Make Me Believe, or Sen Inandir, is a Turkish romantic comedy film on Netflix that is nothing more than a sweet love story that focuses on fairytale-like scenarios and glaringly skips over the possible setbacks and problems. However, the film is not interested in such negatives either, which ultimately works in its favor and successfully presents the tone that it wants to bring to the screen. The plot follows neighbors Sahra and Deniz, who have disliked each other ever since their teenage years but are now forced to meet by their meddling grandmothers. Overall, Make Me Believe would be a nice, breezy watch for casual viewers and a rather enjoyable one for fans of Turkish rom-coms.
Spoilers Alert
‘Make Me Believe’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?
Make Me Believe begins with protagonist Sahra Erdeniz driving her car to a small, idyllic Turkish town by the seaside as she is responding to an emergency. Her grandmother, Aysel, who lives alone in her house in this town, had informed Sahra that she was sick, making Sahra hurry to see what was wrong with her, but Aysel was now not responding. At this very same time, a man around the same age as Sahra also enters the scene, claiming that his own grandmother, Semiha, who is Aysel’s neighbor, had also informed him of being sick but was nowhere to be found either. Before the plot turns into anything sinister, though, both Aysel and Semiha return home from their usual visit to the beach, and the two grandmothers, who are best friends, have only pulled a prank on their respective grandchildren. With Sahra living in Istanbul and the man, Deniz, also living away, the elderly women feigned sickness only to meet with them.
As Sahra decides to stay back for a few days now that she is here at her grandmother’s house, it is revealed that the young woman is stressed about a situation at her workplace. Sahra works as an editor for a popular men’s magazine in Istanbul, and she is in a hurry to find something for the cover story for next month’s issue. A professional rival at the company named Kerem has also been searching for a topic for the same cover story, as the company officials have decided that whichever editor comes up with the story will be promoted to the position of chief editor immediately. Sahra has been looking forward to making her story about a talented photographer named Deniz Tunali, but the problem is that nobody knows where the photographer stays or even what he looks like. The secretive photographer had even recently given up a professional award, making Sahra all the more interested in covering him as her next story. As was bound to happen, her neighbor Deniz, whom she dislikes because of something in their past, is the very Deniz Tunali that Sahra is looking for, and the woman now finds herself in a difficult situation, thinking of how to convince Deniz for an interview.
What Plan Do The Grandmothers Hatch To Get Sahra And Deniz Together?
Make Me Believe does not keep viewers guessing for long as to what exactly is happening, as it is soon revealed that Aysel and Semiha had a different reason for calling their grandkids as well. The women knew that Sahra and Deniz had some disagreements during their teenage years, which led to their becoming disliking and almost hostile toward each other. Naturally, the grandmothers wanted this animosity to be resolved, especially since they were such close friends and their grandchildren should be friends too. But Aysel and Semiha also have a different plan: getting Sahra and Deniz to become a couple, possibly because they felt that the grandkids had some chemistry between them from their teenage years. Because of this reason, the elderly women had hatched the first plan of bringing Sahra and Deniz to their house at the same time while they would not be there, but this did not work out very well. Some other minor plans, like asking for help from each other’s grandkids or creating some more situations for the young pair to meet, do not work out either.
Eventually, Aysel and Semiha come up with an even more elaborate plan after a few days, hoping that this will work like a wonder. By this time, Sahra and Deniz had become slightly less averse to each other, owing to the fact that the man had taken Sahra around to picturesque locations where she could take photographs for her cover story. Sahra had called in her friend and colleague Ahu from Istanbul, and together they had decided to scout these places in order to prepare for the photo shoot, even if Sahra was ultimately unable to get Deniz’s interview. Ahu had also befriended Deniz’s best friend Ulas, saying that this friend would be the easiest way to approach Deniz for the interview, and inadvertently, Ahu and Ulas had fallen in love.
One day, while Sahra and Ahu are at a restaurant in the local market, Semiha encourages Deniz and Ulas to go that way without telling them anything about the women. Surely enough, Ulas approaches the two as soon as he spots Ahu, and Deniz watches from a distance. As Ahu walks away with Ulas and Sahra is left alone at the table, two men approach her flirtatiously. Sahra is frustrated by this and starts to walk away when the two men follow and harass her. An independent and headstrong woman who knows how to protect herself, Sahra starts beating the men up, and soon Deniz also joins in. As they keep beating the men, policemen patrolling nearby see the incident and rush to the scene. All four of them are taken to the police station and kept in the lockup for the night.
It is then revealed that the two men had actually been hired by Aysel and Semiha because they wanted to make a scene at the market to make it look like Sahra was being attacked. They had planned for Deniz to be present at the place as well, which he indeed was, but they did not anticipate that Sahra herself would take action and beat up her harassers. While the plan initially seemed to have failed, leading to the grandkids getting arrested, it actually worked out in a very roundabout manner. After spending time in the prison cell together and then riding away from the place on Deniz’s bike the next day, he and Sahra get closer to each other than they had been till now, and Deniz eventually kisses the woman, finally resolving the tension and attraction that had been held between them for so long.
What Had Happened Between Sahra And Deniz In The Past?
After the two protagonists finally become a couple, they talk about their past, and we get an idea as to what exactly happened between them. As both their grandmothers used to live in the town, Sahra and Deniz knew each other well enough, as the boy lived in the town and Sahra would visit Aysel every year. Both had eventually developed feelings for each other, but since both were in very confusing teenage years, neither expressed their feelings to the other. Deniz was deeply in love with Sahra but could never tell her about it. Sahra was also very drawn to Deniz, but she did not feel that he had any interest in her, and because of her age, she could never figure out how to make her emotions felt either. During one vacation, Sahra had made some new friends and took them all to a hidden beach where only she and Deniz used to go, and she even had a boyfriend at the time. This immensely hurt Deniz, and he intentionally kept himself away from Sahra during that whole time. Deniz did not know that Sahra would not visit the town from the next year onwards, and so when it happened, he felt like Sahra had truly abandoned him. Growing up into a young man, Deniz continued to be angry at Sahra’s decisions during that last vacation and was also extremely sad to have lost the love of his life.
On the other side, Sahra had lost both her parents after returning home from vacation that year. On the day of her parent’s anniversary, the three of them were supposed to go out and celebrate together, but Sahra had canceled the plan because she did not feel well. The parents had instead gone out on their motorcycle and met with a fatal accident, making Sahra feel as if she was somehow responsible for their deaths. It was because of this guilt and the resulting depression that Sahra did not return to the town for the next couple of years, and then, after growing up, she got busy with her professional career.
Despite the two having grown apart and losing all connection, they did have the same old feelings for each other inside their hearts. Deniz continued to be overtly rude and arrogant in front of Sahra because he believed she had abandoned him, and Sahra could not tolerate such arrogance, because of which she, too, did not behave well with the man. This was the reason for the apparent animosity between the two characters, and this feeling soon turns into one of genuine love once Deniz puts down his guard and kisses Sahra. Both remember the smallest details about each other, and once they do away with their pretensions and become a couple, Sahra and Deniz are truly in love together.
With the personal side of the characters settled, their professional lives now come into play to create drama, as Sahra had still not told Deniz that she wanted to interview him. Casually talking with the man, she got to know that Deniz believed people should know him only through his work and did not feel it necessary to become a public figure. He had also turned down the award because the gratification and pleasure that people got from seeing his photographs were enough rewards for him, and he did not need any materialistic reminder of it. Having finally known and understood Deniz closely, Sahra decides not to take any interview with Deniz, and instead lose to Kerem. The two rivals had decided between themselves that whoever would lose this ultimate challenge would resign from the job, and Sahra now agrees to do so for the sake of Deniz.
‘Make Me Believe’ Ending Explained: What Happens Between Deniz And Sahra?
The problem appears in the form of the office rival Kerem, who shows up in town after getting to hear that the famous Deniz Tunali was helping Sahra with a shoot. Fearing that Sahra will make a better cover story, Kerem comes to the location and reveals to Deniz that Sahra had been looking for him before starting a relationship with him. This makes Deniz question whether Sahra was faking a relationship with him only to get to know him better for her article, and no matter what the woman says, he refuses to believe her.
Sahra and Deniz break up, with the woman returning to Istanbul while the man does not keep in contact with her. After much deliberation, Sahra finally decides to go ahead with the cover story on Deniz Tunali, but she makes the article a very personal one about how she found the famed photographer and fell in love with him. Sahra does not mention any personal details or include any photographs of Deniz, and she writes that she does not disclose his identity because she understands and respects his thoughts regarding it. Sahra wins the challenge at her office and is promoted to the position of chief editor, while Kerem resigns from the job as per their earlier decision.
Ahu organizes a celebration party for Sahra, but the woman does not want to go as she still feels lost in life after being estranged from Deniz, with whom she had genuinely fallen in love. On the other side, back at the seaside town, Deniz is also in a similar mental state when Ulas shows him the magazine and the article that Sahra had written about him. Deniz realizes that she had not revealed his identity anywhere in the article and finally understands that her feelings for him were genuine and not just for the interview. At the end of Make Me Believe, Deniz goes to Istanbul along with Ulas and reaches the restaurant where Ahu has organized the party for Sahra. There, he surprises Sahra with his presence and expresses that he is ready to give away his identity to the public in order to be together with Sahra. As the couple finally unite once again, it is felt that Sahra and Deniz will now stay together forever, which is marked by scenes of their return to the idyllic seaside town as the final credits roll.
