Mustang – Movie review: Five girls for freedom – SPIEGEL ONLINE

“Come, let us go swimming!” What could be on a warm summer on the Black Sea more obvious than this call from sister to sister?

After the half “Mustang” but they irritated sustainable. Are Lale and her four older sisters imprisoned not for months at the home of her uncle? Has he taken away from them not the mobile phones and computers? Do not wear baggy clothes and be taught by her grandmother in financial management, instead of going to school?

But, as bad is the situation for the orphaned sisters. And yet they go swimming. In her bedroom, with mattresses and blankets as the sea. The sun shines on her tanned arms and legs while prone mimic strokes and yet no progress meter.

With memorable scenes captured as these “Mustang” since its premiere in May 2015, the film festival in Cannes audiences worldwide. Even the Academy, he was able to convince: “Mustang” is one of five films that are nominated on Sunday for the Foreign Language Film Oscar. In addition to documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus ( “What Happened, Miss Simone?”), The native Turk Deniz Gamze Ergüven is the only director who is nominated in 2016. And with her debut film.

The images from Trockenschwimmen are a distant, painful echo of the opening scene. On the last day before the school holidays, the five sisters Lale (Günes Sensoy), only (Doga Zeynep Doguslu), Selma (Tugba Sunguroglu), Ece (Elit Iscan) and Sonay (Ilayda Akdogan) running with a few schoolmates along the beach home. Spontaneously the group to go in her school uniform into the water decides. On the shoulders of the boys, the sisters deliver dueling to see who can hold the longest time on the water. The white school blouse sticking to her skin, her long, dark hair flying through the air. The mood is relaxed, but not erotic.

The complicity of women

At home with her uncle Erol (Ayberk Pekcan) and her grandmother (Nihal G. Koldas) expected the girls still trouble. A neighbor has reported allegedly lewd playing in the water. Enraged drags uncle the girls to the doctor. He shall certify whether their hymen is still intact. But the evidence that they are still virgins, does not come to rest the Uncle. . The mobile phones and computers are locked, and the partitioning of the sisters begins from the rest of the world

The symbolism of “Mustang” is so flat that you already can hardly call him more Symbolism: The increasingly authoritarian Turkey imprisons his daughters. In this regard, the film could well play into the hands of Turkey in principle deny the ability to adapt “European” values. He’s finally not a Turkish film, but a shot in Turkey international co-production, which was submitted by France as Oscar-Post.

The schematism of the basic constellation same Ergüven and its French co-author Alice Winocour ( “Maryland”) at other levels, however, made.

So they feel after in the figure of the grandmother of the complicity of women in the oppression of other women. Out of concern for the reputation of the family, the grandmother is in fact only too willing to assist his uncle at his disciplinary measures. When the first arranged marriages are pending, it would be the most. But when the girl again and again the outbreak succeed from her prison, she is to blur the tracks.

Next, the forced marriage comes

And finally makes Ergüven from the girls much more than just victims. Utterly masterly staging them alternately as individuals and as a group. In a moment they form a friendly Hydra, a five-headed monster with a maze of fleeing manes and polyphonic laugh. You can almost understand why the uncle before them and their femininity fears – so it looks like a natural event.

In the next moment the differences between the sisters emerge. Sonay, the elders can enforce that they can marry her boyfriend and celebrate the wedding as a successful escape. Ece, the middle, however, is fighting vehemently against their forced marriage and always comes a greater risk. When the uncle, the girl exceptionally entrains by car to the nearest town and to withdraw money the car leaves, Ece brings a stranger boy to himself. Soon, darken the windows, and the car begins to rhythmically shake.

Observed is the story from the perspective of the youngest, Lale. This allows events to appear innocent and hopeful, as they are likely. Doubles is this idea of ​​the sun-warmed pictures of David Chizallet and Ersin Gok that evoke an eternal summer, without slipping into the dreamy vagueness of Sofia Coppola’s “The Virgin Suicides” (1999). Again and again, the camera captures the tanned arms and legs of the sisters and their flushed cheeks – but also their greedy eyes and their unique calls.

So the film runs through a sensuality that is always on the side of the girl. Thus says “Mustang” despite its oppressive history ultimately as viewing pleasure, similar to assert the girl with her lust for life – a grand renewal of the social drama and a furious debut in European cinema at the same time.

In Video: The trailer for “Mustang”

> Mustang

FRA, DEU, TUR 2015

director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven

script: Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Alice Winocour

Cast: Günes Nezih Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Elit Iscan, Tugba Sunguroglu , Ilayda Akdogan

rental: world Filmverleih

length: 97 minutes

Rated : 12 years

Start: 25 February 2016