Rise of Empires: Ottoman (English title: Rise of Empires: Ottoman) is a Turkish historical docudrama, starring Cem Yiğit Üzümoğlu and Tommaso Basili. Its first season, which consists of 6 episodes, is directed by Emre Şahin and written by Kelly McPherson. The series became available for streaming on Netflix on 24 January 2020. It deals with the Ottoman Empire and Mehmed the Conqueror and tells the story of the Fall of Constantinople.
Rise of Empires: Ottoman Synopsis
The series provides a highly nuanced portrayal of the numerous historical developments that led to the fall of Constantinople and the ascendency of the Ottomans as a world power, with the series’ verisimilitude backed up by a highly diverse panel of scholars, lecturers and authors providing analysis and historical context to the dramatic events portrayed onscreen.
In the middle of the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire was a rising tide, not yet the sprawling imperial power it would become under the later Sultans, with power ranging from Belgrade to Mesopotamia, but it has by this point established itself as a significant power, one that might just spell the doom of Byzantium. Upon the death of his father, the new Sultan Mehmed II seeks to fulfill his life’s ambition, to be the Sultan that brought Constantinople to its knees. To this end he gathers an overwhelming army and lays siege to the city.
The city’s defenders, including the emperor Constantine XI and the Genoese soldier of fortune Giovanni Giustiniani Longo, face the overwhelming odds of an Ottoman siege, but have two chief advantages on their side. First is the fact that the rest of the Christian world is all but certain to send aid in the form of ships and soldiers in an attempt to break the siege, which means that the Ottomans only have a limited amount of time to take the city. Second are the legendary Theodosian Walls, 13 miles of many-tiered walls that have broken every siege the city has faced.
The show itself strikes a balance between traditional documentary style filmmaking and historical drama and avoids the mistake of restating information from one side of this equation in the other. The dramatic recreations are faithful to historical detail, to a surprisingly insistent degree. Pay close enough attention and one will notice that on one of Mehmed’s rings is inscribed with his tughra, his calligraphic monogram that acted as his personal seal. This is an example of small details paying off in the long run, lending authority to the narrative as it goes on.
Cast
| Cem Yigit Uzümoglu | Fatih Sultan Mehmet |
| Tommaso Basili | Emperor Constantine XI |
| Selim Bayraktar | Çandarli Halil Pasha |
| Birkan Sokullu | Giovanni Giustiniani Longo |
| Osman Sonant | Loukas Notaras |
Where to watch
Turkish Language
Youtube | NETFLIX
English Subtitles
Various Websites are Translating this series in English subtitles. Below are the links to the site.