Directed by first-timer, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, the foreign film Mustang explores the love five sisters have for each other, despite the tightening grip of patriarchal oppression and cultural tradition.
When the sisters are seen playing on the beach with boys, it triggers a scandal amongst the local community, resulting in their loss of freedom. The girls are orphans and are being raised by their strict grandmother, and even stricter uncle, who decide that their wild days of fun are over. They are forced to dress and act differently, slowly being moulded into the perfect housewife, where one-by-one they are to be married off to an unknown suitor.
The film is a subtle critique on the oppression of women that still exists in Turkey today. Comparisons have been made to Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides because of the similarities in plot: five girls trapped at home by their guardians; but Mustang does not portray the sisters through a male gaze. They are not just mysterious girls, who are made up of vague distant memories belonging to teenage boys. Instead, the girls in Mustang are defiant, feisty, multi-faceted, and ready to put up a fight.
Visually, the film is stunning. There are minimal cuts; instead director Gamze Ergüven decides to focus on long takes with wide shots, taking in the scenery of rural Turkey, and the naturalistic performances. There are several shots of the girls sunbathing indoors, during the summer, near a window, all limbs and long hair, entangled amongst each other. And it’s in moments like these where the Sofia Coppola similarities are clear: the dreamy aesthetic with an underlying sense of melancholy. Their summer is a slow-burner that never seems to end, ricocheting between dreamy and nightmare. The recurring shot of the girl’s sun-baking becomes more tragic each time, as there is always one girl less.
Mustang is effective in its simplicity and because of the convincing performances by the young actresses, all of whom had little to no acting experience prior to filming. Every part of their onscreen relationship is believable; the bickering, the taunting, the affection in between, and the undying loyalty they have for one another. It’s the fierce rebellion and defiance the sisters show that cuts through the bleak nature and sense of impending doom.
The film has gained critical success at festivals and award ceremonies, winning four César Awards, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, and it recently won the Audience Award at the Sydney Film Festival earlier this year. Currently the film has a limited release around Australia at Palace Cinemas.