Review of Mustang, directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven

One night I was really, really bored and was searching through Netflix for about twenty minutes in search of something to watch to alleviate the pressure of merely existing in bed for the day.

Then I realized I had a Mubi subscription that I have a tendency to forget about every so often, which led me to close out that browser and open one with Mubi instead. But I didn’t have to search long—when I find that I end up on Mubi, I almost immediately find a movie I want to watch in the abyss of options. I love that platform, even though I really shouldn’t be owning a ton of streaming platforms in this day and age.

Anyways, Mustang was something that was right at the top of the front page, and as someone who writes about and studies young women in the world, I was fascinated by this little Turkish movie’s premise.

I also have a soft spot for Turkish content, as I studied Turkish formally for a hot minute, even though my language skills have completely gone down the drain in recent years. So I pressed play, and found myself blown away by this little directorial debut from a Turkish director.

Onwards with the review!

Five sisters in Turkey deal with their lives being upended by conservative family members.

There are multiple different protagonists throughout Mustangs, as this is a movie that follows the lives of five young sisters who are forced to live in the Turkish countryside with their uncle, Erol, and grandmother. Their parents have died, leaving them in the care of the only living family members left in their lives.

At the beginning of the movie, they’re playing on the beach with a group of boys, and end up sitting on their shoulders to continue their play. These are things that normal young girls do, even if some of them are teenagers, but when they walk home, their grandmother is abolutely furious with them.

She thinks it is sinful for them to rub their lady parts on these boy’s shoulders, calling it basically the work of the devil.

The girls clearly were just playing with the boys, but when their uncle finds out about what happened, he is completely and utterly furious at how they ended up defiling themselves with these random men. This is the beginning of the end for the sisters, as they are banned from leaving the home and no longer can attend school.

Their grandmother begins to prepare to marry them off one by one, starting with the eldest. The oldest sister escapes every so often to meet with the boy she is in love with, but all of the sisters are subject to learn traditional skills for women in order to prepare them for their futures as wives.

Things escalate to all new levels when the sisters escape one day and attend a football match, which their grandmother and the women of the house see on television, cutting off the town’s electricity before any of the men can see. That’s when the marriage operations start to get serious.

We start with the two oldest sisters. The eldest is married to her lover, while the other is in an arranged marriage she is not happy with. The other sister, Selma, is then tested by her new in-laws after she doesn’t bleed on the sheets—they think she is impure.

The truth here is that their uncle was sexually assaulting some of the sisters throughout the movie, and she is one of the unlucky ones. The next sister is prepared for marriage, and she begins acting completely recklessly. After having sex with a boy in the car, she shoots herself while the family is sitting at the lunch table.

That leaves the final two sisters. The youngest is begging a local man to teach her how to drive, as she already is planning her escape.

The night of the second youngest’s wedding, the two hatch their great escape plan, and run all the way to Istanbul, where their former schoolteacher lives. The movie ends with them at her front door and her shock when she sees these two little girls at her step.

Overall Thoughts

This is such a fascinating movie throughout, especially considering it captures a traditional attitude in Turkey that still exists in the country today. All five of the sisters are victims to their own circumstances, and of those who are prepared to be married off, only the eldest gets her happy ending by marrying the man she loves.

One sister dies due to her unhappiness, and we get the sense that the other older sister is going to be unhappy until the end of her days, especially once her in laws realize she isn’t a virgin. Their grandmother shows some understanding, but she, too, sees them as a part of a traditional system.

I think it’s a tragic story at its heart by the end, although it ends on a hopeful note. The two may have gotten away, but the five sisters who were happily playing before will never truly be whole again. What a gorgeous movie this was.

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