Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven, 2015): Turkey | France | Germany

Reviewed by Marlee Reed. Viewed at AFI Fest 2015.

Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven explores the taboo of female sexualization in her debut film Mustang. The storyline follows five sisters (Güneş Şensoy, Doğa Doğuşlu, Elit İşcan, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, and İlayda Akdoğan) growing up in contemporary Turkey. The storyline explores the concept of young girls being groomed and trained to become “the perfect wife” from a young age, eventually getting married off before they reach their eighteenth birthdays.

The film opens at the start of the girls’ summer break. On the way home, the girls encounter a group of boys and engage in an innocent beachside frolic before they head home. When they arrive home, they are accused of “pleasuring themselves” while on the shoulders of the boys, and the house is immediately turned into a “wife factory”, as the youngest sister Lale describes it. The girls are first subject to virginity tests, then taught how to cook, clean, and sew, as their uncle (Ayberk Pekcan) transforms the house into a literal prison. Anything that could be used to “sexualize” them further, such as cell phones, computers, makeup, gum, is locked away along with the girls’ freedom.

There was a lot of soft camera work during the film, giving off a feeling as if you were in the girls’ point of view. A good amount of the film was focused on their collective desire for freedom, to live normal lives. In one particular scene, when the girls attend a soccer game, the crowd around them is blurred out as their happiness is determined to be the main focus of the scene. There was a heavy implication of feminism in the film, especially in the youngest sister, Lale. She refused to give in to the concept of having to marry young and care for a man that she has only just met. In contrast to the slower paced scenes, there was a perfect display of scene cuts and fast-paced camera work during more dramatic scenes, such as Nur’s almost wedding.

With stunning visuals and a cast of characters that do their best at having you experience every emotion possible in it’s short run-time, Mustang is a film you do not want to miss.