The practice of writing letters to one’s future self is quite common. It marks one’s desperate effort to remember a rather innocent stage of their lives. A time when one dared to dream and looked forward to chasing their goals. Often, the challenges that once seemed impossible become merely a memory laced with nostalgia, and the realization of how drastically one’s life has changed sets in. Such letters are not just a reminder of the past, they also act as a hopeful anticipation for the future. Stumbling across letters and memorabilia from the past strikes an emotional chord, and it’s often used as a device in films to trace back long-lost time. P.S. I Love You (2007), Letters to Juliet (2010), and The Last Letter From Your Lover (2021) are examples where letters played a pivotal role in the lives of the protagonists. Netflix’s Turkish drama series, Letters From the Past, follows a similar pattern.
A bunch of letters drastically changed Elif Ayar’s life. Her mother, Fatma, struggled with Alzheimer’s—her memories had faded away, and she was at a stage where she couldn’t even recognize Elif. It was heartbreaking, but Elif had started to make peace with her circumstances. She tried to find joy in reintroducing herself to her mother every day. She did her best to stay strong, and she went through her mother’s belongings to better understand her. Elif cherished the trinkets she often found in Fatma’s room, especially from back when she used to be a literature teacher at a private high school. Her students loved and trusted her, and Fatma adored them. While going through her belongings one day, Elif came across letters that her students wrote twenty years ago. They had written the letters to their future selves—an assignment that Fatma asked her Literature Club members to work on. Elif was surprised when she noticed that one of the letters was addressed to her. She initially assumed it was Fatma who perhaps wrote her the letter, but after reading it, she came to realize that Fatma was not her biological mother. The letter was written by a seventeen-year-old, one of Fatma’s students from the club. Her birth mother was very young when she became pregnant and didn’t think she’d be able to give her child a good life. Fatma adopted Elif and had decided to keep the secret from her until she turned eighteen. But unfortunately, as a result of Fatma’s condition, she never got the chance to discuss the past with her daughter. Elif was left with a bunch of clues and no clear answer. She had to join the dots to uncover her mother’s identity, and it was an emotionally draining task. Will Elif be reunited with her mother? And most importantly, will it be a happy reconciliation? Over the span of eight episodes, the film explores these questions in depth.
Within a few minutes of the very first episode, the series arrives at the main plot point—Elif has to find her biological mother. The series is divided into two timelines—the present and the past (2003)—and we gradually learn more about the members of the Literature Club, with the series broadly encouraging the audience to guess who could possibly be Elif’s mother. A daughter searching for her biological mother is not really an uncommon plot, but the characters and the friendship they shared make the journey somewhat entertaining. Even though the students appeared to be friends, there was always an undercurrent of envy and distrust among them. The series dives deep into the characters’ insecurities, and the comparison between their past and present selves, in a way, proved that even though a lot had changed in twenty years, certain tendencies and emotions remained unaffected. The letters acted as a catalyst, encouraging the characters to take certain decisions that they perhaps never would have otherwise. It was a reminder of the people they hoped to be and the things that they wished to have achieved after twenty years. They realized that they had to put in the effort and take risks to become the ideal versions of themselves. The title pretty much lives up to expectations—there are no surprises, and you get exactly what you perhaps already anticipated.
As a drama series, Letters From The Past is predictable, but the character-driven narrative keeps it engaging. Each episode runs for around forty minutes, which helps keep the story tight. The series is not driven by a big revelation that is going to leave you astounded; it unfolds as a thoughtful journey of self-discovery and a quiet awakening of what truly matters in life. On one hand you have a sort of high school drama that does not really culminate into a vindictive story (there are a few mean moments, but we’ve all seen way worse by now), and on the other you have a few adults trying to figure out what went wrong with their lives.
The dramatic background sound effect used to underline tension felt a little too intense at times, but some of the Turkish tracks used in the series were effective and added emotional depth without feeling overbearing. Gunes Sensoy’s performance as Elif Ayar is worth a mention. She aptly captured the character’s inner turmoil—channeling her confusion, agony, and rage authentically. Elif’s transformation is the highlight of the show—from a broken young woman searching for direction in her life to someone who’d learned to make peace with her reality, the character is designed to be someone you would want to root for.
The premise and the conclusion that the show arrives at in the end are promising, but the only problem is the series lacks the potential to move you. It’s neither bad nor good enough to sing praises—at the end of the day, it’s a show that fails to stand out and that could have possibly been better executed. If you’re expecting a catty, backbiting story of a few high schoolers, then this show is not for you. But if the idea of self-discovery and finding belonging in an unexpected way sounds intriguing, then you might enjoy Letters From the Past.
