Turking Back (English) • Emre Ünaylı

Barış Manço’s Mançoloji album. Sertab Erener’s Eurovision victory. The national team’s success in the World Cup. The new Turkish Lira!

Mire TÜRKMEN, a 35-year-old Grammy award-winning musician whose most recent memories of his home country are these, finds himself back in Turkey at the beginning of 2020 without a suitcase, a passport, and as a stranger to everything. It doesn’t take long for our hero, whose worldview is challenged during his stay here, to be pursued by his past. And a dramatic “plan” that will drastically alter his fate enters the picture.

Mire, a Turkish teenager who received a scholarship to study in the United Kingdom, never returned to his home country until he was 35 years old. When he returns 20 years later, he is forced to stay in Turkey for a while, first due to Covid-19 and then because his passport was mysteriously confiscated. Mire’s unexpected and lengthy visit will force him to confront his past, which is what drove him to flee the country in the first place.

DEFNE YILDIZ

Defne, who is assigned to welcome Mire, will become many things during his stay in the country, especially his best friend.

ARDA EKE

Arda is a single father and columnist who meets Mire by chance in Kadıköy. Arda takes on the task of enlightening Mire on every subject and will have to confront his prejudices that he cannot admit to himself.

FERAY BAYSAL

Arda’s ex-wife Feray is the owner of the hostel called “Apartman”, which will be Mire’s new address for a while. Feray, who meets Mire separately from everyone else, will start to feel an attraction to him.

POYRAZ YILDIZ

Poyraz, Defne’s brother, is a musician who, when he meets Mire, takes him as a role model at first, but his success eventually surpasses him.

SEDEF DOĞAN

Sedef, an emerging pop singer, will turn our hero’s professional and then personal life upside down.

VOLKAN KARA

Volkan, Arda’s best friend, holds a special place in our hero’s heart as the only character who can make Mire laugh.

SERAP TÜRKMEN

Mire’s “little aunt”, whom she hasn’t seen for years, is a character who has experienced the same oppression as her, but has not escaped like her niece.

MİNE TÜRKMEN

A few years after her son went abroad, Mine divorced her husband Refik, remarried and moved out of Istanbul.

REFİK TÜRKMEN

Mire’s father Refik, whom he last saw 15 years ago, has tried for years to make a man out of his son, but to no avail.

BİRİNCİ SENFONİ

8×45′

İKİNCİ SENFONİ

8×45′

ÜÇÜNCÜ SENFONİ

8×45′

DÖRDÜNCÜ SENFONİ

6×45′

Mire arrives in Turkey for the first time after 15 years by mistake, and his passport is confiscated for reasons unknown to him. Mire decides to go to 81300 Moda, the only address he knows, when he finds himself back in Istanbul without a suitcase or a passport.

Mire meets his old friend Arda in Moda and begins to stay with him until he obtains his passport. Mire joins a group of friends living in Kadköy thanks to Arda, and through them, he reacquaints himself with the country he left behind. During his stay in Turkey, he chooses to conceal some truths about himself in order to avoid reliving his past traumas. These truths, however, are revealed one by one throughout the season.

Mire makes a last-ditch effort to contact his family, whom he hasn’t seen in years, after failing to obtain his passport during the season. In the season finale, Mire attempts to reconcile with his family and his past, but finds it difficult due to his father’s harsh attitude as a retired police commissioner. Mire leaves his home again after a heated argument with his father, but he is unaware that the confiscation of his passport is part of his father Refik’s plan to teach him the lesson of his life.

Episodes

1×01 – DUDE, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?

World-renowned composer Mire TÜRKMEN returns to his country for the first time in 20 years for his first concert in Turkey..

1×02 – EVERYWAY THAT I CAN

As Mire returns to Kadıköy after years to face his past, rehearsals for his concert are interrupted by bad news.

1×03 – POPULAR CONQUEST

A derby in Kadıköy ends in a way that changes the lives of everyone, including Mire.

1×04 – SMILE…

Mire’s concert is canceled due to COVID-19 measures and Mire begins to make plans to return to New Zealand.

1×05 – STAY CALM AND PANIC!

Mire, who has to stay in Turkey indefinitely after New Zealand closes its borders, enters his new age with surprises in Kadıköy.

1×06 – SINCE YOU’VE BEEN GONE

Mire tries to escape from his past in Kadıköy, but all the pain of the last 20 years comes out in one night.

1×07 – HELLO / GOODBYE

As we return to Mire’s last days in Turkey, we learn about his childhood and meet his family for the first time.

1×08 – LET ME GO

As Mire is forced to return to his family home, we learn the answer to why our hero has not returned to his country for years. As Mire confronts his family, he does not realize that he is walking into a trap. What happens in this confrontation will completely change Mire’s fate and end any possibility of returning to the life he left behind.

Reveal: The Plan

The first part of the story ends with Mire’s reunion with his family, whom he has not seen for years. In the final moments of the season, when the conflict between our hero and his family escalates, Mire leaves the family home once again, but what he doesn’t know is that this time his father Refik will not let him go without turning this boy into a man.

In the final scenes of the season, it is revealed that Mire’s seemingly uncaring father Refik is a retired high-ranking government official who has been closely watching his son for years. Refik, who also has our hero’s passport, has followed him step by step from the moment he entered the country.

Mire, unable to leave Istanbul, realizes he must begin earning money as soon as possible and attempts to find a temporary job using his musician identity. Mire begins to explore Istanbul while pursuing both his passport and a job, and gradually begins to feel trapped in this city. This season reveals Mire’s psychological issues, which were only hinted at in the first season.

Throughout the season, we learn the truth about his childhood and past piece by piece, and we learn Mire’s entire past in a flashback episode set on his 15th birthday.

Mire tries to contact his father again at the end of the season at his mother’s insistence, and receives a paper he never expected: A citation from the military.

Episodes

2×01 – STILL HERE

As Mire tries to build a life in Turkey, his family and his surroundings begin to push his buttons.

2×02 – DARK SIDES OF HIM

Mire’s deteriorating psychology manifests itself at a piano. The person who offers him help has ulterior motives.

2×03 – OH, IT’S A… LIFE

As Mire prepares to face one of the biggest tests of his career, he realizes that this will be his first job in Turkey.

2×04 – FRONT SEAT TO HAPPINESS

Invited to a bachelor party, Mire finds himself in the middle of a camp.

2×05 – LOVE ME

An uninvited guest arrives in Kadıköy and reveals all of Mire’s secrets.

2×06 – BY THE WAY

Mire’s secrets becomes the only topic on a wedding.

2×07 – CONSTANT TROUBLE

As Mire tries to remember a song he wrote as a child, he realizes something about his character.

2×08 – DON’T MIND ME

Mire has to say goodbye to Istanbul but not in a way that he hoped.

Mire goes to Kars at the beginning of the season to do his military service and is discharged as a completely different person due to the events he experiences and the people he meets. Instead of returning to Istanbul, Mire decides to travel around Turkey, a country he has never seen and sets off a trip with a saz. Throughout the season, Mire visits various cities in Anatolia and is gradually sculpted by the stories he encounters here. During this trip, Mire begins to feel more and more Turkish, and by the end of the winter, he is ready to give his first concert in Turkey.

Mire, who has had a melody in his head since his first night in the army, has been trying to compose a tune throughout the season but is unable to complete it until a few hours before the concert. Inspired by a conversation with his father, Mire finishes the song and plays it at the end of the concert. As we approach the season finale, the details of the passport plan are revealed in an episode we watch through Refik’s eyes. Refik, who reconsiders his plans because of his son’s behavior during the concert, the stories he told and the song he composed, decides to end the plan, but before he can do so, he dies of a heart attack.

In the season finale, Mire learns the truth in the most painful way after his father’s funeral.

Episodes

3×01 – SOULDIER

Mire surrenders to his unit in Kars.

3X02 – THE LIGHT RISES FROM THE EAST

Mire, who is preparing to get his discharge, has surprise guests.

3X03 – TRAVELLER

Mire decides to go on a tour of Turkey instead of returning to Istanbul.

3X04 – SUMMERTIME AND LIVING IS EASY

In Kaş, where Mire arrives for the first time, he realizes that his relationships in Turkey have become stale.

3X05 – SOMEONE IN ANKARA

Mire visits Ankara before returning to Istanbul.

3X06 – LIVE FROM ISTANBUL

Mire returns to Istanbul to give the concert that brought him to the country in the first place.

3X07 – MY LITTLE ONE

In this episode, where we learn all the details of Mire’s education life in London, we also witness the beginning of Refik’s plan.

3X08 – DADDY ISSUES

Mire’s passport story ends in a way full of surprises.

Mire learns everything about his absent father and his plan now that he has his passport back. Mire decides to do the one thing his father told him he couldn’t do at the start of the season and has the confrontation he couldn’t have with him while he was still alive. Our character is completely changed as a result of his experiences in Turkey, and he must make a decision about his future. Because he only has seven days to return to New Zealand if he still wants to become a citizen!

Mire is faced with an unexpected dilemma in his final week as he questions his experiences since his arrival, the person he has become, and his relationships in Turkey: Should he leave Turkey or stay?

Episodes

4X01 – KİA ORA

It’s been a year since Mire returned to New Zealand.

4X02 – YOUR MOUNTAIN

After losing his father, Mire goes on a walk following his footsteps.

4X02 – PARTY FOR ONE

As Mire turns one year older in Turkey, he realizes that he is turning into his father every day.

4X04 – LIFE IS LIKE THIS

Mire considers a number of possible scenarios as he weighs on whether he should stay or not.

4×05 – EYVALLAH (PART I)

Mire realizes he has to make a decision one way or another.

4×06 – EYVALLAH (PART II)

Returning to New Zealand after his time in Turkey, Mire realizes that he is no longer the same and starts a new chapter in his life.

Turking Back tells the story of Mire Türkmen’s four-year forced stay in Turkey over the course of four seasons. Although our character’s childhood before leaving the country is present throughout the story, the answers to this timeline are given in four special episodes.

Kronolojiyi büyütmek için üzerine tıklayın.

Turking Back is a dramedy that aims to combine nostalgia with hope for the future through the story of a Turkish character with a universal perspective, who is unfamiliar with the radical changes our country has undergone in the last 20 years. The series delivers its social messages through individual characters and their stories. Because our story is not about the country itself, but about its people. “Turking Back” reminds us of the good old days that we all long for and conveys the message that it is possible to live those days again. In doing so, it does not open the wounds of society that have been bleeding for a long time, but rather aims to bring us together again by healing those wounds.

PERSPECTIVE

The story's perspective shares the same values as the country's first “feel good” musical, which is about feeling good in your own skin regardless of what life throws at you.

CHARACTERS

Turking Back's characters are similar to Ted Lasso's in a way that they both defy expectations and become heroes in their own right.

DRAMA

Mire’s background and relationship with his home country are told in the way of This Is Us’ multi-generational look on life, family, and the country.

MUSIC

Turking Back incorporates music into its plot by fusing everyday reality with a variety of musical styles drawn from Turkey's vast repertoire.

STYLE

Turking Back aspires to be a show-stopping musical and visual homage to its homeland and culture.

Although pop singers dominate the country’s agenda, it is not often talked about that Turkey has recently produced world-class names in the alternative music scene. Throughout the story, Turking Back invites these musicians to its stage and uses them in a way that makes them a part of Mire’s journey. For this reason, Turking Back aims to include musical scenes in each episode.

In addition, Turking Back builds a vast musical world for itself, from the songs from Mire’s childhood reinterpreted by today’s musicians to the unique compositions made by Mire.

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