Pelin Esmer

Pelin Esmer — Biography

Pelin Esmer (born 3 May 1972 in Istanbul) is a Turkish film director, screenwriter and producer who works across both fiction and documentary. Having studied sociology at Boğaziçi University, she began her career as an assistant director before founding her own production company, Sinefilm, in 2001 to move into independent filmmaking.

She first drew attention with the documentary Oyun (2005), which followed a group of village women in Arslanköy, Mersin, as they formed a theatre troupe, and went on to earn festival honors with fiction features such as 10 to 11 (2009), Watchtower (2012), Something Useful (2017) and Queen Lear (2019). Her most recent film, And the Rest Will Follow, released in 2025, won eight awards including best film at the Adana Golden Boll Film Festival.

Working mostly through international co-productions, Esmer is known for stories that quietly focus on individuals within the broader social landscape of contemporary Turkey, and she typically serves as both director and screenwriter on her own projects.