Female agency in Pelin Esmer films: The Play (2005) and Queen Lear (2019)

Abstract

This chapter focuses on two films of Pelin Esmer, The Play (2005) and Queen Lear (2019), which show how theater transforms the lives of a group of women from the countryside over fourteen years. The subjective experience of Esmer is also set forth by an in-depth interview covering her story from her first visit with a hand-held digital camera to a village in southern Turkey, initiated by a news item in 2003. Arendt's concept of plurality, as rejuvenated at the turn of the century by Kristeva, highlights the transformative power of storytelling with the premise "life is a narrative." The main argument of this chapter revolves around this premise, claiming that digitality and plurality increase female agency both on screen and behind the camera. © The Author(s) 2020.