Billed as a fresh take on one of the most famous and powerful women in Ottoman imperial history, ‘Mahpeyker’ hopes to provide a multidimensional portrait of Kösem Sultan, but in the end it simply reinforces her image as the power-crazy queen mother. Sadly, Tarkan Özel’s film fails to depict how a naïve young girl became the empire’s leading power

Director Tarkan Özel’s debut feature, Mahpeyker, is an ambitious biopic of Kösem Sultan, the woman who left her mark on the Ottoman Empire for half-a-century and was a true force of nature in the first half of the 17th century.
Sadly, by the time Selda Alkor, the actress playing Kösem Sultan, utters in her regal voice the strongwoman’s immortal words, “I have chosen to let my poison out into the palace, and give my milk to my people,” you have already lost interest in the story.
Mahpeyker means “moon-shaped” – it was the name given to her at age 15 when she was captured and brought to Istanbul, to the harem of Sultan Ahmed I. Four centuries ago, comparing someone’s face to the full moon was not an implication that one was calling her chubby but a compliment emphasizing her beauty. The more popular, well-known name Kösem was given to her later by Ahmed.
As the older Kösem Sultan reminisces about her first days in the palace, how she was manipulated and shoved around by the older women in power, the story alternates to the later years of her reign and power.