Women directors aren't a rarity, especially in World Cinema; the issue has always been finding wider distribution for their work. Turkey's Pelin Esmer has made a big mark on the international festival scene. Esmer's first feature film is 2009's 10 to 11 (11'e 10 kala). It's an extension of Koleksiyoncu: The Collector (2002), a short documentary she made about her eccentric Uncle Mithat (Mithat Esmer). The charming gentleman is a hoarder-rebel with an apartment jammed with paper. Mithat's intriguing philosophy centers on holding onto the past, which he repeatedly argues is better than the present. The neighbors complain that his hoard of magazines and newspapers will make the building collapse. Mithat's own nephew Ali (Nejat Isler) wonders at the old man's apartment, which is so densely packed that one can barely move. The principled packrat's one defender is the janitor, who would like the old man to put his rooms in shape as well. Mithat is a vocal representative of the proud past; his neighbors think in terms of property values. Pelin Esmer's amusing portrait of her fascinating uncle is a lightly fictionalized character study; the man's winning personality carries the show almost on its own. Film festivals approved, even if some critics complained of a too-leisurely pace. The writer-director's filmmaking career has since blossomed, with invitations to work in Germany and France. Her latest film Queen Lear (Kraliçe Lear, 2019) is a lively comedy-drama about peasant women who form a theater group. In one interview, Esmer credits her effort to create "a continuity with the past" to her university studies in anthropology.

By Glenn Erickson