Biyografi Dünyası
I Still Have Hope (Benim Hala Umudum Var)

I Still Have Hope (Benim Hala Umudum Var) (translated)

TV Series · 2013–2014 · 11 people

Love, loyalty and a complete change in one person's life drive Benim Hala Umudum Var (I Still Have Hope), a Turkish drama. Produced by Gold Film in 2013, it was on air across the 2013-2014 season. Nisan Akman directed and Deniz Akçay wrote it. The single season ran 33 episodes: Star TV broadcast the first 25, and FOX took over from episode 26 through the finale.

At its center is Umut, a 23-year-old woman from one of Istanbul's modest neighborhoods, played by Gizem Karaca. She shares a home with her mother, brother, stepfather and his three children, works at a hair salon, and has to give her wages to her unemployed stepfather. One day a customer who runs a casting agency offers her a screen test. As Umut gets to know the energetic and attractive Ozan (Şükrü Özyıldız) and Hakan (Berk Oktay), she meets a feeling she had seen only on stage and in films, and her life changes completely. The tangled paths of the young characters also bring out difficult love stories and interwoven fates.

Besides Gizem Karaca, Berk Oktay and Şükrü Özyıldız, the cast includes Gonca Cilasun, Laçin Ceylan, Gözde Kaya, Hakkı Ergök, Nedim Suri, Nergis Çorakçı and Burak Altay as Musa.

DirectorNisan Akman
Production companyGold Film
NetworkStar TV

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Through different eyes

AI-assisted editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives. They are not reader reviews; those are below.

Series Binger A series devotee tracking character arcs, cast chemistry and season pacing.

Benim Hala Umudum Var is a classic transformation story built around Gizem Karaca's Umut: a young woman who works in a hair salon and hands her wages to her unemployed stepfather sees her life begin to turn with the offer of a screen test. The equation with Şükrü Özyıldız and Berk Oktay is the part everyone wants to follow. But the girl-between-two-charming-men formula is very familiar, and the story leans on well-worn series patterns at times. Its 33 episodes, the first 25 on Star TV and the rest on FOX, still make for a compact single-season watch despite the channel switch.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

The most interesting thing about the series is Umut's place in her own home. A young woman living in a modest Istanbul neighborhood with her mother, her sibling, her stepfather and his three children, and obliged to hand her wages to that unemployed stepfather, touches the reality of many crowded, low-income families. The series mostly uses this social ground as scenery for a love story, turning to romance instead of digging deeper into questions of work and household economics. The path from the hair salon to the casting agency, though, can be read as a symbol of visibility and escape for young urban women.

Yeşilçam Nostalgic A viewer raised on the classics, looking for warm storytelling and strong acting.

A young woman of modest means is offered a chance to step in front of the camera, and her life changes along with love… This story is no stranger to my generation; many Yeşilçam films were built on that very hope. Even the title carries that old feeling. Gizem Karaca's Umut recalls that familiar heroine caught between her family's burdens and her dreams. If only the romantic equation with two young men were a little simpler; the old films told a single great love more plainly. It is hard to hold a grudge against a story that puts hope in its very title.

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