How I Learned To Speak Turkish is a funny, personal and twisted travelougue about one woman’s obsession with Turkish men. It’s a journey through cultural clichés, the ‘exotic other’ and the aphrodisiac effects of a potential U.S. visa. It’s also an attempt to understand the Turkish male psyche from the first-person viewpoint of a modern American woman. The inevitable culture clash unfolds against the backdrop of Turkey, a Muslim country where the ‘Mysterious Orient’ meets modern Europe.

Using a first-person documentary style, the story begins as the filmmaker travels to Turkey to interview young Turkish women for a documentary on feminism. Instead, she becomes fascinated with Turkish men. And they, in turn, are fascinated with her.

Hakan is a handsome charmer with no fixed address who, in his dogged quest for an American visa, sets his sights on Therese. Mustafa is a gay university student, majoring in Sociology, who has very definite opinions and theories on the subject of Turkish men. Ibo is a well-meaning traditional Turk who, fearing the worst regarding Therese’s safety and virtue, appoints himself her big brother and protector for the duration of her visit.

But these men are not always what they seem to be, and neither is Turkey, a country where you can never quite get a straight answer to your questions, and everyone has their secrets. Therese’s friend Susanne, an American woman living in Istanbul, attempts to decode this Turkish male culture and make Therese’s visit a memorable one.

Unexpectedly, the “maleness” of Turkey telescopes for Therese her own powerful identification as a woman. Under the male gaze, she considers what women might be missing from their Western male counterparts.