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| The five young sisters with their heads held closely together in an intimate reflection of their sisterhood forms this poster for Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang |
Four beautiful young sisters with their hormones raging are practically driving their father and grandmother mad in their conservative, Turkish village.
Mustang is written by Alice Winocour (Augustine (2012)) and master filmmaker, debuting Turkish co-writer/director Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Mon Trajet Préféré (2006, short)).
The four girls are beautiful and unilaterally natural and well-acting, - though they are mostly amateurs performing in front of a camera for the first time, - which is a minor miracle of direction.
The film exhibits the hopeless, Islam-founded culture, which is based on repression, shame and patriarchal hypocrisy, as well as eternal reference to Allah. Rarely have these idiotic religious traditions, which we here see lay as chains on the lives of promising young children, been more despicable.
Mustang is alive throughout its course, kept vividly living and breathing through the girls' contemplation of escape, as well as by gorgeous images: the girls and the majestic country stand in sharp contrast to the religious-cultural disregard, neglect and wrongdoing that is so rampant there. (Cinematography by David Chizallet (Aliyah (2012)) and Ersin Gok (Sar Basa (2019)).)
Ultimately hopeful, Mustang shows that there is a life waiting on the other side of the insanity which is conservative Islam. It is a compelling and important piece of first-rate cinema.
Related post:
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Top 10: Best French movies
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Reportedly 1.4 mil. €, approximately 1.66 mil. $
Box office: 5.2 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.13 times its cost)
[Mustang premiered 19 May (Cannes, out of competition) and runs 97 minutes. Parts of the story are based on Ergüven's personal experiences. Shortly before filming was set to begin the film's producer backed out due to financial worries and doubts that pregnant Ergüven would be able to do the job; luckily Charles Gillibert stepped in to produce and saved the film. At least 14 production companies and support bodies were involved in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place in Turkey, including in Istanbul. The film opened #50 to a 20k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #36 and in 57 theaters, grossing 845k $ (16.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 820k $ (15.8 %) and Spain with 794k $ (15.3 %). In Turkey it only made 89k $ (1.7 %). It was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (for France), lost to Son of Saul. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, won an AFI award, 4/9 César award nominations, 1/3 European Film award nominations, was nominated for a Golden Globe, won a Goya award, a National Board of Review award, among countless other honors. Ergüven returned with Kings (2017). Günes Sensoy (who plays Lale) returned in Muhtesem Yüzyil: Kösem (2015-17). Mustang is certified fresh at 97 % with an 8.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Mustang?
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