Mustang (SFF Reviews)

Ever since I heard that Mustang was France's submission (French/Turkish production) for the 2016 Foreign Oscar nomination race and how good it was, I've been eager to watch it. I finally, after many months of waiting got to see it. I finally had the chance to see it at the Sydney Film Festival last Saturday and thankfully it was worth the wait.

Mustang tells the tale of five orphan sisters in Turkey, who innocently play with some boys on a beach are then confined to their home to essentially be raised be housewives in arranged marriages by their uncle and grandmother. The story is told from the point of view from the youngest as she too learns to clean, sew, cook, etc. so she can be married off. As she's the youngest she sees her older sisters gets married off until the climax of the film.

The film deals with themes of oppression that women would be more sympathetic and understanding of then men but the film speaks to everyone at its core. As the girls grow up and want to do more "western" activities that teenagers would do, their guardians put more and more safeguards so they don't go out or can be corrupted by the outside world, even school is off grounds. The main example of which they head out (or sneak out in this case) is to go to a soccer match as men have been banned for their violent and inappropriate behavior at the games. What happens next is that you have to watch the movie, but I will say that the moment did receive a round of applause and heavy laughter in the audience.

This is a great film to prove that female directors are really the only people do certain movies. This is Deniz Gamze Ergüven first feature film but it feels like her 5th. The direction and story does remind me of Dead Poets Society a lot but it remains to be an original piece of work that stands on its own. Deniz Gamze Ergüven also keeps the movie moving a fast and comfortable pace and we never lose or bored. An interesting fact I read about this movie was that Gamze Ergüven fell pregnant at the start of production and her producers and investors pulled out but thankfully other people came aboard to make this movie happen. Those people who came in last minute deserve an award to see through a pregnancy the way most people would.

Thanks to cinematographers Ersin Gok and David Chizallet the film has a soft glow to it at the beginning that slowly fades as the sisters are being more and more restricted in life. They too manage to show off the Turkish landscape in a way that makes me want to travel there.

Of the five sisters only of the actresses has had professional acting experience but they have such a great chemistry together it makes them feel like a group of sisters rather than five individual sisters. However it doesn't work to it's advantage as if something happens to one of them it doesn't have the same emotional weight as if something happens to all of them. Along with that the only other problem I had with film probably couldn't even be called a critique is the sound mixing in the soccer scene, which is too loud even for a theater and the other is another scene later in the movie doesn't have in sync clapping.

Mustang is must see for everyone, especially women as it shows real female characters not burdened by traditional film making tropes but rather ones that break free to become their own special thing. For male audiences the film may prove harder to sympathise with but the film breaks down those barriers and speaks to everyone.

Overall Score: 9/10

Mustang is coming to cinemas on the 23rd of June in a limited release.

Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven

Writer: Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour

Starring: Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan and Ilayda Akdogan

Cinematography: Ersin Gok and David Chizallet

Editing: Mathilde Van de Moortel

Music/Score: Warren Ellis