Mustang is a 2015 Turkish (Turkish-French production) movie directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven. It’s a movie that combines an almost fairy tale like story with the very serious issues of young women coming of age and the struggles with modernization in traditional societies.
The film, in Turkish with English subtitles and nominated for several film awards and the winner of a few, is set in more or less current time in a remote town in northern Turkey. Five young women, ages perhaps 10-16, sisters and cousins, are being raised by their grandmother in the house of one of their uncles/fathers. While unclear – to me – how many are his daughters, whether the others are the children of one or more of his brothers, whether one or more brothers have died, or what happened to the mothers, what is clear is that the 5 of them have formed a close knit tight pack, loving, teasing, sharing with each other; clearly differentiated in various ways, but a quite happy pack of young women.
The fairy tale aspect is that some of the young women have now reached, and others are reaching, the age of serious interest in young men, and the grandmother and uncle have increasingly become concerned about protecting their honor – only virgins are marriageable, certified by a doctor as necessary. So a struggle ensues where the house is slowly transformed into a fortress and the girls find ever more clever ways of getting out. After a few quite wonderful and comedic scenes, including a mass escape to attend a soccer match to which as a result of previous violence at a match, men have been barred and therefore all the local women can go, a new strategy is put into place by the grandmother and uncle of marrying them off. Things escalate, get complicated, some quite serious notes are introduced, and things end varyingly, from happily to tragically, from enthusiastic to dismal marriages, and with the two youngest attempting a final escape.
Of the five young women, only one had prior acting experience. They form a delightful ensemble. The scenes and strategies of the old women of the town are also quite special. The uncle of course is an ambiguous character.
The film transcends the narrowness of its setting and is universally recognizable, with situations and settings applicable everywhere from the least to the most traditional settings.
It’s not a great movie, but a very good one, that will make you laugh, make you angry, and mainly engage you.