Movies Like Jackals and Arabs

If you liked Jackals and Arabs (2011), a movie directed by Jean-Marie Straub, 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
Duplex (2003)
★ 6.1/10
When a young couple buys their dream home, they have no idea what the sweet little old lady upstairs is going to put them through!
2
Before Sunrise (1995)
★ 8/10
An unexpected meeting on a train leads two travelers to spend an evening wandering through Vienna. As the night unfolds, they share stories and conversations about life and love, exploring new ideas while a quiet…
3
Julia (1977)
★ 6.5/10
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
4
Vita & Virginia (2019)
★ 6.8/10
Socialite Vita Sackville-West and literary icon Virginia Woolf run in different circles in 1920s London. Despite the odds, the two forge an unconventional affair, set against the backdrop of their own strikingly…
5
Tootsie (1982)
★ 7.2/10
When struggling, out of work actor Michael Dorsey secretly adopts a female alter ego—Dorothy Michaels—in order to land a part in a daytime drama, he unwittingly becomes a feminist icon and ends up in a romantic pickle.
6
A Thousand Words (2012)
★ 6.1/10
Jack McCall is a fast-talking literary agent, who can close any deal, any time, any way. He has set his sights on New Age guru Dr. Sinja for his own selfish purposes. But Dr. Sinja is on to him, and Jack’s life comes…
7
Kafka (1991)
★ 6.4/10
After a colleague is murdered, insurance worker Kafka gets embroiled in an underground group who are attempting to thwart a secret organization that controls the major events in society.
8
One of Them Days (2025)
★ 6.7/10
Best friends and roommates Dreux and Alyssa are about to have One of Them Days. When they discover Alyssa’s boyfriend has blown their rent money, the duo finds themselves going to extremes in a comical race against the…
9
Joe's Apartment (1996)
★ 5.8/10
A nice guy has just moved to New York and discovers that he must share his run-down apartment with a couple thousand singing, dancing cockroaches.
10
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
★ 6.1/10
Sarah and David are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live…
11
Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
★ 7.2/10
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…
12
Unbroken (2014)
★ 7.4/10
A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.
13
Flow (1996)
★ 7.7/10
A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.
14
My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown (1989)
★ 7.5/10
No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age…
15
Electric Dreams (1984)
★ 6.4/10
Miles Harding buys a state-of-the-art computer that starts expressing conscious thought and emotion after an interaction with spilled champagne. Things begin getting out of hand when both Miles and Edgar, the computer…
16
Champagne Problems (2025)
★ 6/10
A driven American exec heads to Paris determined to acquire a champagne brand by Christmas — and accidentally falls for the heir to the bubbly empire.
17
The Piano Lesson (2024)
★ 5.9/10
A brother and sister's battle over a prized heirloom piano unleashes haunting truths about how the past is perceived — and who defines a family legacy.
18
Maria (2024)
★ 6.5/10
Maria Callas, the world's greatest opera singer, lives the last days of her life in 1970s Paris, as she confronts her identity and life.
19
Herbie Rides Again (1974)
★ 6.2/10
The living Volkswagen Beetle helps an old lady protect her home from a corrupt developer.
20
The Tenant (1976)
★ 7.6/10
A quiet and inconspicuous man rents an apartment in Paris where he finds himself drawn into a rabbit hole of dangerous paranoia.