General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Fatma

Fatma is a 2021 Turkish crime drama miniseries released on Netflix, in which a cleaning woman searching for her missing husband commits an unexpected murder and discovers that, because nobody takes her seriously, she can kill without being suspected. It was written by Özgür Önürme, directed by Önürme and Özer Feyzioğlu, produced by Başak Abacıgil Sozeri, and stars Burcu Biricik in the title role alongside Uğur Yücel and Mehmet Yılmaz Ak.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Six-episode Turkish miniseries, one season, episodes of roughly 39 to 47 minutes²^•³
Release	All six episodes on Netflix on 27 April 2021; the seventh Turkish Netflix Original series³^•⁴
Key creatives	Screenplay Özgür Önürme; directors Özer Feyzioğlu and Özgür Önürme; producer Başak Abacıgil Sozeri; production company Idea Film¹^•⁵
Lead cast	Burcu Biricik (Fatma Yılmaz), Uğur Yücel (Author), Mehmet Yılmaz Ak (Bayram)⁵
Premise	A cleaner searching for her husband Zafer, just released from prison, kills a man and finds that her social invisibility lets her get away with murder⁶
Reception	IMDb rating 7.3/10 from about 11,000 votes⁷
Remake	Adapted as the South African Netflix series Unseen (2023)⁸

Spoilers

Premise and story

Fatma Yılmaz is a 35-year-old cleaning woman whose young son has died and whose husband Zafer has disappeared shortly after being released from prison. When the police do not respond to her complaint, she starts gathering information from people who knew him and visits his old criminal associates. During this search she commits an unexpected murder, and Zafer's underground connections learn what she has done; the only way for her to survive is to keep killing.⁶^•⁹

The series' central device is social invisibility. Because no one takes an ordinary cleaner to be more than an unexceptional "cleaner," Fatma becomes an invisible killer who gets away with crimes that would quickly catch a more conspicuous suspect. The IMDb plot summary adds that murder becomes a release for years of repressed struggle and grief, and a new part of her identity she must confront.⁶^•¹

The six episodes are titled Yer Çekimi (Gravity), Toz (Dust), Yüzüme Bak (Look at Me), Analar ve Oğulları, Cam Kenarı, and Düşüş, and all aired on 27 April 2021.³

Production and release

Netflix announced the series on social media in July 2020, with a photograph of Burcu Biricik holding the script, and presented first-look images at its October 2020 Turkish content slate, where it was described as set to launch in 2021 and available in 190 countries.¹⁰^•¹ A timeline of Netflix's operations in Turkey records the 27 April 2021 release as that of the seventh Turkish Netflix Original series.⁴

The series was filmed in Istanbul and produced by Idea Film, with music by Tufan Aydın.⁹^•¹¹ Age ratings differ by market: Netflix lists it 16+, the UK rates it 15, Mexico TV-MA, and Common Sense Media gives it TV-MA for the US release, which is dubbed in English.²^•¹²^•¹³

Reception and themes

Critics singled out Burcu Biricik's performance. TRT World called the role a star turn for the actor, noting that she displays in equal turns a facade of panic, stoicism, and regret, and reported that the series was topping the charts in Turkey after its 27 April 2021 worldwide release.¹⁴ A review aggregator highlighted reviews describing the performance as charming, with The Globe and Mail writing that viewers "cannot take your eyes off her."¹⁵

Commentary in the Turkish press read the series as a story about a woman's effort to be seen and heard; the producer Başak Abacıgil said the team tried to make Fatma's overlooked world visible through a universal lens.¹⁶ Duvar English placed the show in a Turkish context alongside the 2008 series Şahsiyet, noting that scenes of Fatma killing violent men recall real cases in Turkey, while observing that, as with Ethos, women's stories were still being told by men.¹⁷ Common Sense Media took a more critical view, judging the show a simple morality tale in which Fatma is mistreated so consistently that the framing feels manipulative, while acknowledging the intrigue of an empathetic serial-killer protagonist.¹³

On IMDb the series holds a 7.3/10 rating from about 11,000 users, with per-episode scores rising from 7.3 for the first episode to 7.8 for the final two.⁷

Remake and place in Turkish streaming drama

The premise was adapted for South African television as Unseen (2023), also a Netflix production, and an academic study has compared the two series' representation of gender roles using Katerina Perdikaki's film adaptation model.⁸ Scholars of Turkish streaming content group Fatma with the short-form thrillers and miniseries that departed from the long-running family dramas of Turkish linear television.¹⁸ The series remains available on Netflix by subscription, with no free streaming option listed.¹⁹

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › Turkish, Middle Eastern, and African serials › Contemporary Turkish serial dramas (dizi)

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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