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

Reviewed by Martin Hutchinson. Viewed at the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara.

Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüvent is one of the front runners in the race for the Oscar for best foreign language film and for good reason. The film holds its own with some of the most emotionally powerful moments and socially biting critiques in film this year. The film is a female tour de force led by five stellar young Turkish actresses who play sisters stifled and mistreated by their family in a society that tramples on the rights of women. It is perhaps the best ensemble of unknowns to come along in many a year.

The young women are introduced as a carefree, fun loving group acting out the natural antics of a bevy of teenagers. When they cross the line in their interactions with a few boys, their world is turned upside down as their uncle takes command of the household and begins quickly curtailing their freedoms, pleasures and even their garb. As they approach marriageable ages they are threatened with being married of like chattel to the most presentable stranger. The story follows how the girls react to and cope with these turn of events and how they rebel to the best of their ability against the heavy hand of conservative Turkish society.

A picture of a patriarchal and sexist social structure is evoked throughout the film. Power, freedom, gender roles in society, as well as other darker themes are all explored within the scope of the travails of this sisterhood. The film never strays from the perspective of one of the five sisters and very rarely away from the youngest who serves as the main protagonist. Because of this the viewer is equally trapped under the house arrest the girls suffer under, which makes it all the more sweet whenever the girls (and the camera) is allowed to find its way outside of the house’s premises. In a scene where some of the girls are driving from their home to the capital Istanbul the girders of the bridge they are crossing sporadically interrupt the breathtaking view of the city skyline as if the they were leaving the bars of their prison behind.

Sometimes film can move you to indignation, compassion and elation all in the same breath. This film attempts to do that and in my opinion succeeds by illustrating a story that is as touching as it is scathing. To overlook this film would be a crime indeed.

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Published:
02.22.16 / 9pm
Category:
Films, Santa Barbara Film Festival 2016