Written by Elisa Shaholli with support from the DAC team
When I was scrolling through Netflix, the show Zeytin Ağacı, referred to as Another Self on the platform, caught my eye. Zeytin Ağacı, literally translated to “Olive Tree,” is a Turkish miniseries with the description of “three close friends set off on a journey to Ayvalik and then to their reshaped future” (IMDb). On Netflix, the show’s blurb is, “three friends arrive in a seaside town, where they connect with their spiritual selves and suddenly face unresolved trauma from their families’ pasts” (Şit). I’m an avid Turkish drama viewer, so I was excited with the possibility of watching a show I hadn’t seen before (especially given there were just 8 episodes with a run time of less than an hour each). Based on the Netflix blurb, I expected the show to primarily be about friendship and navigating life as the characters come to terms with their families and pasts. What I didn’t expect, and was surprised with, was how many themes surrounding disability this show explored.
In Zeytin Ağacı, a prominent theme surrounds the strategies and mechanisms people have in accepting new or re-emergent medical conditions and disability identities. The story follows three women: Ada, who is a successful surgeon; Leyla, a popular vlogger and mother; and Sevgi, a lawyer diagnosed with cancer. The show starts off with Sevgi in the hospital, expecting to do another round of chemotherapy, but being unable to do so because her disease has progressed for the worse. Ada, her best friend and a prominent surgeon in the hospital, lets Sevgi know that she must be admitted and that her medical information can be sent abroad, where various other drugs can be experimented with. Sevgi, hit with the realization that her cancer has not been improving, thinks back on a previous encounter in the hospital. She ran into another patient who told her he finished chemo and that, “I’m cured” (Alptekin). The patient’s mother explained to Sevgi that a man called Zaman “did wonders for us.. Maybe he can help you too” (Alptekin). Zaman leads an organization titled “EXPANSION OF ORIGIN FAMILY” (Alptekin) where he believes that coming to terms with your family’s history and your past can lead to healing in your present life.
The show also examines the patient-provider relationship and Lora Arduser’s concept of the “problem patient,” someone who does not comply with directions given by medical staff (Arduser). This concept is explored when Sevgi decides to go to Ayvalik, a seaside town in Turkey where Zaman is located, in order to find healing there even when her healthcare provider Ada pleads with her to stay in the hospital and be admitted rather than rely on faith-based interventions. Instead, Sevgi relies on faith and alternative methods in order to navigate her re-emergent cancer diagnosis. When Sevgi hops in best friend Leyla’s car, ready to drive to Ayvalik, they are angrily confronted by Ada. Sevgi explains to Ada, “You either come with us or you get out of the way. But I have to go. There’s no other choice” (Alptekin). After researching more about spiritualist Zaman, Ada clings to the medical model she works in, exclaiming, “This is what you’re risking your health for?” (Alptekin). Ada pleads with Sevgi, telling her, “I don’t want you to count on stuff like this and get your hopes crushed” (Alptekin). Still, the trio drive to Ayvalik to meet Zaman even with Ada’s doubts looming in the air.
When finally meeting Zaman, Sevgi tells him, “I’m here ‘cause I have cancer… It started in my liver. I had surgery, and then we started a chemotherapy treatment regimen. But now the cancer came back… Do you think your treatment could help me?” (Alptekin). Zaman replies, explaining how when it comes to medical treatment, “We leave that to doctors… What we deal with is the spiritual origins of diseases” (Alptekin). After completing a number of spiritual practices meant to “heal” her, where Sevgi is forced to confront traumatic moments from her and her family’s past, Sevgi transforms. She has increased energy, decides to stop taking her medication, and has hope resurface in her life. She falls in love and even plans a wedding.
Sevgi’s three wishes made in the first episode seem to all come true: she feels better, she is able to live, and she falls in love. This version of Sevgi confounds Ada, making Ada question her previous dismissal of the impacts spirituality and alternative medicine can have on patients. However, Sevgi’s condition seems to improve, but her cancer ends up resurfacing towards the end of the show as a result of not taking medication. Ada confronts Zaman about this, telling him how, “She thought she was cured. She quit the medicines, and now she has to start all over” (Alptekin) to which Zaman explains how, “I never promised Sevgi medical treatment. Nor have I told her she should throw her medicine away” (Alptekin). Ada responds with, “But you did tell her the root cause was emotional damage…And you were right… Sevgi’s illness, my hand, Leyla’s situation.. I know what you do works.. I can’t prove it, but I know” (Alptekin).
On one hand, I loved how the show explored the methods used to strategize around and work with a medical condition. In everyday life, people do utilize religion, spirituality, and alternative medication to find hope in their conditions and to give confidence that the condition can get easier to treat over time. In my own life experiences, I’ve seen people use religion to aid with the stresses of diagnoses by praying, reading religious texts, and affirming that their condition was sent by God, and therefore can be handled regardless of how difficult it may seem. This extends beyond just one religious background as well, having had conversations and built friendships with Muslims, Christians, Catholics, and Jewish individuals who all used religion as an outlet to navigate the day-to-day challenges that having a medical condition and lifelong disability may bring.
On the other hand, the show linking a diagnosis like liver cancer to emotional damage that must be healed first can be dangerous. First, the scientific backing behind this claim isn’t accounted for (Ada herself says that she can’t prove it) and in a diagnosis like cancer where medication is critical to survival, forgoing life-saving medicine can be life threatening if an individual starts to link “curing” to emotional distress that needs to be accounted for, even though Zaman never explicitly suggests pausing medication. Throughout my own experience with type one diabetes and mentoring other individuals who had both type one and type two diabetes, I’d sometimes run into situations where people would tell me they’d stop taking insulin and oral medicines because they took herbal treatments instead. The herbal treatments were cultural ones, not recommended by (or discussed with) medical staff. These were always tricky situations. I’m not a doctor. I can’t make any recommendations for medicine, and am only able to highly recommend and plead with individuals to please talk it over with their doctors. I can imagine the complexity in this situation though as a healthcare provider: it’s important to be culturally sensitive and competent. For some individuals, methods like seeing a spiritualist like Zaman or using herbal remedies is an important aspect of their culture. On the other side, if a type one diabetic suddenly stops taking insulin, for example, their life is in danger. How does one be both culturally competent yet also attentive to the scientific and medical model, when they can sometimes completely clash with one another?
Zeytin Ağacı is such an important watch because we as audience members are asked to explore these ethical questions. That being said, I worry about Ada’s last conversation with Zaman, where she as a surgeon reaffirms that his beliefs are right and she even wants to lead sessions as he does. It’s important for healthcare professionals to understand the perspectives of their patients, even when they may vary from the advice and decision-making they as providers give to patients. It felt like a dichotomy, however, to see Sevgi have her cancer relapse (again) because she stops taking medicine, and then Ada affirm that Zaman’s methodologies are correct.
The show will be continuing on with another two confirmed seasons, so we have yet to see what happens to Zaman, Sevgi, Ada, and other characters. What I did enjoy most is the ability for this show to pose such large ethical and moral questions surrounding our concepts of how we navigate disability, healing, and the role of the doctor. On one end, we as watchers feel frustrated and flabbergasted with Sevgi’s decisions, Ada’s words, and Zaman’s methods. On the other hand, we can put ourselves in Sevgi’s shoes, understanding her need for hope and seeing that within the borders of Ayvalik, she found a way to continue living to the next day with the belief that her cancer will improve.
References
Alptekin, Burcu, director. “Episode 1.” Zeytin Ağacı, season 1, episode 1, Netflix, 2022. Netflix.
Alptekin, Burcu, director. “Episode 8.” Zeytin Ağacı, season 1, episode 8, Netflix, 2022. Netflix.
IMDB. Another Self. 2022. IMDB, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14899624/.Şit, Nuran Evren, creator. Zeytin Ağacı. Netflix, 2022.
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