Movies Like Circumstance

If you liked Circumstance (2011), a drama movie directed by Maryam Keshavarz, 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
Tehran Taboo (2017)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex, adultery, corruption, prostitution and drugs coexist with strict religious law. In this bustling…
2
Tatami (2024)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
Iranian female judokas Leila and her coach Maryam, travel to the Judo World Championship, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. Midway through the Judo World Championships, they receive an ultimatum from the…
3
My Brother the Devil (2012)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic…
4
Pariah (2011)
★ 6.9/10Also drama
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
5
Reading Lolita in Tehran (2024)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
In 1979, amidst censorship and religious extremism, a revolutionary literature professor in Tehran gathers seven of her most dedicated female students to immerse themselves in banned literary classics.
6
Septembers of Shiraz (2015)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
7
The Salesman (2016)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Forced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighboring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young…
8
The Operative (2019)
★ 5.8/10Also drama
A young Western woman is recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler and her subject.
9
The Short History of the Long Road (2019)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Nola grew up living in a van with her father, Clint—two nomads against the world. When tragedy strikes, Nola must confront the reality of life on the road alone, learning to own her grief, her past, and her new…
10
Mammal (2016)
★ 6.3/10Also drama
After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the…
11
The Adjuster (1991)
★ 6/10Also drama
An uptight insurance man and his film-censor wife become a kinky couple's landlords.
12
The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own…
13
Close-Up (1990)
★ 8/10Also drama
This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning…
14
Tea and Sympathy (1956)
★ 7/10Also drama
A sensitive young man recalls his time in boarding school when the only person who seemed compassionate towards him was his housemaster's wife.
15
Cracks (2009)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Jealousy flares after the headmistress of an elite boarding school for girls becomes obsessed with a new student.
16
The Boys in the Band (2020)
★ 6.8/10Also drama
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
17
The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in…
18
3 Faces (2018)
★ 6.7/10Also drama
Filmmaker Jafar Panahi and actor Behnaz Jafari travel to a tiny village after receiving a plea for help from a girl whose family has forbidden her from studying acting. Amusing encounters abound, but they soon discover…
19
Heatwave (2022)
★ 6.2/10Also drama
A woman's life takes an unexpected turn when she falls for her boss's wife. She must soon defend herself as she becomes entangled in a web of malice.
20
Just Charlie (2017)
★ 7/10Also drama
Football star Charlie has the world at her feet. With a top club desperate to sign her, her future is seemingly mapped out. But the teenager sees only a nightmare. Raised as a boy, Charlie is torn between wanting to…