'Mustang' A Review

Mustang is a French drama about five Turkish sisters contending with the increasing restriction and expectation of their family. The film opens on the five sisters walking home from school and playing(innocently) on the beach with a couple boys. Once they get home their upset grandmother informs them a neighbor has reported their lascivious behavior, their uncle is equally agitated and they plan to limit the girls contact with the outside world(by essentially imprisoning them) and marry them off as soon as possible. The girls rebel against this in various ways and while matches are made for the older girls the younger girls double their efforts to get out from under the familial repression.

All the sisters(Güneş Şensoy as Lale, Doğa Doğuşlu as Nur, Elit İşcan as Ece, Tuğba Sunguroğlu as Selma, İlayda Akdoğan Sonay) give remarkable evocative performances. Natural and emotional with an incredible chemistry between them. It is stunning how good they are given their youth. Nihal Koldaş and Ayberk Pekcan as the grandmother and uncle respectively don't fair as well. Koldaş give a good turn and provides some depth and perspective however she has to battle against the script which is starkly lopsided. Pekcan's job is almost impossible given he is written as a one-dimensional monster.

The plot is somewhat problematic because it is a harsh indictment of non-urban Turkish culture and, although not stated explicitly, Islam and its regressive gender roles. The indictment itself isn't the problem, which on its own is potent, but the film is injected with dramatic cliches(a suicide, familial sexual assault) which hammer home(unnecessarily) how restrictive and horrible the situation is. These elements don't detract from the story or the message but they are distracting and some of the reality created by the five sisters is eroded with these various elements that come across as contrived. The film is effective enough, would even be more so, without these unnecessary plot devices.

Compelling portrayals of five girls battling patriarchal control and familial expectation and becoming women. Socio-politically a bit one-sided.

See It.