearing that he may lose his sheep while awaiting trial.
13
Everybody's Fine (1990)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Matteo Scuro is a retired Sicilian bureaucrat, a widower with five children, all of whom live on the mainland and hold responsible jobs. He decides to surprise each with a visit and finds none as he imagined.
14
Cardboard Boxer (2016)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
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.
15
Small Body (2022)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
A young woman in early-1900s Italy searches for a mystical sanctuary where her stillborn child can be brought back to life long enough to be baptized.
16
Lamerica (1994)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
In post-communist Albania, two Italian con artists establish a fictitious shoe factory to embezzle government funds. When their elderly Albanian figurehead disappears, the younger accomplice sets out to find him…
17
Brotherly Love (2015)
★ 7/10Also drama
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
18
Bastard Out of Carolina (1996)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as…
19
Five Seconds (2025)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
Adriano is a middle-aged man living in a dilapidated villa in Tuscany, when a group of young idealistic students arrives to restore the villa's vineyards.
20
Open Doors (1990)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Tommaso Scalia is a man who commits three murders: he kills his superior who sacked him, the man who replaced him and his wife. He wants a quick trial and an early execution, but an earnest, principled assistant judge…