Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)
Rating: 4.9/5 stars
Smart, perceptive, observant, infuriating, and heartbreaking: these are the range of emotions one goes through while watching Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven's "Mustang": A shocking portrait about the role of women in still-existent archaic societies governed by deep-rooted sexism perfect.
Early summer in a village in Northern Turkey, five free-spirited teenaged sisters splash about on the beach with their male classmates. Though their games are merely innocent fun (and just wee-bit flirtatious), a neighbor passing by is convinced of the girls' illicit behavior and reports it to their family. The family overreacts, removing all "instruments of corruption", like cell phones and computers, essentially imprisoning the girls and subjecting them to endless lessons in housework in preparation for their marriages. As the two elder sisters are married off, the younger ones bond together to avoid the same fate. The fierce love between them empowers them to rebel and chase a future where they can determine their own lives.
It's numbing to see how the families living in these societies crush the aspirations of their young girls, robbing them of their fundamental rights, and compelling to quickly forgo any dreams or wide-eyed wonder they may have once harbored, eventually turning them into drones because of no other fault than being born at the receiving end of the gender spectrum. Eventually, these girls are left with no other option but to acquiesce or fight in the face of mortal peril. Also, since the film focuses on five sisters, it manages to explore myriad outcomes, be it happy or tragic finales, or bittersweet fates in between.
In spite of its bleak connotations, Ergüven has the foresight to narrate the story with a flexible, humorous undercurrent that cuts its starker, more brutal veracity. The Director isn't peddling blind optimism here. Instead she offers a realism stemming from the belief that freedom and entitlement to one's rights is far from an inevitable conclusion - it must be fought for, and it will be fought for. In its concentration on a bunch of girls growing up in male- dominated society, "Mustang" succeeds in being a willful act of political aggression as much as a study of female oppression.
Rating: 4.9/5 stars
Smart, perceptive, observant, infuriating, and heartbreaking: these are the range of emotions one goes through while watching Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven's "Mustang": A shocking portrait about the role of women in still-existent archaic societies governed by deep-rooted sexism perfect.
Early summer in a village in Northern Turkey, five free-spirited teenaged sisters splash about on the beach with their male classmates. Though their games are merely innocent fun (and just wee-bit flirtatious), a neighbor passing by is convinced of the girls' illicit behavior and reports it to their family. The family overreacts, removing all "instruments of corruption", like cell phones and computers, essentially imprisoning the girls and subjecting them to endless lessons in housework in preparation for their marriages. As the two elder sisters are married off, the younger ones bond together to avoid the same fate. The fierce love between them empowers them to rebel and chase a future where they can determine their own lives.
It's numbing to see how the families living in these societies crush the aspirations of their young girls, robbing them of their fundamental rights, and compelling to quickly forgo any dreams or wide-eyed wonder they may have once harbored, eventually turning them into drones because of no other fault than being born at the receiving end of the gender spectrum. Eventually, these girls are left with no other option but to acquiesce or fight in the face of mortal peril. Also, since the film focuses on five sisters, it manages to explore myriad outcomes, be it happy or tragic finales, or bittersweet fates in between.
In spite of its bleak connotations, Ergüven has the foresight to narrate the story with a flexible, humorous undercurrent that cuts its starker, more brutal veracity. The Director isn't peddling blind optimism here. Instead she offers a realism stemming from the belief that freedom and entitlement to one's rights is far from an inevitable conclusion - it must be fought for, and it will be fought for. In its concentration on a bunch of girls growing up in male- dominated society, "Mustang" succeeds in being a willful act of political aggression as much as a study of female oppression.