Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne? (transl. What is Fatmagül's Fault?) is a Turkish television drama series produced by Ay Yapım and broadcast on Kanal D. The series is based on Vedat Türkali's scenario, unter the same title as Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne?, which was then made into a film in 1986, Hülya Avşar as Fatmagül. The series is written by the duo Ece Yörenç and Melek Gençoğlu. The soundtrack was composed and conducted by Toygar Işıklı. It tells the story of a woman who falls victim to a group rape and is then forced to marry one of the men that was present during the event.
Contents
Plot
Fatmagül Ketenci (Beren Saat) is a lower-class dairy-farm girl who lives in the village Ildır on the Aegean coast belonging to the administrative district of Çeşme, in İzmir Province, with her brother Rahmi (who is cognitively impaired) (Bülent Seyran), his son and his wife Mukaddes (Esra Dermancıoğlu) who despises her. Fatmagül plans to marry her childhood love Mustafa (Fırat Çelik), a fisherman. They are only waiting for Mustafa to earn enough money to finish their house construction before the wedding. Then there is the Yaşaran family (rich family that tries to hide the fact that two of its sons raped Fatmagül) that is in İzmir for the engagement ceremony of the son of the elder brother Reşat Yaşaran (Musa Uzunlar) to the daughter of a politician. Selim (Engin Öztürk) is his son and Erdoğan (Kaan Taşaner) his nephew. These cousins have a third friend, Vural (Buğra Gülsoy) who also belongs to the upper-class. All these three have spent their childhood in İzmir but as the businesses of their fathers grew, they moved to Istanbul. They have a childhood friend in İzmir, whom they meet on a yearly basis when they come there for summer vacations, whose name is Kerim Ilgaz (Engin Akyürek).
Kerim Ilgaz is a well-mannered man, a blacksmith apprentice by profession and he lives with his aunt Meryem Aksoy (Sumru Yavrucuk), known affectionately as "Ebe Nine", who is a homeopath. Kerim was orphaned during childhood so Meryem brought him up as her own son. He works as a carpenter in the workshop of his father's friend.
Fatmagül is desperate to be married-off to Mustafa, not only because she loves him but also to get rid away from her nagging sister-in-law. Her desire for Mustafa and an independent married life is growing with time as Mukaddes' hatred is growing towards her. Except for Mustafa, she has no one to share her feelings with. While in İzmir, Erdoğan, Selim, Vural and Kerim see Fatmagül and the three rich men ogle and tease her. Kerim doesn't like this. Then at Selim's engagement, Kerim comes face-to-face with her as she is working there with her sister-in-law.
The big event of the season is the engagement of Selim, to the politician Turaner Alagöz's (Aziz Sarvan) daughter Meltem (Seda Güven). Kerim after attending Selim's engagement, joins his friends for an after-party. All four go for drinking and drug binge near the sea. Mustafa is leaving for a night fish-catch. Fatmagül is coming to see him off. She passes from the area where the drunk boys are singing. Kerim sees her and on recognizing her shouts to his friends "Guys! It's the same girl!!" Then when she tries to run, Kerim gets hold of her while the other three come near her.
International broadcasts
Fatmagül gained a lot of popularity in Turkey, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Arabic countries and many other countries all around the world. It also dubbed in many languages notably Persian.
Bangladesh on Deepto TV with the title ফাতমাগুল (Fatmagul)
India on Zee Zindagi with the title of Fatmagul
Pakistan on Urdu 1 with the title of فاطمہ گل - آخر میرا قصور کیا؟ (Fatma gul - After all what is my fault?)
Albania on Albanian Screen with the title Fatmagyl
Bosnia on BHT1 with the title Izgubljena čast
Israel on Viva with the title פטמגול (Fatmagul)
Saudi Arabia on MBC4 With the title فاطمة (Fatma)
Arab World on Fox with the title فاطمة (Fatma)
Afghanistan on Tolo TV with the title Fatima Gul
Bulgaria on BTV, BTV Lady with the title Пепел от рози (in English: Ashes of Roses)
Croatia on Nova TV with the title Izgubljena čast (Lost Honor)
Serbia on Prva TV with the title Izgubljena čast (Lost Honor)
Montenegro on TV Vijesti with the title Izgubljena čast (Lost Honor)
France on TV5Monde with the title Fatmagul
Reception
Iran and Afghanistan
Turkish television drama is popular in Iran, where they are dubbed into Persian. The song "Roozhaye Tanhaei" by Iranian singer Ava Bahram has been prepared and performed for the title track of the series Fatmagul. The most popular Turkish show is Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne?.
Southeastern Europe
In Kosovo, the most popular TV shows in December 2012 were Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne?, which ranked top of all programmes and Aşk ve Ceza (Love and Punishment), which came in third according to data by Index Kosova. In Serbia, research from January 2013 indicates that the top two Turkish shows in TV were Muhteşem Yüzyıl, which ranked fourth, and Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki (As Time Goes By), which came in seventh. Fatmagul was one of the most popular shows in Macedonia which irked the government to pass a bill to restrict broadcasts of Turkish series during the day and at prime time in order to reduce the Turkish impact on Macedonian society.
Bangladesh
The Bangla dubbed version of Fatmagul was broadcast on Deepto TV in June 2019. It became one of the most popular Turkish series in Bangladesh.
Ethiopia
Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne? was well received by Ethiopians due to the popularity of other Turkish dramas that had been previously shown in Ethiopia. Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne? was dubbed in Amharic with title "ቅጣት" or "kitat" and aired on Kana TV.
Pakistan
Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne? was the second most popular Turkish series in Pakistan which was ranked top in 2013 above all Pakistani shows. The series averaged 16% TV ratings with the viewership above 25 million in Pakistani urban and rural market. Aşk-ı Memnu, was the highest rated Turkish series which broke all records in 2012.
Arab world
In 2013, the most popular Turkish shows worldwide were Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne?, Aşk-ı Memnu and Muhteşem Yüzyıl. Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne? has increased the popularity of Istanbul as a tourist destination among Arabs. With Aşk-ı Memnu's popularity Beren Saat became the female sensation in Arab television which led to a generally higher viewership for Fatmagul.
Chile
Binbir Gece and Fatmagül'ün Suçu ne? remain the two most watched Turkish shows in Chile.
International remake
In India the show has been remade by Indian TV channel Star Plus in Hindi under the title of Kya Kasoor Hai Amla Ka. This is the first official remake of the series. The show aired from 3 April 2017 during the noon slot. The show features Pankhuri Awasthy as Amala (Fatmagul), Anant Joshi as Dev (Mustafa) and Rajveer Singh as Abeer (Kerim). The original show titled Fatmagul first aired on Zindagi TV and became a rating success and thus the remake was commissioned.
A Spanish remake called Alba was released in 2021. The show stars Elena Rivera as Alba (Fatmagul).