Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

"Deniz Gamze Ergüven's brilliant debut drama 'Mustang' feels unlike anything you've seen before; it's like a cross between a prison-break movie, an arthouse drama and a fairy tale. It's raw,
funny and incredibly moving" - Cath Clarke, Time Out.

With 46 nominations around the world, including Best Foreign Film at the Oscars, this gem is likely to leave you bemused and angry, but filled with hope too. Five young orphaned girls come out of school and hit the beach with some friends, romping in the sea with some of the boys. Harmless fun? Maybe to us, but not to their uncle and guardian; in this small Turkish community their actions are perceived as nothing short of obscene. He literally locks the girls away in their grandmother's house, removing anything modern which might corrupt them further. Their lives are changed to preparation for marriage; "the house became a wife factory" as one of the girls laments.

The hope comes in the girls' reactions; whilst they are offered up to potential husbands one by one, they plan a breakout. "When it comes, the jailbreak is as gripping as Bourne. What stays with you, though, is the film's powerful feminist statement about how society perceives women and girls' sexuality; as if somehow a 12-year-old girl showing her legs is as dangerous as waving around a loaded gun" - Cath Clarke, Time Out

The actors here are non-professional, which gives a feeling of authenticity to the scenes (and, as several of the awards for the film have been for the acting, you can see they proved their worth to the critics). The script (co-written by the director) successfully shows the girls are a tribe unto themselves and know full well how to fight back.