The sisters are prepared to be married off in this harrowing Oscar-nominated film.
Mustang is a powerful tragedy, but midway through it has one of the most joyful sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie. At a soccer match in Turkey, music blares and confetti flies as five young sisters laugh and dance. They are ecstatic. Their celebration in the stands looks like wild abandon, total freedom. If you’re like me, you’ll watch that scene with a big smile on your face.
Not much else will make you smile. The debut feature of Turkish-French director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, the Oscar-nominated Mustang is harrowing. It stars five remarkable young actors as a group of adolescent sisters. The youngest, Lale (Günes Sensoy), tells their story in voiceover narration.
As the film begins, school is ending, and Lale bids her teacher an emotional farewell. The sisters, who are orphans, join a group of boys and girls at the beach, romping innocently in the surf. Back at home, the girls’ grandmother (Nihal G. Koldas) and uncle (Ayberk Pekcan) are furious. A neighbor has reported that the girls were being sexually provocative. The girls are taken to be medically examined, and that is the first of many humiliations they endure.
So that their virtue can be preserved, they are forbidden to leave the house. The doors are locked, and their schoolroom education ceases. They surrender contraband, including a telephone. They wear shapeless dresses and are taught how to cook and sew. “The house became a wife factory,” Lale says.
At first, the girls retain some connections to the outside world. They have secret conversations with boys who stand outside the house. A drainpipe proves useful for shimmying down from a bedroom.
The girls sneak out to attend that soccer match, and it proves to be a turning point. When their guardians learn about the escapade, they tighten security even more. “Now the house really did look like a prison,” Lale recalls.
One by one, the sisters prepare to be married off. They do not choose their husbands; the marriages are arranged by the men of the families. Calamity awaits.
Many of the scenes at the house have a kind of quiet, eerie flatness. The girls seem to spend much of their time in a state of boredom. The tone shifts near the end, as dramatic events unfold like scenes from a thriller. I won’t describe them in any detail, except to note that they remind me of the 1979 Clint Eastwood movie Escape from Alcatraz, of all things. Reading the production notes, I was amused to discover that Ergüven watched Escape From Alcatraz as she worked on Mustang. So that explains that.
I remain captivated by Lale and her sisters, who are played by Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Doga Zeynep Doguslu and Ilayda Akdogan. Together they are almost like a single, rambunctious being. In numerous shots they are seen with their bodies playfully intertwined, their heads touching. They are victims of terrible abuse, yet they support each other with love and impish humor.
