Mustang

Five beautiful sisters contend with social and cultural strictures in this beautifully directed debut film. In a Turkish village situated along the Black Sea, Lale and her older siblings celebrate school’s end by frolicking in the sea with some male classmates. At home, their grandmother and uncle find nothing playful in this harmless activity and set about finding eligible bachelors to marry them. There are shades of Pride and Prejudice, with the focus on the betrothal of a quintet of young women, but Ergüven is more attentive to the siblings and their affection for one another than in their suitors. Her visual eye is perfect, from the casual overlap of limbs as the girls sprawl on a bed to the way their home gradually becomes a prison as the adults construct yet more barriers to escape. Though Mustang’s focus is delicate and intimate, its themes and ramifications are nothing short of revolutionary.