# 20 Minutes (2013)

> An innocent pastrycook is jailed for injuring a powerful politician's son, and her devoted husband schemes to break her out.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/43219

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 25
- Episode runtime: 90 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, action, family
- Created by: Kerem Deren, Pınar Bulut
- Network: Star TV
- Cast: Tuba Büyüküstün, İlker Aksum, Fırat Çelik, İpek Bilgin, Metin Çekmez, Miray Akay, Müjde Uzman, Murat Prosçiler
- TMDB rating: 8.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2544148/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: mild
- Tone: melodramatic, sincere, suspenseful, hopeful, emotional

## Synopsis

20 Minutes (Dakika) is a Turkish drama series that aired on Star TV in 2013 and ran for a single season of 25 episodes, each about ninety minutes long. Tuba Büyüküstün plays Melek Halaskar, an innocent pastrycook wrongly accused of injuring an important politician's son and thrown into prison. İlker Aksum plays her loving husband Ali Halaskar, who refuses to accept her fate and works relentlessly to help her escape. Fırat Çelik, İpek Bilgin, and Metin Çekmez round out the principal cast as figures tied to the accusation and the powerful family at its center. The engine of the show is the tension between a woman's fight to clear her name from behind bars and her husband's risky, increasingly desperate plans to free her, with each episode built around shifting alliances, close calls, and the emotional toll on their family. Its tone is melodramatic and sincere, with moments of suspense and a steady current of hope. Fans of Prison Break and Orange Is the New Black will find resonance in its wrongful imprisonment premise, while viewers who enjoy emotionally driven Turkish melodrama will feel at home in its heartfelt, family-centered storytelling.

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