In a small Turkish seaside village, five orphaned, school-age sisters live under the care of their traditional grandmother and uncle. The girls' free spirits lead their elders to force them into a domestic prison and prepare them for arranged marriages.At first glance, one is tempted to compare this film to "Fiddler on the Roof". They both involve five young sisters who have no brothers and the main plot point is to have the girls "married off" according to cultural customs that are outdated and oppressive. The main difference is that in "Fiddler", the villains are outside the family and community; in "Mustang", they are within. (It is also easy to compare this story to "Pride and Prejudice".)Director Deniz Gamze Erguven has done a superb job with her directing debut as she conveys an atmosphere of young, happy spirits conflicting with depressing circumstances. She elicits fine performances especially from Gunes Sansoy as the youngest and most rebellious sister. But the greatest contribution to "Mustang" is its rich screenplay co-written by Erguven and Alice Winocour. It has many gems worth pondering. These include: a beginning and end that meet full circle in a surprising way; a different fate for each of the girls; a bizarre scene in which a bride's virginity is aggressively confirmed. (It might have been hilarious if it weren't so frighteningly close to the truth in many areas of the world - past and present); a scene in which someone "turns lemons into lemonade", using a very bad situation to their advantage.There are also some interesting characterizations in the smaller roles. The grandmother is tyrannical overall (though not nearly as bad as the uncle) but she occasionally shows that she really cares for the girls' well-being. This is best shown in a funny scene involving a televised soccer match. Her sympathies cause an inner-conflict as she has to save face to hold good standing within an oppressive community.Another interesting character is a laid-back, long-haired truck driver. His appearance makes him an outsider; yet, his treatment of women and girls makes him far more pious than certain hypocrites who claim piety.With its broad variety of drama, sadness, humour, lightness, plus a very emotional ending, "Mustang" is truly one of the best films released in 2015.OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Screenplay by Deniz Gamze Erguven and Alice Winocour

The Film Mustang, is probably the best international film I have seen yet! I highly recommend this film for a feminine audience because it is about five young girls. It contained lots of suspense and I was always sympathizing for the girls because of their harsh living conditions. At first, I did not understand why the grandmother imprisoned the girls in the home, but I realized it was because the girls were doing unrighteous acts with boys at the beach. I noticed as each girls would get married, the family of the bride would host the wedding at their house, something that most don't do in the United States. In the United States, most weddings are held at a church or a special place reserved. I noticed that in this film, marriage was portrayed as a very big deal. As each girl came of age, or showed that they have reached womanhood, they would be married off. They didn't have to wait until they were 18, like we do in the U.S. In the United States, it is illegal to be married at any age under 18. In Turkey, marriage would be done as soon as possible. I also noticed that a girl could not get married if she wasn't a virgin. This film contained girls running away, or constantly trying to escape the household because they were under such strict rule. I don't think I would have acted any differently though. If I was living like that I would most likely want to run away, which is what the girls did at the end. I don't think I would have changed anything about the ending of this film because the girls looked at peace when they realized they were finally safe.

I must say Deniz Gamze Eruven's movie had an impact on me. But I suspect this might be due to the subject matter rather than script or directing. I'm Turkish, we do have child marriage problem thus I was interested in seeing this movie. But the movie has so many problems with its script, directing and acting (although acting problems could be due to bad script and directing) I must say this movie could have been a lot better.First I must commend Erguven on one important positive aspect of the movie which is being balanced. It is a movie about a depressing subject but the director did a good job on not creating an all dark movie.However, as being balanced makes the movie more realistic the artificial dialogue makes it quite unrealistic. The movie is in Turkish however to me it seems like the script was written in a foreign language first (probably French) than was translated into Turkish. Neither the girls nor the grandmother have the slightest of rural accent. There were moments where I felt these girls are from an upscale city family and their biggest problem is getting the latest iPhone, not being locked up in a house or being forcefully married to a stranger in early ages. Secondly with the exception of little Elif the movie lacks character development, it's a bit too short for depicting five sisters with serious problems.

Sisters Lale, Nur, Selma, Ece, and Sonay are orphans living with their grandmother. They play with the boys on a beach and rumors spread in the conservative Turkish village. Their uncle takes them for a virginity test. Despite passing the test, the girls are locked in the house and stripped of their modern influences. They are forced to learn to be conservative wives. The oldest Sonay sneaks out to be with her boyfriend. The girls want to go to the football match but is forbidden despite being a women only event. They sneak out but when they return, their grandmother makes the house a prison and works to marry each one off. As the noose is tighten, the girls dream of escaping to Istanbul.It's not really "The Virgin Suicides" although it does follow a story with similarities. It has the reality of religious culture. The ensemble cast is good with a naturalistic style. There is a slow build tension. The cinematic intensity is not high enough for some of the scenes. There is an escape but again the tension is not raised high enough. It's a solid drama especially for the relative newcomers.