Diriliş: Ertuğrul (2014) Review: Faith, Swords and Stamina

Is Diriliş: Ertuğrul worth watching?

Yes. Diriliş: Ertuğrul is a sweeping, thrilling historical epic that became one of Turkey’s biggest television exports, and its blend of battle, faith and tribal politics is hugely absorbing once it takes hold. Engin Altan Düzyatan makes Ertuğrul a charismatic, larger-than-life hero, and the production has the scale of a film franchise. The reservations are its enormous length, a storytelling pattern that repeats across seasons, and a tendency to treat history as heroic myth.

What is Diriliş: Ertuğrul about?

In 13th-century Anatolia, the Kayı, a Turkic nomadic tribe, are struggling to survive between powerful and hostile forces. Ertuğrul (Engin Altan Düzyatan), the brave and devout son of the tribe’s leader, sets out to secure a homeland for his people. Along the way he faces Crusader knights, Mongol armies, Byzantine lords and, just as often, traitors within his own ranks. His family, his loyal warrior companions and Halime (Esra Bilgiç), a woman who enters the tribe’s life under dangerous circumstances, are at the heart of the story. The series depicts the struggles that eventually lead to the founding of the Ottoman state by Ertuğrul’s son, Osman.

Diriliş: Ertuğrul, known in English as Resurrection: Ertugrul, was created by Mehmet Bozdağ for the Turkish state broadcaster TRT. It is in Turkish and ran for five seasons and 150 episodes from 2014 to 2019, many of them close to feature length. This review covers the complete series, which has ended; its story continues in the follow-up series Kuruluş: Osman.

Engin Altan Düzyatan as a folk hero

The series rests on its lead, and Engin Altan Düzyatan gives Ertuğrul a mix of piety, fierce loyalty and battlefield swagger that made him a hero to audiences far beyond Turkey. He plays the character as both a warrior and a strategist, as comfortable outthinking enemies as he is cutting through them.

The supporting cast is large and memorable. Hülya Darcan’s Hayme Ana, Ertuğrul’s mother, carries matriarchal authority, while his companions, played by Cengiz Coşkun, Nurettin Sönmez and Cavit Çetin Güner among others, become beloved in their own right. Esra Bilgiç’s Halime gives the early seasons a romantic thread, and the scheming Selcan (Didem Balçın) is one of the show’s most complex figures.

Blockbuster scale for television

The production values are impressive for any series, let alone one of this length. Nomadic camps, fortresses and battlefields are detailed and convincing, and the action sequences, with horseback charges, sword duels and large-scale battles, are staged with real energy. The costumes and music draw heavily on Turkic tradition, giving the saga a distinctive atmosphere.

Faith is central to the show’s identity. Islamic values, prayer and the guidance of spiritual figures are woven into the storytelling, which is one reason the series found enormous audiences across the Muslim world. An Urdu-dubbed broadcast in Pakistan in 2020 turned it into a national phenomenon there.

Where the saga repeats itself

The series’ biggest weakness is its structure. Each season tends to follow a similar arc, with a new external enemy, a new traitor inside the tribe, a long cat-and-mouse struggle and a climactic battle. Over 150 long episodes, that pattern becomes predictable. Historical accuracy is also loose: little is actually known about Ertuğrul, so much of the drama is invented, and the show presents its Turkic heroes and their enemies in strongly heroic, sometimes nationalistic terms. Viewers who prefer morally complex history will find it one-sided.

Who should watch Diriliş: Ertuğrul?

It is essential for fans of historical epics, sword-and-saddle adventure and long-form family and tribal drama, and for viewers interested in Islamic and Turkish history as popular storytelling. The commitment is enormous, so it is best approached one season at a time. The content includes frequent battle violence, executions and torture, though it avoids sexual content. Explore more war dramas on the same shelf.

If you are hooked, try these:

• Shōgun for a more intricate historical epic about warriors, loyalty and the birth of a new order.
• The Protector for a shorter, modern Turkish action-fantasy steeped in Ottoman legend.
• The Club for a very different Turkish period drama, intimate and melancholy.

The verdict

Diriliş: Ertuğrul is an epic in every sense, with a compelling hero, large-scale action and a strong sense of faith and identity that explain its global success. It is repetitive, very long and historically romanticised, but its ambition and emotional pull make it one of the defining international series of the 2010s.

Rating: 4.5/5