Written by Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour
Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Turkey/France/Germany, 2015
As time goes by, the key word for human civilization is ‘adaptation’. Morays change, politics change, economic management techniques change, cultures change, and so on and so forth. In order to live life to the fullest, it is imperative to understand what it means to live in a modern society, regardless of what era one lives in. Among the many facets of human life that regularly proves severely challenged when called upon to demonstrate levels of modernity is religious practice. That isn’t to say it is an impossibility, far from it in fact. However, religion, almost regardless of creed, is constantly in the limelight when it comes to the discourse of how societies should adapt to societies in a state of change. It is no different in this young 21st century, when religious groups are regularly caught in a tug of war between what some deem as archaic, antiquated practices and others staunchly defend because, after all, it is hard to argue against something that is ‘God’s will.’
Franco-Turkish director Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Mustang premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, has received critical acclaim since, earned the European Parliament’s Lux award and, at the time of this review’s publication, is in the running for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In other words, Mustang has carried a lot of weight, both critically and politically, since its world premiere last spring, and how could it not? Directed with evident passion for the subject matter, the picture is a glaring look into the world of a closely knit family unit and community in which two sides, diametrically opposed on many fronts, confront one another on a daily basis, but of those two sides, the elders of the household, uncle Erol and grandmother (Ayberk Pekcan and Nihai Koldas respectively), wield the necessary authority to squash as best they can the rambunctious, rebellious energy of their five adoptive girls: youngest Lale (Günes Sensoy), Nur (DoGa Doguslu), Ece (Elit Iscan), Selma (Tugba Sungoruglu), and eldest Sonay (Ilayda Akdogan).
The quintet of sisters enjoy their first afternoon of summer vacation by going to the beach with some of their male classmates. A game in which the girls sit on the boys’ shoulders in order to knock each other off into the water quickly has people in the village scoff. When their grandmother and uncle learn of the ‘incident’, the house goes on lock down. Suddently, five free-spirited young girls, some fast approaching their teenage-hood and others having lived it for a few years already, find themselves locking horns with their captors. The reason behind the severity of the punishment is never spelled out explicitly (no character ever evokes anything in God’s name), but it is evident that the customs of this relatively remote Turkish village do not permit such behavior, viewed as outlandish and ostentatious. What’s more, their grandmother and uncle speed up preparations for the eventual marriage of all five girls, marital unions that, as demanded by tradition, are determined more by the elders of the respective families than by the love shared by two young adults.
Like with most stories, there are all sorts of ways one can go about telling the plight of Lale’s sisterhood. That said, anyone coming into Mustang anticipating a morality tale the likes of which is often moulded in Western cinema, in which the characters at fault come to learn valuable lessons should perhaps temper their expectations. Nuance is not the name of the game here, but rather forcefulness and bluntness that is mirrored by the behaviours of the people in the film. This is not a knock on Ergüven’s movie, however. Under the appropriate circumstances, bluntness can be of essence, and as much as it would be nice to believe situations such as the one experienced by the girls in Mustang do not occur, the fact of the matter is that they do, including in regions of the globe where news of such occurrences would have jaws drop to the floor. In that light, the unapologetic depiction of the uncle and grandmother, who not once give the time of day to the girls’ aspirations and reasoning, is apt. Very sad and frustrating, but apt nonetheless.
On the subject of depictions, both the director and her cast deserve plaudits for the creation of extremely lived in, well formed, and lively characters. Although it would seem contradictory to highlight the efforts of the actors that play the elders for giving layered performances, but they actually do. They staunchly believe their way of life is the correct one, so any rebellious acts on behalf of their girls (of which there are many) gives rise to frustration and even hurt. As for the young actresses that take center stage, they generally play well off one another, but the two standouts are Günes Sensoy and Ilayda Akdogan as, ironically enough, the youngest and eldest sisters respectively. Sensoy in particular, perhaps because she plays the youngest and therefore the one with the most time in front of her before her adoptive uncle and grandmother unleash their plans unto her, is the most fascinating actor to watch. The ebullience of youth is infectious throughout the picture, yet said hopefulness is consistently hitting the figurative stone walls that want to contain her. It’s a very, very impressive performance from such a young talent. One wonders what, provided Sensoy is bitten by the acting bug for the years to come, she might do next.
From a direction standpoint, Mustang follows in a long line of independently produced pictures that strive for a cinéma vérité presentation that helps the viewer slide into the world the filmmakers want to explore. Whereas the movie won’t necessarily earn heaps of praise for a sense of visual style, when it comes to storytelling, how a director handles dramatic beats via edits is paramount, for they serve the story just as much as stylishness can. In that regard, Ergüven demonstrates a keen eye for detail, as her camera is very much the eye through which the girls see the world. The camerawork and editing exercised make it so that the viewer learns of new developments in the same way the protagonists do. Lale walking in her backyard and noticing bars that have been added on top of the walls communicates all the information both she and the viewer need to know. In essence, director Ergüven is a very cinematic director, as she errs on the side of ‘show, don’t tell’, a mantra often prone by filmmakers and cinephiles alike.
One’s appreciation for Mustang will depend on one mileage for films that wear their political messages on their sleeves, unapologetically so, tossing nuance into the garbage bin at the earliest opportunity. In fairness, while the film is not a documentary (although some of it is inspired by Ergüven’s life as a child), the events depicted do happen in the real world all around us, all the time. There is always a time, place, and occasion for a gut punch, Mustang being one of them.
-Edgar Chaput