Hatirla Sevgili

"Hatirla Sevgili" was more than a romance film for me... it was the story of my youth.

I lived through all the events that formed the background for the film and they are all real. The three military coups that took place between 1960 and 1980 resulted in the most shameful episodes in the history of the Turkish Republic.

In 1960, we witnessed the hanging of our democratically elected prime minister and two of his cabinet members after a humiliating trial that was broadcast across the country over many months. Second coup in 70's saw the hanging of several young activists in an effort to quell the violence between left and right. I was at Middle East Technical University at the time which was the breeding ground for all the communist activities in Turkey. The sad thing is that these activists had the good of their country in their hearts and they did not deserve to die. The latest-and hopefully the last-coup was in 1980 when the military hanged 50 young activists to end the continuing unrest between the right and the left.

The scene is now set for the religious fundamentalists to maneuver.

Turkish film industry has rarely witnessed so many top calibrate actors and actresses come together in a film with such elaborate and convincing love story that utilizes a painfully accurate account of the recent Turkish history.

Our family movie nights have lost an important component now that "Hatirla Sevgili" has come to an abrupt end.

Well done and many thanks

This is a tragic love story. It starts in 50's Turkey who is pregnant to May 27 coup d'etat by military. The political spectrum of Turkey is demonstrated by the two confronting family members. One side is represented by Ali Riza Bey who is a member of the Democrat Party. The other side is represented by Ali Riza Bey's childhood friend and neighbor, Sevket Bey who is a public prosecutor. While the story is developing and history is written by both of the families, relations become much more complex. Ali Riza Bey's older daughter fall in love with Sevket Bey's son. In the light of a well-known-love-story, we witness the Turkish history that is forbidden to discuss. It is the second time, following Cemberimde Gul Oya, a Turkish series prepares us a ground to question Turkish history. Carefully, and not directly it questions the law system, and decisions that are made in 1960s and after. Trying to be neutral, which is always impossible, at least, series (with it's well chosen cast), gives us a taste of what has happened in Turkey since 1950's.

Hatırla Sevgili started telling its story with a plane crash in whom late prime minister Menderes and very few of his delegation, including Rıza Unsal, MP of rightist Democratic Party, survived with the help a young,handsome,well-educated lawyer, Ahmet Gursoy who happened to be in the same plane headed to London and whose father ,Sevket Gursoy,is a leftist prosecutor and a close neighbor and childhood friend of Rıza. The story then unfolds in Istanbul in the summer of 1959. Then Ahmet Gursoy returns to Istanbul and falls in love with Rıza Unsal's daughter Yasemin who has a crush on Ahmet and depicted her love in her diary for years. This tender love story turns into a tragic modern-day Romeo-Juliet story as families on both sides disagree for a prospective marriage of Ahmet and Yasemin as the families supported rival political parties at that time. This TV series impressed me very much both in terms of a beautifully told love story with a back scenery of Turkey's untold political history of the period between late 50s and early 80s, and most of all watching the very talented young cast including Cansel Elcin. I wish him success and luck in his future career.