Article by Cathie Hubert
Episodes 1 to 18.
" If you cannot be named, you do not exist"
" There is a symbolic thread around the name. It is so important, some say it is our very essence, inseparable from our soul" The psychoanalyst Jean Eduardo Tesone says our first name represents our identity.
One of those symbolic threads in the story of Sefirin Kizi is the name theme. The naming of the other is embedded in the love story between Sancar and Nare and that love is theirs only. The world around the couple goes its course, blind to what is really happening inside Nare and Sancar story. On one side we have all the events and side stories and then there is the Sancar Nare story with its own agenda and purpose.
In this sense, the series is dualistic. We need a plot and side plots and events so the story moves on, but in the end what matters is the epic between both main characters. And the name symbolism is a major narrative symbol in that sense in Sefirin Kizi.
In season 1, Sancar does not know what happened to Nare, he thinks she left him and is closed to any forgiveness because of that trauma . Therefore when he meets her he can't say her name. The woman he lost has remained the innocent trustworthy young person he once knew, the one he thought he would keep forever. When she is back he does not "recognise" her, he cant because he does not know the truth at that point. Sancar cant "see" Nare's soul anymore and Nare cant breathe. She goes about in the outside world, but inside she is locked in herself. Loosing her love, she has lost her vital breath. Sancar has taken the difficult path towards truth, towards admitting what happened. Only then does he acknowledges and understand Nare's pain and story.
" Breath is a symbolical element of the spiritual world, an intermediate between earth and sky, an element of the invisible world, universal and purifying"
Nare suddenly starts breathing again when Sancar says her name in episode 13. This is a particularly poignant scene, Sancar liberates Nare's vital breath by uttering her first name and starts his long voyage towards healing and redemption.
In season 2, we are thrown into the reverse situation. The terrible news that Menekshe is pregnant is a deep blow for Nare, just when she was hoping to forgive Sancar. This traumatic event prevents her to utter Sancar's name again. And Sancar is left a bird without wings, a boat without anchor, a man without roots, he is left falling. He is now the one hoping for forgiveness. If she does not call him by his name, he is no one. By saying his name, she would give birth to him again. He needs this recognition to forget his guilt and find his true self again.
As we see in episode 18, he is ready to sacrifice his life to save her and save their love, give their love meaning so they can start living again. But she won't say his name although she as well, will save him and take a bullet in his place. She has started the long journey towards forgiveness but it is a long way to go.
Life goes on around them, people like butterflies fluttering at the periphery, burning their wings, satellites of an epic they do not belong to.
Sancar and Nare are walking towards trust, unconditional love and the recognition of each other true souls. However before, Nare will have to give him back his lost identity, his true self. They are on a voyage towards the absolute acknowledgement of each other essence and being, the place where there is no ego.
In that sense, Sefirin Kizi, who appears to be a light TV series, is in fact following the steps of the classic, universal, epic love stories in literature and film, those we love so much. The stories we can relate to because they are universal deep and they speak to our own soul. They remind us of the love we have lost, the love we once had or the love by our side.
With two talented actors, especially Engin Akyürek, a lyrical actor ( see my other article portrait of the actor) . Embodying the role of the efe Sancar, he opens wide the flows of his flamboyant expressionistic acting, an actor like no one else, pouring his heart and soul into his work, thus reaching a rare level of intensity and touching so many of us.
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