Movies Like This Is How Destiny Wanted

If you liked This Is How Destiny Wanted (1968), a movie directed by Lütfi Akad, 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
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (2014)
★ 7.4/10
Exiled artist and poet Mustafa embarks on a journey home with his housekeeper and her daughter; together the trio must evade the authorities who fear that the truth in Mustafa's words will incite rebellion.
2
Şendul Şaban (1985)
★ 6.5/10
She works as a factory worker alongside Şaban Ali. One day, they are fired for asking their boss for a raise. They search for work for a long time but cannot find any. Necla tells Şaban that it is easier for women to…
3
Paper Lives (2021)
★ 8/10
In the streets of Istanbul, ailing waste warehouse worker Mehmet takes a small boy under his wing and must soon confront his own traumatic childhood.
4
The Postman (1984)
★ 7.1/10
Sevtap and Adem, the postman in the neighborhood, are in love with each other. Sevtap remained single until the age of 30 because no one liked her, so she is still a virgin and has settled for Adem. However, there is…
5
40 Acres (2025)
★ 6.6/10
Hailey Freeman and her family are the last descendants of African American farmers who settled in rural Canada after the Civil War. In a famine-decimated near future, they now struggle to safeguard their farm, as they…
6
About Dry Grasses (2023)
★ 7.6/10
A young art teacher hopes to be transferred to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of inappropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape…
7
Kaçma Birader (2016)
★ 6.2/10
A family with diversified members travels to İstanbul from Yozgat after their youngest son fell in love with a girl.
8
Two Worlds One Wish (2025)
★ 7.3/10
Twenty-one years after a magical meeting at a children's hospital, Bilge and Can suddenly begin hearing each other's voices telepathically. What seems like a miracle soon reveals a hidden secret, as fate-reuniting them…
9
Endless Love (2017)
★ 7.3/10
Sparks fly when a humble housekeeper crosses paths with a wealthy surgeon, but a devastating truth puts their relationship to the test.
10
Oh Dear (2010)
★ 6.5/10
Hüseyin is a young man who lives with his grandfather and grandmother in a village in Thracian Turkey. The two great loves of his life are his clarinet and Müjgan, a nurse. Although Hüseyin is content with his life…
11
Autumn (2008)
★ 7.3/10
Arrested while a student in university, Yusuf is released from prison after ten years. He returns home and is welcomed by his sick and elderly mother. Soon he will meet Eka, a beautiful Georgian girl who is a sex…
12
Everything About Mustafa (2004)
★ 6.7/10
A man is forced to confront his past after he loses everything in an accident. Mustafa is a successful business man living a seemingly great life with his family when an accident takes it all away from him and leaves…
13
Midnight Express (1978)
★ 7.4/10
Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made…
14
Wedding Association (2013)
★ 6.3/10
Ismail's son, Tarik returns to his village after long years of being away and announces that he is engaged to a Latvian woman named Nugesha and although he doesn't have the means for it, Ismail still wants to be the…
15
The Girl with the Red Scarf (1977)
★ 7.7/10
İlyas, a truck driver from Istanbul, arrives in a remote village to work on a dam construction project and meets a young village woman named Asya. They fall madly in love and get married. However, their life together…
16
The Promise (2016)
★ 6.8/10
Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, a love triangle develops between Mikael, a brilliant medical student, the beautiful and sophisticated artist Ana, and Chris, a renowned American journalist based in Paris.
17
Romancing the Stone (1984)
★ 6.8/10
Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom…
18
Yellow Letters (2026)
★ 7.1/10
The marriage of Derya and Aziz is under pressure after losing their jobs because of state arbitrariness and moving to Istanbul to live with Aziz's parents. They and their 13-year-old daughter Ezgi have to redefine…
19
Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)
★ 6.9/10
A solitary scholar discovers an ancient bottle while on a trip to Istanbul and unleashes a djinn who offers her three wishes. Filled with reluctance, she is unable to come up with one, so the djinn tries to inspire her…
20
Fate (2001)
★ 7.2/10
Musa, a customs clerk, sees life as absurd. He drifts with events; his mother's death, though loved, brings him strange joy.