The Turkish Netflix drama series, Letters from the Past, revolves around Elif Ayar, who recently discovered a letter among her mother's belongings, written 20 years earlier and addressed to her. Upon opening it, her life turned upside down. She discovered it hadn't been written by Fatma, the woman she had believed to be her mother all those years. She discovered that, 20 years earlier, a confused and scared 17-year-old girl had asked her literature teacher, Fatma, to adopt her baby. Fatma suffered from Alzheimer's, and although she intended to tell Elif the truth after her 18th birthday, she sadly had no memory of the incident. Fatma didn't even recognize Elif, and this broke her heart even more. She suffered a brief identity crisis and made it her life's mission to find her biological mother.
Fatma had assigned the Literature Club students to write a letter to their future selves 20 years later. She promised to send them the letters, but unfortunately, she fell ill and they never left her room. Luckily, Elif found them and thought they might lead her to her biological mother. Fatma's diary entry also helped her get to know the 2003 students better. Elif suspected Seda was her mother when she read Fatma's diary entry. In May 2003, she had mentioned that Seda vomited frequently. Since Elif was born in November, she assumed Seda was pregnant in May. But finally, in Letters from the Past, Elif discovered that Seda had passed away before November.
Creator: Rana Denizer
Stars: Gökçe Bahadir, Saygin Soysal, Günes Sensoy
Elif left Seda's letter with her sister, Pelin, and it shattered her life beyond repair. It turned out that Seda had been secretly dating her sister's fiancé, Tufan Sahin. They were madly in love, but due to family pressure, Tufan agreed to marry Pelin. They used to date at school, and it was expected that he would eventually marry Pelin. Tufan felt immensely guilty about his situation, but he was too afraid to publicly admit the truth. Seda was too young to deal with the complexity of his circumstances, so he turned to drugs to dull his pain. What began as a small dose soon became an addiction, and Seda's health deteriorated drastically. He never shared his secret with anyone, not even his best friend, Banu.
Seda's letter was addressed to Tufan; he firmly believed that, even after twenty years, they would still be in love and travel the world together. Pelin was unaware of Seda and Tufan's relationship, and only after reading the letter did she discover the truth. At first, she was upset, but she feared their separation would destroy the life they had built together, and she wasn't ready to see her children suffer. She decided to forgive him, but Tufan was tired of pretending. He had always been in love with Seda, and the letter reminded him that he was living a lie. Finally, in Letters from the Past, we discover that Seda died because of the adulterated drugs. Her friends found her unconscious in the school bathroom one day. Later, text messages between Seda and her drug dealer, Levent, suggested she had been complaining about drugs making her sick, yet Levent continued to supply drugs to a minor.
Zuhal was the only scholarship student in the Literature Club. Her classmates repeatedly reminded her that, even if she tried, she could never truly belong to their elite. Zuhal was obsessed with her friend Mert and was heartbroken when he told her he wasn't in love with her. She envied Seda because Mert was attracted to her, but she overlooked the fact that Murat, another member of their friend group, couldn't take his eyes off her. Zuhal always felt the need to prove to her that she was living a fantastic life. She often stole Murat's clothes, ripped off the tags, and sewed them onto her own to make them look brand-name. Twenty years later, Zuhal was an internet sensation. She was a beauty influencer with a large following. She could afford things she'd only dreamed of as a child. When Zuhal opened the letter she'd written to herself, she remembered her past hardships. She drew a sketchy, modest house; she couldn't even imagine owning a place of her own one day.
Zuhal had a tendency to make up stories, and although she no longer needed to hide behind her lies, she couldn't shake the habit. When she first met Elif, she lied about her perfect childhood. She told her that her parents were deeply in love, that they had a beautiful house, that her mother was a traveler, and that she shared a loving relationship with both of them. In reality, Elif was born into poverty; she helped her mother with daily chores, and that her father was an alcoholic.
Elif always longed for love and affection, and although she now had wealth, she was still searching for a place to belong. When she crossed paths with Elif, she made it very clear at first that she wasn't her mother. But the more she thought about the possibility of having someone to call her own and share her life with, the more she gravitated to the idea of pretending to be Elif's mother. She knew it would be a difficult start, but Elif would eventually accept her, and it would be her first step toward starting her own family.
Zuhal also tried to reconnect with the only family she had left: her brother. Remember Levent, the drug dealer? He was Zuhal's brother, but she preferred not to be seen with him in public. He reminded her of everything she didn't want to be. At first, she tried to protect her brother when her friends decided to report him, but after reading the text exchange between Levent and Seda, she decided to report him. Perhaps not out of self-indulgence, but simply because she wanted her brother out of her life. Twenty years later, Levent was released, but he was still a wreck. But instead of locking him up in prison after he stole her watch, she decided to give him another chance. He was all she had, and she wanted him to have a fair chance to rebuild his life.
Everything went according to Elif's plan, but eventually Rabat, who had practically raised her, discovered her secret. After Fatma's death, Banu stopped by her apartment to pay her respects, and it was then that Rabat learned that Banu was Elif's biological mother, not Zuhal. She had asked Zuhal to tell her the truth, but she chose not to. She didn't want to break Elif's heart, but she knew hiding the truth from her wasn't the solution. When Elif decided to move in with Zuhal, Rabat finally told her the truth. Elif was furious, but didn't know how to confront Zuhal.
She was curious why Zuhal had lied to her, and when she found out it was all because he desperately wanted to start a family of his own, she felt sorry for her. Meanwhile, Zuhal read Banu's letter and realized that the way Banu wrote her "z" was similar to the woman who had written Elif the letter she had found. Banu had told Zuhal she was infertile, so she assumed she wasn't Elif's biological mother, but after the letters, she was convinced Banu had lied to her. Banu and her ex-husband only shared a life together, but they were never physically close. He loved someone else, and she had tolerated all his requests without complaint. And she had probably lied about her infertility, as they had agreed it was the only way to avoid raising suspicions about their marriage.
Zuhal confronted Banu, and Murat witnessed the conversation. Banu was incredulous when Zuhal told them that Elif was his daughter. Banu finally decided to reveal the secret. She admitted that she was Elif's mother and Murat her biological father. Murat was stunned; he had been completely drunk when they slept together, and had no idea he had gotten Banu pregnant. Banu explained that she decided to hide the truth because Murat was going through a difficult time at the time. His family was bankrupt; they had decided to move, so Banu didn't think it was the right time to burden him with the secret she was hiding.
Murat didn't think it was a good enough excuse; he believed she could have told him at any time in the past twenty years if she had really wanted to. Banu, no doubt, wanted to forget that chapter of her life. She never tried to reconnect with Elif because she wasn't ready for the truth to affect her. Since she and Fatma had agreed that Elif would discover her biological mother when she turned eighteen, she assumed Elif wasn't interested in contacting her. The letter brought back the guilt, and after Fatma's death, she felt responsible for leaving Elif to deal with everything alone. But she didn't have the courage to tell Elif the truth, and only jealousy (Zuhal claimed to be Elif's mother) finally made her confess her secret. Murat was disappointed in Banu; he pointed out that she was driven by her own interest and that was the only reason she chose not to involve him.
Elif invited Banu and Zuhal to her birthday dinner. Now that she knew the truth, she had to decide what to do with the information. Elif showed Banu and Zuhal a photograph of all the girls in the Literature Club. They told her the photo was taken during a trip, the last time they had fun together before Seda's passing. Zuhal added that Elif was also in the photo. Elif stated that she knew her mother was pregnant at the time and stared at Banu. But Banu's silence confirmed that she wasn't yet ready to tell Elif the truth. Zuhal realized how unfair it was and was about to spill the beans, but Elif stopped her. She begged her not to say anything.
Elif admitted that she had come to understand that the only reason she felt the desperate need to find her biological mother was because she wanted to belong somewhere. With Fatma losing her memory, Elif felt the urge to hold on to someone, and the possibility of finding her biological mother gave her a purpose. Elif confessed that she knew who her mother was: it had always been Fatma Ayar and no one else. Fatma wasn't her biological mother, but she was the only family Elif knew, and they never made her feel unwanted. Fatma cared for her, loved her, and raised her, and she was grateful for the life she was able to experience thanks to her. Elif finally decided to leave her past behind. She realized that Banu wasn't ready to play the role of her mother and accepted her decision.
In the finale of Letters from the Past, Banu decided to move to Germany with Mert. She had always been in love with him, and although he used to tease her when they were young, Mert began to value Banu after they reunited twenty years later. Zuhal realized that he was no longer a social media celebrity. He had amassed a fortune, and it was time to focus on his well-being and happiness. Elif finally felt like she had rediscovered herself. She felt confused and lost when Fatma's condition worsened, and the letters made her completely question her existence. But the path to truth helped her understand what mattered in her life, and she finally found the peace she had been seeking.
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