Mustang (2015) a timeless debut of rare and bullish brilliance (Review)

Prisons aren’t just buildings to house and punish those who have wronged society, they can also be a psychological and social construct, the flexibility of this notion has seen it bend and twist into one of fiction’s most well-travelled concepts. As far as cinema is concerned, the path well-travelled begins to bore people making it necessary for directors and writers to deviate from the beaten path, blend genres, adapt unbelievable realities (see Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s Stanford Prison Experiment) or approach it with a more allegorical intent in mind as is the case with Curzon Artificial Eye’s Mustang.

Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s Oscar-nominated, Award-winning debut focuses on the ramifications of 5 orphan girls seen innocently playing with boys on a beach. Their scandalized conservative guardians literally convert their home into a prison and ‘wife factory’ while “forced” marriages are arranged. Of the 5 Ergüven gives focus to the youngest girl Lale (Güneş Şensoy), purely on the basis that she is the last to be married off and the most reluctant. Within the narrative, this is a ploy that incorporates an idealism and accessibility that will broaden Mustang’s appeal and allow in those who see arranged marriages as a cultural anachronism alien to contemporary society.

Few directors ever truly get the grasp of the direction of children, Hirokazu Koreeda is acknowledged as one of the best but other than him there are few who can work with generational divides. Mustang introduces a new director into the fold, and the key is naturalism. The girls, Lale, Nur, Ece, Selma and Sonay have a chemistry that is solely responsible for keeping a film with such a controversial subtext grounded. No performance is bigger than another, focusing more on the ensemble than an individual. An ensemble that reaches further than the girls, naturally, however, the scenes in which they mess about with each other have a warmth complimented only by the perfect glow of the nearby Mediterranean.

An interesting quality of Lale is her love of football, Trabzonspor in particular, something that can be used to articulate the core of what the writer and director are striving for. Turkey’s two major football teams are Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, two teams that have one of the most violent rivalries in the world. The reason for such an extreme rivalry is the divide; Galatasaray represents the European half of Istanbul and the Asian side is Fenerbahçe’s. Although not as black and white as European and Asian, religion plays a hefty role in that rivalry too, Mustang is concerned with the sociological divide between progress and conservatism – a struggle felt around the world.

These girls who have dreams and aspirations are part of a conservative family who believes women’s greatest possible achievement is finding a man to marry; while Ergüven implies a degree of cross-generational female solidarity, this is still a scathing look at Turkish life under the guise of a prison film. This prison is very real with the girls being removed from school and isolated from the world, but there is more to that comparison than the draconian rule of their guardians. The ‘wife lessons’ are comparable to the lessons the judicial system enrols prisons on as part of their rehabilitation, there are escape attempts, the older girls sneak out after dark and there are even attempts to learn to drive under the cover of darkness. A prison with a poor grasp on security, sure, but subtext and context are in perfect union.

A major criticism of Mustang comes from the Father figure, Erol (Ayberk Pekcan) – a one-dimensional character who only berates and marries off children who have no interest in becoming a wife. A criticism that is wholly fair, however, his role in the film is that of a cypher, a tool of allegory; Erol represents a traditionalism that the girls are frantically trying to escape. Furthermore, the film is from Lale’s viewpoint, twisting Erol from carer into the ‘evil warden’ archetype making any nuance in his character ‘off-screen’. The only characterisation he receives and Lale sees are puritanical: with a sideline in sales and explosive rage.  Shallow perhaps, but understandably so.

With Warren Ellis of Nick Cave’s Bad Seeds and Grinderman on composer duties, delivering a delicate acoustic score, this charming and thoughtful piece on lost childhood is complete. In crafting the most engaging and thoughtful feminist think piece in years, Deniz Gamze Ergüven has stormed onto the world stage. A timeless debut of rare brilliance and bullish in its beliefs, Mustang comfortably ranks up there with the year’s best.

Thanks for reading our review of Mustang

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