Undeniably amongst the most powerful, provocative & pragmatic narratives to surface on the silver screen in recent years, Mustang is a beautifully balanced blend of skillful direction, sensible writing & terrific performances that takes a much-needed dig at patriarchy & conservatism and also works as a joyful celebration of sisterhood.

Set in a small Turkish village, the story of Mustang follows five young orphaned sisters whose lives are changed completely when they are caught harmlessly playing with some boys on a beach, after which their conservative family bars them from going to school anymore and begins marrying them off one by one without their consent.

Co-written & directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven in what is actually her feature film debut, Mustang takes only a…

A better The Virgin Suicides than The Virgin Suicides. The contract between the film’s most joyous and its saddest moment could not be much extremer, and neither is insincere. Lale, Nur, Selma, Ece, Sonay — it will be difficult, if not impossible, to find five better leads of such young age for a picture like this. It is not only their first-rate acting skills, but their utmost authenticity in mannerism and expression too, that make Mustang more than just another cinematic critique towards arranged marriages. It is a coming-of-age drama, which reflects upon its five central protagonists as well as the society that so decisively influences their lives, whilst hinting at the transition that is bound to happen, even if…

70/100

A.V. Club review. Rare case of a film that I started out hating and wound up kind of loving. Early scenes have the five sisters behaving almost as a single organism, manic and undifferentiated; this proves to have a strategic purpose, as they're subsequently "picked off" one by one by the serial killer known as Patriarchy. Comparison to The Virgin Suicides is unavoidable (though I confess that it didn't occur to me until I read other reviews; saw Coppola's film only once, when it opened, and really need to revisit it), but Ergüven's take on the subject is at once less artful and more emotionally direct. For whatever reason, the tradeoff works for me here much more often than…

“It’s like everything changed in the blink of an eye. One moment we were fine, then everything went to shit.”
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And thus begins one of my favorite movies of the last five years. Calling MUSTANG the Turkish VIRGIN SUICIDES is both fair and unfair. It’s a fair assessment because it’s also about five repressed sisters. And it’s unfair because it’s very much its own thing. The focus here is more on snuffing byway of culture and tradition and it’s much more raw with handheld camerawork compared to SUICIDES’ dreamlike stylization.
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MUSTANG also goes out of its way to humanize the parental figures, showing how they too are slaves to antiquated traditions; they do what they do because that’s…

One way to describe the story of the human race could be the quest for freedom. The quest looks different for different groups of people in different parts of the world at different times. In Mustang it captures the struggle of five sisters in Turkey grasping for freedom from their conservative and oppressive family.

This is a story told through action in such a way that you could still follow without the dialogue, though the dialogue does help give you a sense of character. The sisters appear to be first time film actresses and do an excellent job. There is also some really nice musical score pieces near the end of the film, which capture the desire to be free…