Movies Like Desert Dancer (2014)

Desert Dancer is a 2014 drama, music film from Richard Raymond with a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with A Separation and The Salesman.

Drama Music

A Separation

2011

A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

7.9

MagicScore

The Salesman

2016

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 couple’s life.

7.2

MagicScore

Taxi

2015

A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…

7.0

MagicScore

Terrestrial Verses

2023

A satirical take on the mundane absurdities of life in modern-day Iran, these nine vignettes illuminate the lighter side of enduring under authoritarian rule. Whether choosing a name for a newborn, graduating from grade school, getting a driver’s license, applying for a job, or seeking approval for a film script, if you live in Iran, you best come fluent in Orwellian discourse.

7.5

MagicScore

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

2021

Billie Holiday spent much of her career being adored by fans. In the 1940s, the government targeted Holiday in a growing effort to racialize the war on drugs, ultimately aiming to stop her from singing her controversial ballad, "Strange Fruit."

6.5

MagicScore

Rosewater

2014

In 2009, Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was covering Iran's volatile elections for Newsweek. One of the few reporters living in the country with access to US media, he made an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in a taped interview with comedian Jason Jones. The interview was intended as satire, but if the Tehran authorities got the joke they didn't like it - and it would quickly came back to haunt Bahari when he was rousted from his family home and thrown into prison.

6.4

MagicScore

Before Night Falls

2000

Spanning several decades, this powerful biopic offers a glimpse into the life of famed Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas, an artist who was vilified for his homosexuality in Fidel Castro's Cuba.

6.6

MagicScore

Saving Face

2012

Every year hundreds of people - mostly women - are attacked with acid in Pakistan. Follow several of these survivors, their fight for justice, and a Pakistani plastic surgeon who has returned to his homeland to help them restore their faces and their lives.

7.0

MagicScore

Isadora

1968

A biography of the dancer Isadora Duncan, the 1920s dancer who forever changed people's ideas of ballet. Her nude, semi-nude, and pro-Soviet dance projects as well as her attitudes on free love, debt, dress, and lifestyle shocked the public of her time.

6.1

MagicScore

#10

Kolya

1996

After a fictitious marriage with a Russian emigrant, Cellisten Louka, a Czech man, must suddenly take responsibility for her son. However, it’s not long before the communication barrier is broken between the two new family members.

7.3

MagicScore

#11

Nureyev

2018

An insight into the life of the world's most famous male dancer, Rudolf Nureyev.

7.3

MagicScore

#12

Close-Up

1990

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, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

8.0

MagicScore

#13

Taste of Cherry

1997

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

7.7

MagicScore

#14

The Color of Paradise

1999

Mohammad joyfully returns to his tiny village on summer vacation from the Institute for the Blind, unaware of his widowed father's intentions to disown him in order to win the hand—and dowry—of a local woman. With the wedding swiftly approaching, Mohammad's future hangs precariously in the balance as his father struggles against his destiny, unable to see the wonder of life and love that's so clear to his son.

7.6

MagicScore

#15

The Song of Sparrows

2008

When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes into a world alien to him - incredibly hectic Tehran, where sudden opportunities for independence, thrill and challenge him. But his honor and honesty, plus traditional authority over his inventive clan, are tested, as he stumbles among vast cultural and economic gaps between his village nestled in the desert, and a throbbing international metropolis.

7.5

MagicScore

#16

Baran

2001

On a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.

7.5

MagicScore

#17

Ten

2002

A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.

7.3

MagicScore

#18

Tehran Taboo

2017

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 modern metropolis, avoiding prohibition has become an everyday sport and breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation.

7.0

MagicScore

#19

Offside

2006

During the 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain, numerous young women are caught and rounded up for dressing as men so they could gain access to the game. Guarded by several soldiers in a holding pen, the women attempt to keep updated on the score.

6.9

MagicScore

#20

Crimson Gold

2003

Pizza man Hussein is a daily witnesses to the unjust distribution of wealth in his native Iran. One day, he finds a purse filled with shockingly expensive receipts from an upscale jewelry store. He attempts to bring the purse back to the store, but because of his working-class attire, he's not allowed inside. Then, during a delivery, a rich man invites Hussein into his extravagant mansion – an event that spurs Hussein to make a desperate bid for wealth.

6.8

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Desert Dancer?

The top films similar to Desert Dancer by MovieMagicScore are A Separation (7.9), The Salesman (7.2), Taxi (7.0). Each shares drama/music themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Desert Dancer worth watching?

Desert Dancer holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.9/10 from 50 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Desert Dancer?

Desert Dancer (2014) is a drama, music film directed by Richard Raymond, starring Freida Pinto, Reece Ritchie, Tom Cullen.

Where can I find more recommendations like Desert Dancer?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more drama recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like A Separation Movies like The Salesman Movies like Taxi Movies like Terrestrial Verses Movies like The United States vs. Billie Holiday Movies like Rosewater

About movies like Desert Dancer

This ranked list pairs Desert Dancer (2014), a drama and music film from Richard Raymond, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Freida Pinto take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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