Mustang (2015)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I was bored to death watching this movie, the movie makes the uncle as the bad guy who is bad and violent to the innocent girls, right? The answer will differ according to where are you from. If you're from Europe or America (The West) the girls did what any girl would do, playing with boys, sleeping with them, cheating virginity tests, lying and whatnot. but if you're from the east those exact things would be shameful for the girls and the family. but the film chose to portray the uncle as the bad guy and the girls did nothing wrong, but i think any sensible person would understand why the uncle had to do what he did.

The Film Mustang, is probably the best international film I have seen yet! I highly recommend this film for a feminine audience because it is about five young girls. It contained lots of suspense and I was always sympathizing for the girls because of their harsh living conditions. At first, I did not understand why the grandmother imprisoned the girls in the home, but I realized it was because the girls were doing unrighteous acts with boys at the beach. I noticed as each girls would get married, the family of the bride would host the wedding at their house, something that most don't do in the United States. In the United States, most weddings are held at a church or a special place reserved. I noticed that in this film, marriage was portrayed as a very big deal. As each girl came of age, or showed that they have reached womanhood, they would be married off. They didn't have to wait until they were 18, like we do in the U.S. In the United States, it is illegal to be married at any age under 18. In Turkey, marriage would be done as soon as possible. I also noticed that a girl could not get married if she wasn't a virgin. This film contained girls running away, or constantly trying to escape the household because they were under such strict rule. I don't think I would have acted any differently though. If I was living like that I would most likely want to run away, which is what the girls did at the end. I don't think I would have changed anything about the ending of this film because the girls looked at peace when they realized they were finally safe.

'Mustang' consists of an overhead shot of Selma, one of the sisters in the film, lying on a bed wearing her wedding dress in the gynecologist's chamber with a bulb glowing beneath the sheet covering the lower abdominal regions of her body. This shot of a young girl who has already been forced to marry a complete stranger, now being forced to get her virginity tested on her wedding night visually summarises the whole film in the most succinct and powerful way possible. 'Mustang' is an uninhibitedly feminist tale that throws light on the evils of an oppressive and ultra conservative patriarchal society and how women in third world countries even now feel suffocated by this oppression.What in my eyes makes 'Mustang' special is that even though the film addresses a really important and relevant issue like oppression against women,the director Deniz Gamze Ergüven still manages to retain a spirit of sweetness and innocent intimacy between the sisters which gives us some respite from the atrocious and horrifying aspects of the other scenes in the film. Ergüven juxtaposes the horrors of the scenes depicting the oppression with moments like the opening scenes in the beach or the scene at the football stadium or the scene where Lale learns to drive. These moments have almost a fantasy fairy tale like quality to them as Ergüven using the fluid camera work and lighting, focuses completely on the faces of these girls having fun and expressing themselves during these scenes. It is because of the presence of these scenes epitomising the spirit of youth and sweet bonding between the sisters that the viewer becomes more and more angry with each succeeding scene where their liberties and freedom get intruded upon. A very important theme being explored in the film is the premature and forced loss of youth. We see the house become a 'wife factory' and a symbolic prison for the girls after the opening incident and see the sisters get married off one by one. Due to the way Ergüven spends her time in showing us the bond between these sisters, when they get married off one by one, we start feeling their absence in their home. The concept of a group of girls belonging to a conservative family will remind viewers of Sofia Coppola's 'The Virgin Suicides' although the perspective is different here. 'Mustang' showcases how suffocating a woman's life can be in the orthodox conservative societies in third world countries even in the 21st century. Just like Jafar Panahi's films, Ergüven shows us why the feminist movement advocating equality is still the need of the hour in the world and more so in developing countries like Turkey. Ergüven's camera movements reminded me of the camera movements in the films of the Dardenne brothers due to the extensive usage of hand-held camera. The way Lale gathers her inner strength to defy the customs and defy her family is also reminiscent of the moral awakening of Igor in 'La Promesse'. Ergüven with the help of her cinematographer uses lighting to create a fantasy like visual texture which goes with the tone set by her in much of the film. Along with all the technical elements, the maturity that Ergüven shows with the raw emotions in the film is astonishing for a first time director. The acting is naturalistic and good from everyone. But I will give special mention to Günes Sensoy who plays Lale.My only gripe with the film has more to do with an element in the screenplay than the direction of Ergüven. At a certain point in the film, it is revealed that uncle Erol is a pedophile and he was molesting the girls. I think this was completely unnecessary and it changes the way I look at certain aspects of the film and specially the character of the grandmother. I think this revelation makes the character of the grandmother more likable, but to some extent strips her character of some of the moral complications. Overall, I loved 'Mustang'. It is a film that not only showcases great direction and storytelling, but also deals with a very relevant issue with poignancy and power. Except one unnecessary element in the screenplay, I think the film is pretty brilliant and should be seen by people around the world.

I must say Deniz Gamze Eruven's movie had an impact on me. But I suspect this might be due to the subject matter rather than script or directing. I'm Turkish, we do have child marriage problem thus I was interested in seeing this movie. But the movie has so many problems with its script, directing and acting (although acting problems could be due to bad script and directing) I must say this movie could have been a lot better.First I must commend Erguven on one important positive aspect of the movie which is being balanced. It is a movie about a depressing subject but the director did a good job on not creating an all dark movie.However, as being balanced makes the movie more realistic the artificial dialogue makes it quite unrealistic. The movie is in Turkish however to me it seems like the script was written in a foreign language first (probably French) than was translated into Turkish. Neither the girls nor the grandmother have the slightest of rural accent. There were moments where I felt these girls are from an upscale city family and their biggest problem is getting the latest iPhone, not being locked up in a house or being forcefully married to a stranger in early ages. Secondly with the exception of little Elif the movie lacks character development, it's a bit too short for depicting five sisters with serious problems.