Reveling in the little victories

A scene from the film "Mustang." Image courtesy Cohen Media.

“Mustang” begins with the coda for what the film will be about, a simple statement delivered by a young girl in a way that belies the cruelty and sadness that will follow. Like the film, the girl tosses off the misery to come with a verbal shrug and and underlying sense of acceptance for the darkness that lies ahead. Yet the matter-of-fact nature of the comment also hints at the possibility the girl will not go into the dark without a fight.

Before all of that though things start off well for the sisters in “Mustang.” Lale (Günes Sensoy), Nur (Doga Doguslu), Ece (Elit Iscan), Selma (Tugba Sunguroglu) and Sonay (Ilayda Akdogan) engage in some mild capers on the way home to their small Turkish village for the summer, swimming with boys and stealing apples from a farm. Their playfulness is seen in a rather different light by their grandmother (Nihal Koldas), who lashes out at them for upsetting the very strict conventions embraced by their village. The situation gets worse once their uncle Erol (Ayberk Pekcan) gets wind of their actions, resulting in the start of a film-long revamp of the home into a prison, or “wife factory” as Lale says in the voice-over. The girls are forced to wear more conservative clothing and spend their days training with their aunts to become wives in lieu of an education. Tired of being locked up, the sisters sneak out of the house one night to catch a joyous soccer game and are punished with more bars and the beginning of the end of the fun times. The family starts auctioning off the sisters to families as young wives, and it only gets worse as their chances of escaping the fate that befell their aunts and the women in the family before them decrease.

“Mustang” sells itself as a drama, but it is at heart a horror film in which the girls are picked off one by one until the final girls remain alone in a foreboding, loveless place. The situation is quite horrifying as the family marries the girls off with no regard to choice, happiness or even basic compatibility; the sales pitches are short and conducted around the bride and the groom, who can only sit and watch their future unravel before them. It's not as if the girls are safe even after marriage; as the film shows, failure to live up to the contract could easily result in death. The odds are perpetually against these girls, whether it's within the family – Pekcan's Erol makes for a terrific horror villain – or outside of the prison built to keep them in. Director Deniz Ergüven and screenwriter Alice Winocour set an atmosphere where even the voices on television enforce the societal rules made to keep women from expressing any semblance of independence. A small act of freedom in “Mustang” is enough to justify increasing levels of security, and it's always the girls who are at fault in a situation; boys are viewed more like victims or at worst scamps by their peers.

Life is stacked against the girls in “Mustang,” although the film does all it can to paint these girls as the smartest ones in the room. They are equal turns daring, mischievous, clever, silly and resourceful when need be. Most importantly, they aren’t afraid of the consequences for spending a night out at a soccer game or sneaking off for a night with a boyfriend; those risks are just part of playing the game, and they know it’s better to do something rather than stay inside their prison all day. To paraphrase the motivation one sister has for attending the fateful soccer game, some action is always preferable to inaction.

And that's why “Mustang” is often heartbreaking; watching the girls lose hurts every single time, and even the ending doesn't offer easy answers. Ergüven and Winocour establish the hell out of the sisters' relationship without overdoing it; they let the relationship build through the realistic little moments, whether it's splashing about in the water or getting into petty arguments siblings (especially sisters) engage in. It's a sad enough film based on the situation, but Ergüven and Winocour care enough about their characters to make viewers feel miserable when they fail and rapturous when they win.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: PG-13

Run time: 97 minutes

Genre: Drama

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Target audience: Teen to tween girls, along with anyone interested in a well-made drama.

Take the whole family?: Some mild cursing and a rather shocking moment ensure kids younger than 10 will have issues with it.

Theater or Netflix?: Theater if you can find it in the area; otherwise wait for home rental.

Is the film culturally condescending?: Not necessarily. “Mustang” very much does look down on the early wedding practice, but it leaves much sympathy for the girls and for the older women who went through it as well. The grandmother and the girls' aunts aren't portrayed as monsters like Erol is; they're doing what they can to prepare their nieces for what they think is important to know about life. One of the aunts even goes to extreme (and humorous) measures to protect her nieces from what would have been violent repercussions.

Watch this as well?: There is a bit of Ingmar Bergman's “Fanny and Alexander” in “Mustang.” The former features children whose happy lives are uprooted due to tragic circumstances and are then forced to live in a dour, detrimental environment. “Fanny and Alexander” also has one of the best Christmas celebrations ever depicted on film.