Queen Lear (2019): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 2019, Queen Lear is a documentary film directed by Pelin Esmer, running about 84 minutes.

What it’s about. Shakespeare's 'King Lear' travelling on the dusty and risky roads to the remotest forgotten villages in the mountains of Turkey where even drinking water can hardly reach, turns delicately into 'Queen Lear' in the hands of a peasant-women theatre group. In the early 2000s, a handful of peasant women from the mountains of southern Turkey formed a theater group, which later became the subject of the documentary, The Play. The women acted out their own life stories in the village, and the play changed their lives. Now, they take to the road with an adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear, traveling the dusty, dangerous roads to the farthest-flung mountain villages where there isn't even running water. On the road, their lives merge with the world of King Lear and become bound up with "the good and the bad", "the young and the old", "the rich and the poor", "the honest and the dishonest" of the play.

Who’s in it. Queen Lear stars Behiye Yanık, Cennet Güneş and Ümmü Kurt.

How it landed. With an audience score of 6.8/10, Queen Lear has drawn a solid, mixed-to-positive response.

Where to watch. In US you can stream it on GuideDoc, IndieFlix, True Story and DocAlliance Films and rent or buy it from DocAlliance Films. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Queen Lear page.

If you liked it. Fans of Queen Lear tend to enjoy One Direction: This Is Us, Burn the Stage: The Movie, BTS World Tour: Love Yourself - Japan Edition and Senna.