Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (2024)

Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (1)

One of the themes in Kızıl Goncalar that stands out most is ‘destiny’ and how it is interwoven through the story in ways of dramatic conflicts, character and narrative growth. In season 1, we start the journey with how the two worlds of the tariqah and the secular collide at the intersection of the chance overlap between the Alkanlı and Tezel families some fifteen years ago. Unrelated to this intersection, Levent takes on the care of Cüneyd, further deepening the ways he gets entrenched in Meryem and Zeynep’s lives after Cüneyd marries Zeynep. With rich use of literary references in dialogue, books shown and discussed, important ideas and ideologies are communicated.

This week there are three book references that encapsulate the pillars of this episode's story.

A’mak-I Hayal

When Levent finds him at the library, he is aware of Cüneyd’s dissociative state, his hallucinations with his mother and, as such, he asks for the title “A’mak-I Hayal” (“The Depths of Imagination”) by Ottoman era writer Ahmet Hilmi of Filibe. In Turkish, Hilmi is known as Şehbenderzâde Filibeli Ahmed Hilmi("Ahmed Hilmi of Plovdiv Son of A Consul"). The book, which is the first surreal novel of Turkish literature, is Hilmi’s Sufi magnum opus, exploring a fundamental Sufi concept: unity of being (wahdat al-wujud), a school of thought he strongly ascribed to.

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It tells the story of a young man named Raci, who is on a quest to resolve his growing doubts about the duality between the worlds of spirit and matter. No worldly scholars are able give him a comprehensive answer until he meets a madman called Aynalı Baba at the cemetery. Each of his meetings withAynalı Baba incrementally removes his doubts as he goes on surreal journeys to the Peak of Nothingness with Buddha, to Mount Olympus where the Greek gods are located, to the battlefield of Hormuz and Ahriman, to the planet Mars on the back of Simurgh, to Mount Qaf and many other places to reach his goal, revealing stages of his spiritual voyage. In this pursuit for the absolute truth, he learns that nothingness and existence are the same. Upon his enlightenment, he is sent to a mental hospital.

Knowing of the fragility of Cüneyd’s mind and why he has sought refuge in this alternate personality, Levent’s choice of the book is intentional. Cüneyd starts a conversation about the book and what is striking is how easily the two men fall into their known camaraderie in intellectual exploration, where both posit theories that the other can question. While this reassures Levent that Cüneyd’s essence has remained the same, it also opens the door for Levent to provide Cüneyd’s mind a healthy pathway to an acceptance of having lost himself. He says that the young man in the story being perceived as a madman is not the end of the story. It is an invitation to explore how someone considered a madman by broader society may have transformed into something most don’t understand. The insinuation may be that spiritual enlightenment is transcendent; not all are blessed to understand it, but those who experience it know that an absolute truth lives on endlessly.

Warning bells in the way of Gülayşe’s hallucinations force Cüneyd to walk away from the conversation, but a new fire of Cüneyd’s healing has been ignited. He may remember Levent’s words that his experience is a process of transformation as opposed to the end of a journey.

Attila İlhan: Elde Var Hüzün

Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (4)

Soon after his talk with Levent, Cüneyd chances upon Zeynep, who happens to be at the library at Vahid’s behest, searching for old references to a greatly sought after book. As a parallel to their first meeting at the library that was Cüneyd’s sanctuary in the dergah, where he chances upon her leafing through Hayyam, once again he meets Zeynep in a library, a new space that has become his sanctuary during this altered state. He does not recognize her but, obviously affected by her, he tells her that she is not one to be forgotten. Taken aback by his evident dissociation with reality, Zeynep brushes against a book in her haste to get away and does not leave him with her name.

Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (5)

The book she drops is a book of poetry compilation by Attila İlhan, an influential poet, novelist, essayist and scriptwriter who has left a mark on Turkish cultural life after 1950.

Much later in the day, Cüneyd picks up the book and starts to read from a random location. The poem is called, ‘Zeynep, wait for me’:

Zeynep, wait for me

I am the drizzling rain

On your leaves at night

Glass dust, white water

I will definitely change your loneliness

Like a leaf floating into your hair

In its old state

Red grief

Zeynep, wait for me

I will definitely return

Tell me, who can prevent our meeting?

Translation credit: My dear friend, NNG

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As he finishes reciting this, something in him is illuminated and he grabs the keys to his home and runs out. He had already told Mira that he felt the keys led to his nest where he isn’t alone. The fact that Zeynep represents that nest, and that she becomes his beacon on this lost journey, is a beautiful continuation of their love story.

He finds their neighborhood, their house and walks into the kitchen to find Zeynep sitting there.

Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (7)

What stands out is that there is no bewilderment in him to find the girl from earlier that morning to be the girl across from him now, as he asks “Are you Zeynep?” His kindled emotions in the morning grew to connect with the love of his life standing across from him. He had forgotten himself so that he would not forget her but she remained in the deepest crevices of his troubled mind. In his inner chaos, Zeynep is his one absolute truth.

Tuna’dan Ucan Kus

Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (8)

This is a 2006 children’s book by Gulten Dayioglu that Mira had given to Zeynep as a wedding gift. It is a story about a little bird who flies across the skies while he experiences many adventures and unimaginable events. One day his wing breaks but he doesn’t give up. Even though no longer capable, he continues to fly with his mind, heart and memories throughout his life. At the time of gifting, Mira had told Zeynep that it had a happy ending. Given the shackles Zeynep could not break, Mira’s message at that time was compassionate: even with broken wings, the bird is not inhibited.

When Mira learns that Zeynep has a baby, she realizes the depth of her selfishness in keeping Cüneyd away from Zeynep and his presumed child. She goes to Zeynep to try and make amends but Zeynep rejects her. She tells Mira that like the bird in the book, her wings are broken but Mira made a conscious choice to break Zeynep’s wings such that she could not fly. And then she also tells her something universally important: people who grow up with love in their hearts don't have it in them to be cruel. They do not plot revenge. True to her own hypothesis regarding why celestial bodies are round, Zeynep remains true to her truth: Love is the beginning of everything.

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Even though a painful exchange, it is the culmination of Mira’s rampant misbehavior with everyone. The theme of her unacceptable misconduct seems to be at the root of this week’s epigram: “If you think someone ruined your life, you are right. It’s you. – Friedrich Nietzche.” One interpretation of this is: by giving the power to others over your life, you absolve yourself of the responsibility of working towards your own truth.

Mira has lost her sense of reason as she spreads the blame everywhere but look within herself. She blames the 14 year old Meryem for abandoning her and not coming back for her supposed dead body while she seems willing to die for Zeynep; she blames Levent for lying to her; she blames Zeynep for ‘stealing’ her family; and she wants to punish them all. She is so afraid to question if she is the problematic one who is unlovable, that it is easier to accuse others for her miseries. It also absolves her from being culpable for her miserable attitude.

Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (10)

Unfortunately, the ways Levent has indulged her, and allows her to act poorly, further enriches her sense of entitlement. Out of his guilt of having done the wrong thing when he stole Mira, when he allowed Beste’s shenanigans and how he kept the truth from Meryem, he is far more forgiving of Mira than a real caring parent might have been. And we see this play out when Meryem slaps her for crossing all sorts of acceptable boundaries.

There are more ways than one to break a bird’s wings and all the children in this story – Zeynep, Cüneyd, Mira - have had their wings clipped or broken, whether intentionally or inadvertently. The emerging message though is that even with their broken wings, they can learn to focus on their inner selves and learn that with acceptance of one’s destiny comes the power to assimilate into transformational journeys.

The serendipitous events that bring the various lives together in this story, and for Cüneyd and Zeynep in particular, reveal the power of the divine hand in orchestrating a convergence into the concept of unity of being. Cüneyd’s dissociative state leads him to the one library that houses the secret that may annihilate Vahid. Zeynep’s research on the same book leads her to the library housing Cüneyd. The 8 month delay in their meeting, forced by Mira, gave time for Zeynep to create a protective smoke screen through Elif and gave her access to spaces she couldn’t otherwise. It led to her being in the house when Cüneyd finally finds his way there. There are so many of these little details sprinkled throughout the story that the dramatic elements seem carefully selected to express this divinity in how their world is unfolding, and it is exquisite to watch.

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Kizil Goncalar: Episode 22 Review ~ The Divine Hand (2024)
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