Who Were We Running From? Review: Defend What You Love at Any Cost | Biz Kimden Kaçiyorduk Anne?
Cast: Melisa Sözen, Eylül Tumbar, Musa Uzunlar
Creators: Umut Aral and Gökçen Usta
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
A woman with a painful past full of mystery flees from one luxury hotel to another with her daughter, whom she tries to protect at all costs. It would seem like the beginning of a full-blown thriller but Who Were We Running From? (Biz Kimden Kaçiyorduk Anne?) – a Turkish TV series with seven episodes that you can find on Netflix – contains countless secrets. Melisa Sözen and Eylül Tumbar are the two protagonists of this captivating story, mother and daughter united by an indissoluble bond. The original title of this new Turkish product, Biz Kimden Kaçiyorduk Anne, is based on the novel of the same name by the writer Perihan Mağden. As we will see in our review of False Souls, the series directed by Umut Aral and Gökçen Usta represents a seemingly endless race, the goal of which is revealed gradually, one detail at a time, involving the viewer more and more.
The mother-and-daughter relationship in Who Were We Running From? is taken to the extreme. If initially the viewer is led to believe that the mother – Who is never called by her real name – holds her daughter in her fist, leaving her unable to choose in the long run with the episodes, we discover that this is not the case. Bambi – The name by which the mother calls her daughter, but we don’t know if it is her real name – will soon discover what it means to grow up and also what consequences this natural course of life brings with it. Netflix’s list of international content continues to grow, and among these, those made in Turkey certainly stand out, which is acquiring more and more space in the catalog. From 24 March, this already large list has been joined by False Souls a new Turkish TV series based on the novel of the same name by the writer Perihan Mağden. The protagonists of the shows are a woman with a painful past and her daughter Bambi, two women with a strong mutual dependence, perpetually on the run from a reality that they see as a threat.
Who Were We Running From? Review: The Story Plot
Bambi has spent his entire life in hotels around the world with his mother. His mother preferred to keep his past a secret, and Bambi knew she must always keep her curiosity about him in check. The life of the mother-daughter couple has been a beautiful adventure, but her mother begins to feel threatened when she realizes that her daughter is no longer a child. Bambi’s curiosity has grown over time and he often asks his mother difficult questions. Netflix’s Turkish series Who Were We Running From? chronicles the changing relationship between Bambi and his mother, especially when external factors begin to threaten their bond.
Bambi is just a child and as such, growing up in a reality that seemed one of a kind, she begins to see things in a different light. “We are the uniqueness of the moon”, This is what her mother taught her who for all these years has run away from her with the sole purpose of protecting her. An irrational and at the same time rational fear of having to see one’s children go away, away from the maternal nest that only a mother can fully understand. However, Mother’s fear is taken to the extreme in this Netflix Turkish thriller where the woman feels constantly threatened by fake souls: that is, all the people who are not like them, who have no feelings, who don’t care about their neighbor.
Bambi doesn’t mind the idea of this life spent running away and moving around all the time. He makes it a boast of their character, of their way of doing things. Traveling makes them unique even if behind these movements there are several things that her mother has hidden from her. Bambi, unlike Mother, has never lived inside a house, he doesn’t know what it means to have a bedroom all to himself like all teenagers. Mother for her part moves away from the idea of that glossy family that was willing to do anything to keep appearances alive. She grew up with a domineering mother; her mother saw a deep and visceral hatred grow towards her parents who never protected her during her youth.
Who Were We Running From? Review and Analysis
From the first minutes of the show, it emerges how the two female protagonists live in symbiosis, relegated to a relationship of mutual dependence that aims to completely exclude the outside world, a world seen as a perennial threat to their safety. They don’t have their own home, but they wander from hotel to hotel because, as her mother says, “a house is a small prison, we don’t need it, because we are each other’s homes”. Their only hope is represented by the unshakable and indissoluble bond that the two possess. Something, however, begins to undermine the stability of this close relationship: it is not the intervention of some false soul, but the fact that the daughter is growing up. As time passes, her mother realizes that she has less and less hold on the girl, that by now she is building her personality and she begins to decide for herself. Bambi, for her part, feels torn between the figure of the mother, who represents her whole world, and her impatience with the lack of stability and answers, which the woman does not want to provide.
A promise that the mother made to Bambi when she was just a child, but which, over time, has become her sole purpose in life. We see how the main goal of the woman is to preserve – at any cost – her daughter from “all those bad things that happen because of false souls“. As the narration continues, we realize how this mother’s obsession is dictated above all by what was her past: a family that is far from loving and protective, totally unable to protect her from the ugliness of life and, indeed responsible for many of them. By becoming a mother, the woman wanted to give her daughter what she had never received: protection. A mission, however, becomes more and more complicated with the growth of the girl; because of her beauty Bambi begins to attract the attention – good-natured or not – of strangers. And her mother has nothing left but to ” teach a lesson ” to these false souls who continue to persecute her.
Melisa Sözen and Eylül Tumbar (the mother and daughter respectively) are truly the perfect protagonists for this series which proceeds so gradually but always in a crescendo of tension. The two actresses never step out of character, managing to create a universe composed solely of two people who don’t need anything or anyone else to survive. Although the show follows a very specific plot, the key element of False souls is represented by the symbiotic relationship between the two women and how this evolves with the growth of their daughter. Everything else, from the events to the secondary characters – which we could define as simple extras – is a mere side dish.
In the course of Who Were We Running From? The viewer will discover several twists that press the narrative making it interesting. The first we are subjected to is the after-the-fact narration of the supposed death of Mother’s parents. If for all these years Mother has always thought that she had caused the death of her parents by tampering with the brakes of the car, we discover that it was the mother and the driver who lost their lives. The father is still alive and has been waiting all these years just for her daughter to make a faux pas. Out of money during their endless travels, mother and daughter will turn to a real estate agent for the sale of the house on the cliff, the house where Mother has grown up. And while the multiple murders attract the attention of the police, the father agrees with the latter to be able to capture the woman.
Unfortunately, however, his plan will have a dramatic turn and the man will die at the hands of the same niece he was trying to ” save “. For the first time, Bambi gets his hands dirty and this will be the beginning of the decline of False Souls and their history. Raised away from everything and everyone, Bambi has developed the same contempt for human beings as her mother and once the same was in danger of death, she did everything to protect half of her. It is in the final moments of the Netflix series, after discovering that the father of Melisa Sözen’s character is alive, Mother realizes a bitter truth. Bambi is growing up and like the fawn in her fairy tale, she will have to start dealing with herself.
Achieving this awareness makes Mother’s sacrifice even more cathartic and in line with the character’s arc. Bambi can take care of herself, and she knows it too, which is why he doesn’t look back once he hears her gunshots. However, the mother manages once again to save her daughter, leaving her the money necessary to live a life in constant flight from reality. The open ending left over from the first season of Who Were We Running From? echoes with questioning. Will Bambi rebuild his life, will he finally find a place to build his house, away from the monsters of the past? Or will he continue to follow in his mother’s footsteps and threaten anyone who dares to approach her? We don’t know if there will ever be a second season but one thing is: childhood is over for Bambi.
Who Were We Running From? Review: The Last Words
The Turkish series directed by Umut Aral and Gökçen Usta represents an endless escape, whose goal is gradually revealed, one detail at a time, involving the viewer more and more who cannot help but immediately reach the end of his 7 episodes. The seven episodes of Who Were We Running From? are great entertainment for those who love the thriller genre. The twists and turns make the series enjoyable, without leaving the viewer with too many headaches to solve. Who Were We Running From? is a journey that can be watched without too many frills and that brings a different mother and daughter relationship to the small screen than usual. The open ending left over from the first season of False Souls echoes with questions and who knows if they will ever get an answer.
