An action drama that initially aired on Turkish state TV from 2014 to 2019, Resurrection: Ertuğrul is commonly labeled as cultural propaganda on one side, while simultaneously being linked to HBO’s eight-season blockbuster (and ultimate disaster) of the Westeros sort on the other. The truth, as usual, seems to reside somewhere along the imperfect lines that link the two.
For openers, solely as binge-TV, Ertuğrul is almost instantaneously at least as fantastic as Game of Thrones was in its early days, if not better. Narrating the story of Ertuğrul Bey – scion of the nomadic Muslim Oghuz tribe Kayi, and later, father of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman empire – the show is a generous extrapolation from what is currently documented as just a few undetailed pages of Turkish history during the Christian Crusades in Europe and the Middle-East in the early half of the previous millennium.
These few chapters are the foundation for a massive five-season, a 448-episode drama that covers the active life of a saviour-hero. (This is the Netflix breakdown for the screen-addled audience of today, with episodes approximately 45 minutes in duration. The original Turkish telecast separated the show into 170 feature-length episodes.)
Show creator Mehmet Bozda recalls a period when the now-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo was a cultural and economic epicentre, when Abrahamic faiths battled for dominance of the Mediterranean, and when expansionist Christendom started laying the poisonous basis for modern-day Islamophobia. As a consequence, the show’s moral compass is always solid (leaving aside the eternal debate over who defines morality in the first place).
Erturul, performed by Engin Altan Düzyatan, is the epitome of virtue, a stern but charming figure. With his tribe on a journey to find a new home, he finds himself in the middle of dangerous situations. Erturul stumbles upon a troop of Templars transporting a father, daughter, and son as captives during one of his hunts. Rescued strangers return to the Kayis and put in motion events that will affect not just him, but the destiny of his tribe as well.
As long as Erturul’s father, Suleyman Shah, is alive, the Kayi tribe will follow their rituals and traditions above everything else. When it comes to family politics, fratricide, expansion, and conquest throughout history, it is these practises that are to blame.
It’s all underpinned by some fantastic action moments, most of which avoid gore in favour of finesse and class.
While each episode opens with a message pointing out that the events shown are based on “our” – Turkish history, the program is best seen as popcorn entertainment, with malevolent schemers and their manipulations having consequences that radically change alt-history.
This book may or may not be a revisionist account, since there is a distinct lack of information available about that time period, but it does provide an interesting look into Islam for those outside the Muslim community. Even if there are villains and plotters on both sides, Erturul and the Kayis take home the most whistle-podu moments.. (It’s good to know that “reverse racism” doesn’t exist.)
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Something About The Resurrection Before Ending The Post!
There is a strong patriarchal order in the Kayi tribe, but it is not as virulently anti-women as some portray it today, especially on the internet. There is a stark difference between male and female fighters. Erturul and Halime, the prominent love couple in pop culture, defy gender norms by bending and violating the rules, despite the rigidity of gender roles.
The program also has a notable absence of sexual content, which is understandable. It’s more like Erturul giving Halime a wild horse he hopes she can tame, Sultan, instead of long monologues extolling the other person’s merits.
Many factions vie for control of the Kayi tribe, from brothers vying for leadership of their father’s tribe, to Crusaders on the loose, to the ‘Black Death,’ a bubonic plague that ravaged Eurasia at the time. The conflict is compounded by the fact that many members of the Kayi tribe were killed by the bubonic plague at the time. Erturul’s scope and tale are enormous, yet it’s pulpy, lyrical, esoteric, and creative at the same time.
The production’s sheer size is one of its most remarkable features. For a program that clocks in at almost to 400 hours, practically every frame is beautiful, thanks to the show’s flawless production design, rich views of the wide Steppes, and visual effects when necessary; not to mention some noteworthy background music. Because of this, even at half way through season one, the program doesn’t lose its momentum despite its massive runtime.
You can taste the drama and intrigue ahead, as it promises ever-more cunning villains and breathtaking battle sequences. This season’s action has been limited to close-quarters fighting (and hand-to-hand combat) until almost a third of the way through the 76 episodes. Who needs dragons when you have dragon-loving lovers and leaders who are both motivated by social and political ambition?
The program was a huge hit in Turkey, where it was acclaimed by despot Recep Tayyip Erdoan, and it was thereafter praised and derided across Muslim countries throughout. Recent success in Pakistan may be attributed to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s enthusiastic endorsement of the program.
Any piece of art that has an effect is inevitably accompanied with political footnotes. While one side sees the programme as a tool of soft power, the other sees the backlash against it as yet another assault on their own beliefs and ideals of the world. Even if you’re not a nationalist, Erturul is an excellent example of how much labour goes into making a product that can change people’s beliefs.
In the context of fiction, however, Resurrection: Erturul delivers cheer-worthy characters and a multi-threaded plot of potentially epic proportions to the hungry binge-watcher. Personally, I’ve seen enough to know that, at least for now, I plan to finish the series. Erturul seems like a delightful thing to return to every day in the midst of all the other binge-watching I’m doing.
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