Wild horses, as they say... Mustang is the Academy Awards' French entry for best Foreign-language film, though that's only because Turkey wouldn't put it up for consideration so the director used her mixed heritage to submit it in France. It tells the story of five sisters living in a Turkish village where the clash between modernity and tradition has failed to resolve itself the way it has in Istanbul. Don't see it as an indictment against Islam (which is I think why the Turks bristled at it), but as commentary on all patriarchal tradition here and abroad. After the girls are caught being too familiar with boys, their strict, traditional family clamps down and turns the house into a veritable prison, a metaphor for the way their gender is treated in old-fashioned traditions. The only escape is being married off, and the girls react differently to this move from one prison to another, the youngest (and wildest) acting as narrator and main protagonist. A strong film, and given that it looks like a quiet character study, it is incredibly tense and riveting. I'd love for this to win a golden statue even if I'm not really expecting it will.
Add your comment
Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Limbesdautomne
Four weddings, a funeral and... a zoom-zoom horse to free the last two Trojan beauties.Read more in French on La Saveur des goûts amers.
Tiago Costa
4 /5Siskoid
Wild horses, as they say... Mustang is the Academy Awards' French entry for best Foreign-language film, though that's only because Turkey wouldn't put it up for consideration so the director used her mixed heritage to submit it in France. It tells the story of five sisters living in a Turkish village where the clash between modernity and tradition has failed to resolve itself the way it has in Istanbul. Don't see it as an indictment against Islam (which is I think why the Turks bristled at it), but as commentary on all patriarchal tradition here and abroad. After the girls are caught being too familiar with boys, their strict, traditional family clamps down and turns the house into a veritable prison, a metaphor for the way their gender is treated in old-fashioned traditions. The only escape is being married off, and the girls react differently to this move from one prison to another, the youngest (and wildest) acting as narrator and main protagonist. A strong film, and given that it looks like a quiet character study, it is incredibly tense and riveting. I'd love for this to win a golden statue even if I'm not really expecting it will.alda
It's like a Jane Austen novel but you actually care about the characters.monty
A gripping piece of filmmaking - this is simply one of the best films to come out in 2015.