Lucas Versantvoort / 9 Oct 2015
A Turkish version of The Virgin Suicides. That's
Mustang in a nutshell. Five teenage girls. One insanely conservative family.
All in all a recipe for disaster.
It's the last day of school and Lale
(the youngest) and her sisters prepare to enjoy their summer holiday. But
first, they take a detour. They head to the beach with a couple of local boys
and play in the sea. One of the locals apparently noticed this, because the
moment they get back, they're treated to what is probably a firm spanking by
their stepmother. Their playing with boys is very much frowned upon as their
virginities, their 'virtue', the sanctity of their bodies are at stake. The
girls, however, refuse to adapt to their step-parents' strict lifestyles and
seek out opportunities to live life as they choose even when the house they
live in is slowly being transformed (figuratively and literally) into a prison.
Mustang is a tough watch as moments
of free-spiritedness and playfulness are quickly interchanged with moments of
tension as the girls find themselves, as always, blamed for everything and
their freedoms restricted. Their summer activities soon consist of learning domestic
activities (cooking and so on) and preparing for arranged marriages.
The best aspect of Mustang is its
examination of the oppression of women. Obviously this includes the sisters who
are to blame for everything involving sexuality. They are told through TV programs
and so on they must protect their chastity and that they must do this and they
must do that. It's always them that have to do something and are to blame. The
local boys are never punished even though they are spellbound by the other sex
as well. They share the same desires, but because more is expected of the
girls, they're held to higher standards and punished if any rules are
transgressed. This can be seen when one night a few boys stand outside the
girls' house and call for them. Not only are the boys not chastised for this
unruly behavior, it's the girls who are automatically viewed with suspicion.
It's them who have to chase away the drunk hoodlums and pretend they're asleep
just to avoid any suspicion.
The film's analysis extends to the
mothers and aunts as well. This is where things get even more interesting.
Though the first thing we see the stepmother do is punish the girls, we soon
learn that this is the last thing she wants to do. We soon find that the women
will go to great lengths to cover for the girls. At one point, the girls sneak
out to see a football match which the family is also watching at home. One of
the women notices them on TV and shortly after, the stepmother smashes the
fuses and another one destroys a crucial part of the supply of electricity to
the entire village...all so that the stepdad wouldn't notice the girls on TV.
This scene is played for laughs, but there's also an undercurrent of profound
sadness. The women want to do right by the girls, but are unable to do so under
the yoke of the men in their lives and the 'natural order of things'. They are
free in that, when push comes to shove, they'll have the children's best
interests at heart, but it's a half-freedom in the end.
If all this doesn't exactly sound
like a happy night at the movies, then you're not wrong. Nevertheless, it's
important to realize that this kind of extremely conservative behavior is still
prevalent in today's society. For the sake of balance, I wish I could say the
film treats the stepdad (the symbol of extreme conservatism) with some nuance,
but it doesn't really. It fully takes sides with the children and isn't that
the right thing to do, in the end?
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