★★★★☆ In Deniz Gamze Ergüven's debut film Mustang, five young orphaned sisters - Lale (Günes Sensoy), Nur (Doga Zeynep Doguslu), Ece (Elit Iscan), Selma (Tugba Sunguroglu) and Sonay (Ilayda Akdogan) - full of life and natural vigour discover the price of womanhood in a conservative, patriarchal society intent on suppressing it. Present day rural Turkey is the setting: a country currently undergoing creeping Islamisation under openly religious rulers and one that has long been torn between its eastern and western identities.
- 5/13/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
This one will get to you. Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven takes on a difficult subject -- the terrible treatment of young girls by relatives enforcing conservative moral prerogatives. Sidestepping issues of religion, she makes a powerful case for the rights of women, with the help of five marvelous young actresses; her show is funny, scary and thoroughly compelling. Mustang Blu-ray The Cohen Media Group-Entertainment One 2015 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date May 10, 2016 / 39.98 Starring Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Elit Iscan . Cinematography David Chizallet, Ersin Gok Film Editor Mathilde Van de Moortel Original Music Warren Ellis Written by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Alice Winocour Produced by Charles Gillibert Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Perhaps this is a "Little Women" for the millennium. I can't say that Turkish filmmaking is better than ever because that this is the first film I've seen by a Turkish director. Deniz Gamze Ergüven...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Perhaps this is a "Little Women" for the millennium. I can't say that Turkish filmmaking is better than ever because that this is the first film I've seen by a Turkish director. Deniz Gamze Ergüven...
- 5/7/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Smart, perceptive, keenly observant, heartbreaking: how the world crushes girls and turns lively people into automatons merely because they are female. I’m “biast” (pro): desperate for movies about women
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
This is a beautiful — and by beautiful I mean ugly but smart and perceptive and keenly observant and ultimately heartbreaking — story about how the world crushes the hopes and spirits of girls and turns lively, clever people into automatons merely because they are female. And that’s if they’re lucky. Five orphaned sisters being raised in the Turkish countryside by their uncle (Ayberk Pekcan) and their grandmother (Nihal G. Koldas) find themselves held virtual prisoners in their home when questions about their virtue are raised by a nosy neighbor. “The house became a wife factory,” says the youngest, Lale (Günes Sensoy), who is perhaps 9 or 10 years old,...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
This is a beautiful — and by beautiful I mean ugly but smart and perceptive and keenly observant and ultimately heartbreaking — story about how the world crushes the hopes and spirits of girls and turns lively, clever people into automatons merely because they are female. And that’s if they’re lucky. Five orphaned sisters being raised in the Turkish countryside by their uncle (Ayberk Pekcan) and their grandmother (Nihal G. Koldas) find themselves held virtual prisoners in their home when questions about their virtue are raised by a nosy neighbor. “The house became a wife factory,” says the youngest, Lale (Günes Sensoy), who is perhaps 9 or 10 years old,...
- 2/26/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
The girls in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang
After talking about working with Warren Ellis, being in a short film directed by Olivier Assayas for To Each His Own Cinema, the costumes by Selin Sozen, writing with Alice Winocour and being in Augustine, Deniz Gamze Ergüven discussed with me seeing Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz as an influence, the contrasting comparisons with Jafar Panahi's Offside and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and dynamics between the girls (Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan) and their guardians (Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan) in Mustang.
Anne-Katrin Titze: The football idea, although you use it differently, reminded me of Jafar Panahi's tremendous Offside. Were you connecting that?
Mustangs in the sea: "Plus you see the sea from the window."
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: What really triggered it was that that was such a crazy situation. For...
After talking about working with Warren Ellis, being in a short film directed by Olivier Assayas for To Each His Own Cinema, the costumes by Selin Sozen, writing with Alice Winocour and being in Augustine, Deniz Gamze Ergüven discussed with me seeing Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz as an influence, the contrasting comparisons with Jafar Panahi's Offside and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and dynamics between the girls (Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan) and their guardians (Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan) in Mustang.
Anne-Katrin Titze: The football idea, although you use it differently, reminded me of Jafar Panahi's tremendous Offside. Were you connecting that?
Mustangs in the sea: "Plus you see the sea from the window."
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: What really triggered it was that that was such a crazy situation. For...
- 2/16/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Mustang director Deniz Gamze Ergüven on costume designer Selin Sozen's "shapeless shit-colored dresses": "For me it looks like a western." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan star with Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan, Burak Yigit and Bahar Kerimoglu in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Foreign Language Film Oscar nominated drama Mustang, co-written with Augustine director Alice Winocour. On a frosty afternoon in Chelsea, we spoke about Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, who is featured in Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth's 20,000 Days On Earth, Jafar Panahi's Offside, why Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides lacks in comparison to Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood, costume design, cooking lessons and the importance of blanket making.
Lale (Günes Sensoy)
Part allegory, part teenage empowerment, Mustang follows five high-spirited, orphaned sisters, Sonay [Akdogan], Selma [Sunguroglu], Ece [Iscan], Nur [Doguslu] and Lale [Sensoy]. Defying expectations in different...
Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan star with Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan, Burak Yigit and Bahar Kerimoglu in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Foreign Language Film Oscar nominated drama Mustang, co-written with Augustine director Alice Winocour. On a frosty afternoon in Chelsea, we spoke about Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, who is featured in Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth's 20,000 Days On Earth, Jafar Panahi's Offside, why Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides lacks in comparison to Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood, costume design, cooking lessons and the importance of blanket making.
Lale (Günes Sensoy)
Part allegory, part teenage empowerment, Mustang follows five high-spirited, orphaned sisters, Sonay [Akdogan], Selma [Sunguroglu], Ece [Iscan], Nur [Doguslu] and Lale [Sensoy]. Defying expectations in different...
- 2/15/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
'Mad Max: Fury Road': National Board of Review Best Film Award winner. National Board of Review 2015 Awards: First indication of 'Mad Max: Fury Road' awards season potential Going over the December 2015 movie awards not previously discussed on this site, we begin with the National Board of Review Awards, announced on Dec. 1. (Scroll down for the full list of winners.) Not including the Gotham Awards, which specifically honors independent American cinema, the National Board of Review was the first group to announce their Best of the Year picks this awards season. As a result, they were the first to indicate that George Miller's action-thriller Mad Max: Fury Road would be a major awards contender this year. Since then, among other awards and nominations, Mad Max: Fury Road – a Mad Max reboot of sorts starring Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and Nicholas Hoult – has been shortlisted for two Golden Globes, including Best Picture - Drama,...
- 12/29/2015
- by Mont. Steve
- Alt Film Guide
Last year I began a tradition to help my fellow Bfca members choose more wisely when it comes to the "Young Performer" category by sharing an eligibility list. My belief is they often choose poorly because this category gets no pre-voting discussion whatsoever and it can be difficult to even think of who is eligible. That said, you can safely expect to see Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation) and Jacob Tremblay (Room) nominated because they have leading roles in films that have been discussed. But who else should or could be nominated?
Ballots go out to the Bfca at any moment so here's a cheat sheet to help them vote. The category is Under 21... (but it should obviously be adjusted to 17 and under. Remember that year when the winner came from the sexually explicit Blue is the Warmest Color? That's what you get when you have a category with...
Ballots go out to the Bfca at any moment so here's a cheat sheet to help them vote. The category is Under 21... (but it should obviously be adjusted to 17 and under. Remember that year when the winner came from the sexually explicit Blue is the Warmest Color? That's what you get when you have a category with...
- 12/8/2015
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
By Patrick Shanley
Managing Editor
This year’s Oscar race features a number of powerful performance by minor actors, that is, under the age of 18.
Tackling roles that would require many veteran actors to take pause, this year’s crop of young talent is one of the strongest in recent memories, and the Academy may very well take notice.
In the past decade there have only been three actors under the age of 18 to have been nominated in the four major acting categories: Quvenzhane Wallis for best actress in Beasts of the Southern Wild in 2012 at the age of nine years, 135 days (the youngest nominee in that category’s history), Abigail Breslin for best supporting actress in 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine at the age of 10 years, 284 days, and Saoirse Ronan, who is one of the frontrunners in this year’s best actress race for her performance as an Irish immigrant in Brooklyn,...
Managing Editor
This year’s Oscar race features a number of powerful performance by minor actors, that is, under the age of 18.
Tackling roles that would require many veteran actors to take pause, this year’s crop of young talent is one of the strongest in recent memories, and the Academy may very well take notice.
In the past decade there have only been three actors under the age of 18 to have been nominated in the four major acting categories: Quvenzhane Wallis for best actress in Beasts of the Southern Wild in 2012 at the age of nine years, 135 days (the youngest nominee in that category’s history), Abigail Breslin for best supporting actress in 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine at the age of 10 years, 284 days, and Saoirse Ronan, who is one of the frontrunners in this year’s best actress race for her performance as an Irish immigrant in Brooklyn,...
- 12/4/2015
- by Patrick Shanley
- Scott Feinberg
"Mustang" is France's Official Submission in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 88th Academy Awards. Isa: Kinology. U.S. Rights: Cohen Media Group.
Adolescent discovery impaired by tradition is what afflicts the five untamable souls in Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Mustang,” a nuanced portrayal of blossoming womanhood that refuses to be anything but free. Set in a small Turkish town, the film introduces us to a group of sisters who yearn for the simple pleasures of youth. They want to laugh, to play, to spend time under the sun, to meet boys, and to openly express their desires even when these don’t align with the values of a male-dominated society. Arranged marriages lurk like an impending threat to their freedom and their bond. Still, sisterhood can’t be broken even when their spirits are prevented from running in the wind.
Its cast’s luminous charm and the filmmaker’s authentic vision have made “Mustang” a critical and audience favorite since it premiered at Cannes last May. The film’s profile reached even greater heights when France selected it as its Oscar entry instead of eligible films by other veteran directors. To have a Turkish-language French production represent one of the powerhouses in the Best Foreign Language Film category speaks volumes of the changing cultural identity of the country at a crucial time in history when acceptance and inclusion are of paramount importance.
Beyond the accolades, Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s debut feature is a thing of beauty and triumphant perseverance. It’s a film about five warriors in a battle fought indoors always looking for the small victories that offer a glimpse into a world beyond the confinement of conventions. Here is our in-depth conversation with a terrific talent.
Carlos Aguilar: When writing the screenplay for "Mustang," how difficult was it to give each character her own space and personality within the collective narrative?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: That was actually quite an issue, to distinguish them very strongly from one another because I always perceived them as one character with five heads. Think of a little hydra. In the film, for me, each time a girl gets out of the story is as if they’ve lost a battle. Then they recompose after a shock, reshape, and continue on fighting. Maybe that’s the reason why the end feeling of the film is sweet and sour, because it’s victorious and glorious, but at the same time you feel so sad because it’s shaded by everything that has been lost in the way. All the exists of those other girls into a different phase were quite sad actually. The temper of the girls came quite naturally. The film is really constructed like a little clock. If you take anything out, it falls apart. At some point I was asked to cut characters because of financial constraints, but it didn’t work out. They were all reacting to the previous girl. One was necessarily the underdog of the other, so the equilibriums were extremely clear: Sonay had a more dominant personality, the second one was afraid of flies, then there is the more mysterious and edgy one. When you start digging into the characters you discover them. Each of them is so singular.
How did these personalities and roles change when the actresses came in to bring the pages to life?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: They bring beautiful life to them in a sense. At some point I tried every girl for every part, even when it was very obvious that a girl had the nature of a character. For example, Ilayda was very close to Sonay. She has an immense trust in herself and she is a bit of a Lolita exactly like the character was, but I still auditioned her for every single part to be sure. It was obvious. Then when it came to casting Lale, the actress was different from the character. She had the intelligence and the wits of the character, but the actress, Günes Sensoy, she like knitting and is afraid of flies, leaves, and nature. There was always something of the real character in them and the fact that they had real acting qualities enabled them to compose. They brought exuberant life to them. They are all very solar.
Where did the specific experiences and cultural details come from? How close is your relationship to Turkey since you move to France and did these come from your personal experience growing up there?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: My family life was Turkish even if I was living in France. I went back and forth a lot between Turkey and France because most of my family was there - even my mother. A lot of stories cam from my family, for example, the little scandal that the girls trigger when they sit on the boy’s shoulders, that was something we did in the family. The things they are told was what we were told, but we didn’t react at all like the characters. I was mortified and stared at my shows, whereas the characters start breaking the chairs and saying, “These chairs touch our asshole, is that disgusting?” That’s heroic, so that’s not true. I was a complete coward in real life. The girls beaten in the order of their age, that was something that my mother’s generation went through.
There were also things that were documented for the needs of the script. There are lots of little things, which in some way reflect something real. Of course, when you work with actors and when you work on a script everything that you know about the human experience can’t possibly go in. With a screenwriter and with the actors there is always an environment of trust. You can say anything, all your secrets, and you know that it won’t get out of that room. Sometimes it’s huge, like you have a huge segment inspired by real life that goes in the film, and sometimes it’s just a shot,like the way that you look at someone if you saw something on his skin. You’ll focus your shot exactly the way you looked at someone that day. It’s about big and small mirrors, sometimes it's metaphoric. You say something but it’s not down to earth or the way it happened
Rebellious things only become rebellious when oppression comes in. Things that are so normal to most girls become controversial in the context of the film.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Of course, each of these represents defiance. It’s a battle. There is always a conflict at the bottom of each one of those scenes. Sometimes the girls win a little and that’s the joy of victory, like when they go to the football game. They have shapeless, shit-colored dresses, but they can tear them up. These are little victories, and of course you can’t reveal against nothing.
Has the film been shown in Turkey and what how was it received there in comparison to the rest of the world ? Did some of the themes explored in the film upset conservative people?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Very different from everywhere else. The film generated a sense of conquering in France. The audience adopted the film, they like the girls, there was something special in France. I think I was hoping that even people who could feel criticized by the subject of the film in Turkey would be charmed by the girls and that they would generate empathy, but it’s been different. People who like it, like it emotionally very strongly and people who hate it are very virulent against it. It’s inevitable. We are taking very taboo things.
It's hard to think someone could hate the film. Were these negative reactions something that concerned or worry you?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: There have been very violent reactions. The major media outlets are behind the film. The important journalists and the important film critics are behind the film. But on social media people have Gilles de la Tourette, the syndrome that makes people insult compulsively without being able to refrain themselves. I feel it’s violent. There was this woman,which I don’t know if it’s a woman because the profile is anonymous with a woman’s name, who had been insulting me for weeks and weeks. Once I was in Turkey she published information on all the places where I was during the day, “She is going to be at this TV station," or “She is going to be presenting the film at this movie theater.” It was awful.
Was it because she or he felt the film was against tradition or was it something beyond that?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: She would say things like, “The film is a huge lie. It was made to degrade the face of Turkey.” The thing is that there’s been one movie made on Turkey, which was “Midnight Express,” and it was awful for the image of Turkey. It’s one of those territories where you have little films to come out of it, so the responsibility of what you show is very important. We are showing things that are taboo and not always glorious like the sexual abuse and all those things. Of course sometimes the reactions are, “Why are showing this?” They would like me to show something heroic or chevalier, and that’s not the case. We are embracing humans as they are.
"Mustang" has been talked about a lot in terms of female empowerment because of the themes it observes and the strong vision behind it. What’s your stance on being labeled a “female filmmaker” or the fact that the film could be considered a "feminist film"? The way femininity is depicted in your film is definitely out of the norm compared to what we see in mainstream cinema.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: I used to not see it. When I was in film school and people asked about female cinema or male cinema, I didn’t really related to that debate until “Mustang" because of the fact that it’s about what it is to be a woman. There was something about it that made me perceive that in art history and in cinema history we have been seeing the world through the eyes of men. Women have always been objectified and there are very few figures of womanhood that literally look like us and who work like us in terms of our desires, hopes and all these things - like real females do. Literally, this is the first in a movie where I can completely relate to the characters. The metaphor I use is that masculinity is like New York in cinema. If you are not a New Yorker, when you arrive there for the first time you have the impression you grew up there because you’ve seen it in so many films. It’s been filmed from every single angle and by so many different filmmakers that you know the streets, the sidewalks, the architecture, the cabs, the temper of the people, all that you know. Whereas femininity is that village behind that hill with the bad road. Nobody goes there. There is no camera. We don’t know what it looks like. It’s pioneering to crisscross those territories.
For example, every step of the way of the experience of being a woman I always though, “Damn, nobody told be about this, or this, or this.” After I was a mother for the first time I thought, “Where did you see breastfeeding in cinema?” Almost nowhere. There was one film by Bergman that takes place in the Middle Ages where you have people going completely crazy because there is an epidemic of the plague. They start dancing and walking from one city to another. It’s an eruption of collective madness, and in that city there is one guy who has his eye dangling out of his face, then you have a guy carrying a cross, and a mother who is breastfeeding. That’s the only time you see a woman breastfeeding in cinema. It’s crazy! All those things which are so common in our lives and that are there in every step of the way in our lives, are not there.
Would you say femininity and feminism have become taboo in cinema?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: It’s not taboo, but men, not only in Turkish society but everywhere, have been the bosses in terms of creation. If you look at art history, women were the objects. The fact that it’s not been made by women means that the subjects are not women. You can’t have empathy with characters who are not the subjects because they are objects. That’s important.
There characters in your film are not victims, but more importantly they are not archetypes of fragility and weakness.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: The situations are terrible, but I really wanted them to be figures of courage, intelligence, perseverance, all those values that are never given to women.
Why was it important for you to make your debut feature in Turkey and to tell this particular story?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: This is my second feature project, but the first one to go into production. For me it’s very important that all my preoccupations about the world are at the bottom of a project. At that time with “Mustang” that preoccupation was the position of women and there was an urge to tell this story.
The title of the film is a compelling visual reference that really encompasses the girl's spirit. Where did it come from?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Etymologically the word “mustang” means “without master.” One word had to describe the temper of these girls, which was untamable. There was also this visual line between these five girls with their long hair running around the village. They have something of wild animals. The first line of the script says, “Lale has something of a wild animal,” I had to find which animal it was and represented these girls who have been growing up without parents and playing around outside after dark. Also, one of my cousins’ names literally means “wild horse,” so it made sense.
The film is being released at a time when there is a difficult political atmosphere in Turkey. A film about freedom in times likes these is more than appropriate.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Right now Turkey is extremely preoccupying. I hope this film will be seen there, if not in movie theaters I hope it’s pirated and seen. It’s important that it reaches people.
The girls’ grandmother is a very interesting character. She is helping perpetuate this traditional lifestyle, but that’s all she knows. She thinks she is doing the right thing, but in a sense women like her encourage and accept this inequality.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: In some ways she does it with the best intentions and with the means she has. I can’t say no one is pure evil, but she is not. She does whatever she can. Women perpetuate machismo. For example, in France, when people asked me, “Are you a feminist?” I used to say, “No,” when we released the film there. If you say, “Yes,” people won’t go and see your film. People think there is something ugly about feminists. There are so many actress like Marion Cotillard who say they are not feminist because is as if there are all these negative attributes associated with it. But feminism is exactly as any kind of combat for equal rights. It’s exactly the same as people fighting for civil rights and in most parts of the world you can say there is some kind of apartheid against women. It varies and it’s not always the same scale of inequality, but there is really a huge problem regarding the position of women. We are perpetuating this inequality. That grandmother is perpetuating it without questioning things that she has lived, and that’s true and it’s true in different ways in different cultures. For example, excision or female circumcision, women do it to other women in the cultures where it’s practiced. You would think that if you had been victim of something like that you would know better, but it’s not true. We don’t accept that this is exactly like any other fight for equal rights. We think it’s not glamorous to be a feminist. We think it’s just about women with hairy armpits and stuff like that, but that’s not true. It’s just a desire to be equal. The fact that we are not very articulate about it makes characters like the grandmother exist.
There is an evocative quality to the film's cinematography. Did you decide this approach from the screenplay stage or was it something that developed during production?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: First of all, we had to make something glorious and very full of life. From the script stage there were always passages or movements from light to darkness. The beginning of the film had to be extremely sunny: the age of innocence, fun, joy. We had to capture the life and the power of these girls. Then, as the characters leave the story it becomes darker and darker everywhere and it’s colder. Eventually it turns into complete darkness like in the last wedding. You have that movement in the dramatization of the light. There was something about the characters being full of life and the light they reflected that was glorious. At the end of the film we see dawn again. There was also something musical about the film in terms of the drama. I remember at some point I had written a part with trumpets and then all of a sudden I had this little interlude. I was thinking, “Now once you have the trumpets you can’t stop. You are not allowed to do this,” so I took that and threw it away. There were natural movements of light, maybe it was metaphorically musical, but all of them were natural movements of strength.
Was shooting a film like this in Turkey a difficult task based on the content and the situations it deals with? It seems like this small town was perfect for the film in multiple ways.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: I was trying to be under the radar as much as possible. For a long time when I was going back and forth to that little town I would never say what I was doing there. Ultimately I came with my team and it took two hours and then everybody in the city knew what we were doing there. There is so much gossip in Turkey, if you sneeze somewhere someone in another village will say, “Bless you.” People know everything about what you are doing. It was a very conservative place. I loved that because people were extremely welcoming, but some people were against the film too. Women in the restaurants there eat on the first floor and the men eat downstairs. I didn’t immediately understand that, so I would eat downstairs with the men and then I thought, “I’m just going to do it the way they do it." People were extremely respectful with me and with the girls, but of course I didn’t share the content of the script with anyone. I would say, “It’s a fairy tale about being a girl.”
I'm sure you've read tons of reviews and pieces comparing the film to Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides.” What are your thoughts on this at this point?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: I understand. There is this one shot when the girls are in the room and I understand that’s why. For me these girls are like the hydra: a body with five heads. They’ve been going through a shock and they are not at all like those in “The Virgin Suicides.” The fact that there is are a group of girls in the bedroom seems to spark that comparison. The book and the film say so many things about sisterhood, but when you see two people kissing in a film you don’t necessarily think about “Casablanca." There are less films about sisterhood, so of course it resonates in that particular spot. I’ve read the book and I’ve seen the film. I was disturbed after a while when people asked the question over and over again, so I thought, “Ok, I’m going to give in.” In the book they talk about when teenage girls have their periods it’s such a big deal, and I’m sorry to say this because it’s private, but in the group of actresses that is always a subject. Who has had it, who hasn’t, etc, and it’s a big discussion each time. That’s exactly like in the book. It’s true. That’s what happens in sisterhood when there are a lot of teenage girls. So I see how it resonates.
It seems like a lot of people finding puzzling to see France submitting a film set in Turkey and in Turkish as its Oscar entry in the Best Foreign Language category. What does this mean to you? How surprising was it for you and your team?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: It came out quite organically and I think it’s a beautiful thing. For me it’s very touching. I’m originally Turkish, then French. I’ve been going to this film school in France where they take six directors per year after a long contest. Then for four years you make films and you have all these professionals come in and out. You grow up as a filmmaker in front of the eyes of the industry. I had already run representing France at the Cannes Film Festival with a short film in Turkish years ago. Nobody ever asked because the film was obviously French. “Mustang” was initiated by France, my producer is French and my team is French. Once we made the film it was immediacy embraced by the ministry of culture, there was no distinction between our film and all the other French films released this year.
We hadn’t even finished the film when it was selected for Cannes and we were invited by the ministry of culture as part of a celebration of French cinema. They embraced me with my different origins and it’s a way of saying, “Look at who we are. France now is this, with people from different backgrounds.” It’s such a big statement for them to do that. It moves me very much particularly because I had very complicated relationship to France. Plus, the Foreign Language Oscar goes to the country, not to the director or the producer. It’s a huge responsibility.
The minute they told us we were stuck to the ceiling out of joy. We literally needed someone to bring us down. After that there was such a sense of responsibility. We’ve been entrusted with this. My favorite quality about French cinema is this diversity. There are a lot of international films supported by France; then there is the Cannes Film Festival, which is the place where people are most curious about cinema and different points of view from all over the world; and then there is the French audience, which is curious to see films in any possible language. There are more movie theaters in Paris than in any other city in the world and audiences there are so curious. We are at a time when Europe is moving towards values that are extremely right-wing and all of a sudden France says, “Bam! We are behind this film with a different origin and the values of this specific cinema.” It goes straight to my heart.
"Mustang" is now playing in L.A. and NYC.
Adolescent discovery impaired by tradition is what afflicts the five untamable souls in Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Mustang,” a nuanced portrayal of blossoming womanhood that refuses to be anything but free. Set in a small Turkish town, the film introduces us to a group of sisters who yearn for the simple pleasures of youth. They want to laugh, to play, to spend time under the sun, to meet boys, and to openly express their desires even when these don’t align with the values of a male-dominated society. Arranged marriages lurk like an impending threat to their freedom and their bond. Still, sisterhood can’t be broken even when their spirits are prevented from running in the wind.
Its cast’s luminous charm and the filmmaker’s authentic vision have made “Mustang” a critical and audience favorite since it premiered at Cannes last May. The film’s profile reached even greater heights when France selected it as its Oscar entry instead of eligible films by other veteran directors. To have a Turkish-language French production represent one of the powerhouses in the Best Foreign Language Film category speaks volumes of the changing cultural identity of the country at a crucial time in history when acceptance and inclusion are of paramount importance.
Beyond the accolades, Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s debut feature is a thing of beauty and triumphant perseverance. It’s a film about five warriors in a battle fought indoors always looking for the small victories that offer a glimpse into a world beyond the confinement of conventions. Here is our in-depth conversation with a terrific talent.
Carlos Aguilar: When writing the screenplay for "Mustang," how difficult was it to give each character her own space and personality within the collective narrative?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: That was actually quite an issue, to distinguish them very strongly from one another because I always perceived them as one character with five heads. Think of a little hydra. In the film, for me, each time a girl gets out of the story is as if they’ve lost a battle. Then they recompose after a shock, reshape, and continue on fighting. Maybe that’s the reason why the end feeling of the film is sweet and sour, because it’s victorious and glorious, but at the same time you feel so sad because it’s shaded by everything that has been lost in the way. All the exists of those other girls into a different phase were quite sad actually. The temper of the girls came quite naturally. The film is really constructed like a little clock. If you take anything out, it falls apart. At some point I was asked to cut characters because of financial constraints, but it didn’t work out. They were all reacting to the previous girl. One was necessarily the underdog of the other, so the equilibriums were extremely clear: Sonay had a more dominant personality, the second one was afraid of flies, then there is the more mysterious and edgy one. When you start digging into the characters you discover them. Each of them is so singular.
How did these personalities and roles change when the actresses came in to bring the pages to life?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: They bring beautiful life to them in a sense. At some point I tried every girl for every part, even when it was very obvious that a girl had the nature of a character. For example, Ilayda was very close to Sonay. She has an immense trust in herself and she is a bit of a Lolita exactly like the character was, but I still auditioned her for every single part to be sure. It was obvious. Then when it came to casting Lale, the actress was different from the character. She had the intelligence and the wits of the character, but the actress, Günes Sensoy, she like knitting and is afraid of flies, leaves, and nature. There was always something of the real character in them and the fact that they had real acting qualities enabled them to compose. They brought exuberant life to them. They are all very solar.
Where did the specific experiences and cultural details come from? How close is your relationship to Turkey since you move to France and did these come from your personal experience growing up there?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: My family life was Turkish even if I was living in France. I went back and forth a lot between Turkey and France because most of my family was there - even my mother. A lot of stories cam from my family, for example, the little scandal that the girls trigger when they sit on the boy’s shoulders, that was something we did in the family. The things they are told was what we were told, but we didn’t react at all like the characters. I was mortified and stared at my shows, whereas the characters start breaking the chairs and saying, “These chairs touch our asshole, is that disgusting?” That’s heroic, so that’s not true. I was a complete coward in real life. The girls beaten in the order of their age, that was something that my mother’s generation went through.
There were also things that were documented for the needs of the script. There are lots of little things, which in some way reflect something real. Of course, when you work with actors and when you work on a script everything that you know about the human experience can’t possibly go in. With a screenwriter and with the actors there is always an environment of trust. You can say anything, all your secrets, and you know that it won’t get out of that room. Sometimes it’s huge, like you have a huge segment inspired by real life that goes in the film, and sometimes it’s just a shot,like the way that you look at someone if you saw something on his skin. You’ll focus your shot exactly the way you looked at someone that day. It’s about big and small mirrors, sometimes it's metaphoric. You say something but it’s not down to earth or the way it happened
Rebellious things only become rebellious when oppression comes in. Things that are so normal to most girls become controversial in the context of the film.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Of course, each of these represents defiance. It’s a battle. There is always a conflict at the bottom of each one of those scenes. Sometimes the girls win a little and that’s the joy of victory, like when they go to the football game. They have shapeless, shit-colored dresses, but they can tear them up. These are little victories, and of course you can’t reveal against nothing.
Has the film been shown in Turkey and what how was it received there in comparison to the rest of the world ? Did some of the themes explored in the film upset conservative people?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Very different from everywhere else. The film generated a sense of conquering in France. The audience adopted the film, they like the girls, there was something special in France. I think I was hoping that even people who could feel criticized by the subject of the film in Turkey would be charmed by the girls and that they would generate empathy, but it’s been different. People who like it, like it emotionally very strongly and people who hate it are very virulent against it. It’s inevitable. We are taking very taboo things.
It's hard to think someone could hate the film. Were these negative reactions something that concerned or worry you?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: There have been very violent reactions. The major media outlets are behind the film. The important journalists and the important film critics are behind the film. But on social media people have Gilles de la Tourette, the syndrome that makes people insult compulsively without being able to refrain themselves. I feel it’s violent. There was this woman,which I don’t know if it’s a woman because the profile is anonymous with a woman’s name, who had been insulting me for weeks and weeks. Once I was in Turkey she published information on all the places where I was during the day, “She is going to be at this TV station," or “She is going to be presenting the film at this movie theater.” It was awful.
Was it because she or he felt the film was against tradition or was it something beyond that?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: She would say things like, “The film is a huge lie. It was made to degrade the face of Turkey.” The thing is that there’s been one movie made on Turkey, which was “Midnight Express,” and it was awful for the image of Turkey. It’s one of those territories where you have little films to come out of it, so the responsibility of what you show is very important. We are showing things that are taboo and not always glorious like the sexual abuse and all those things. Of course sometimes the reactions are, “Why are showing this?” They would like me to show something heroic or chevalier, and that’s not the case. We are embracing humans as they are.
"Mustang" has been talked about a lot in terms of female empowerment because of the themes it observes and the strong vision behind it. What’s your stance on being labeled a “female filmmaker” or the fact that the film could be considered a "feminist film"? The way femininity is depicted in your film is definitely out of the norm compared to what we see in mainstream cinema.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: I used to not see it. When I was in film school and people asked about female cinema or male cinema, I didn’t really related to that debate until “Mustang" because of the fact that it’s about what it is to be a woman. There was something about it that made me perceive that in art history and in cinema history we have been seeing the world through the eyes of men. Women have always been objectified and there are very few figures of womanhood that literally look like us and who work like us in terms of our desires, hopes and all these things - like real females do. Literally, this is the first in a movie where I can completely relate to the characters. The metaphor I use is that masculinity is like New York in cinema. If you are not a New Yorker, when you arrive there for the first time you have the impression you grew up there because you’ve seen it in so many films. It’s been filmed from every single angle and by so many different filmmakers that you know the streets, the sidewalks, the architecture, the cabs, the temper of the people, all that you know. Whereas femininity is that village behind that hill with the bad road. Nobody goes there. There is no camera. We don’t know what it looks like. It’s pioneering to crisscross those territories.
For example, every step of the way of the experience of being a woman I always though, “Damn, nobody told be about this, or this, or this.” After I was a mother for the first time I thought, “Where did you see breastfeeding in cinema?” Almost nowhere. There was one film by Bergman that takes place in the Middle Ages where you have people going completely crazy because there is an epidemic of the plague. They start dancing and walking from one city to another. It’s an eruption of collective madness, and in that city there is one guy who has his eye dangling out of his face, then you have a guy carrying a cross, and a mother who is breastfeeding. That’s the only time you see a woman breastfeeding in cinema. It’s crazy! All those things which are so common in our lives and that are there in every step of the way in our lives, are not there.
Would you say femininity and feminism have become taboo in cinema?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: It’s not taboo, but men, not only in Turkish society but everywhere, have been the bosses in terms of creation. If you look at art history, women were the objects. The fact that it’s not been made by women means that the subjects are not women. You can’t have empathy with characters who are not the subjects because they are objects. That’s important.
There characters in your film are not victims, but more importantly they are not archetypes of fragility and weakness.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: The situations are terrible, but I really wanted them to be figures of courage, intelligence, perseverance, all those values that are never given to women.
Why was it important for you to make your debut feature in Turkey and to tell this particular story?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: This is my second feature project, but the first one to go into production. For me it’s very important that all my preoccupations about the world are at the bottom of a project. At that time with “Mustang” that preoccupation was the position of women and there was an urge to tell this story.
The title of the film is a compelling visual reference that really encompasses the girl's spirit. Where did it come from?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Etymologically the word “mustang” means “without master.” One word had to describe the temper of these girls, which was untamable. There was also this visual line between these five girls with their long hair running around the village. They have something of wild animals. The first line of the script says, “Lale has something of a wild animal,” I had to find which animal it was and represented these girls who have been growing up without parents and playing around outside after dark. Also, one of my cousins’ names literally means “wild horse,” so it made sense.
The film is being released at a time when there is a difficult political atmosphere in Turkey. A film about freedom in times likes these is more than appropriate.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: Right now Turkey is extremely preoccupying. I hope this film will be seen there, if not in movie theaters I hope it’s pirated and seen. It’s important that it reaches people.
The girls’ grandmother is a very interesting character. She is helping perpetuate this traditional lifestyle, but that’s all she knows. She thinks she is doing the right thing, but in a sense women like her encourage and accept this inequality.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: In some ways she does it with the best intentions and with the means she has. I can’t say no one is pure evil, but she is not. She does whatever she can. Women perpetuate machismo. For example, in France, when people asked me, “Are you a feminist?” I used to say, “No,” when we released the film there. If you say, “Yes,” people won’t go and see your film. People think there is something ugly about feminists. There are so many actress like Marion Cotillard who say they are not feminist because is as if there are all these negative attributes associated with it. But feminism is exactly as any kind of combat for equal rights. It’s exactly the same as people fighting for civil rights and in most parts of the world you can say there is some kind of apartheid against women. It varies and it’s not always the same scale of inequality, but there is really a huge problem regarding the position of women. We are perpetuating this inequality. That grandmother is perpetuating it without questioning things that she has lived, and that’s true and it’s true in different ways in different cultures. For example, excision or female circumcision, women do it to other women in the cultures where it’s practiced. You would think that if you had been victim of something like that you would know better, but it’s not true. We don’t accept that this is exactly like any other fight for equal rights. We think it’s not glamorous to be a feminist. We think it’s just about women with hairy armpits and stuff like that, but that’s not true. It’s just a desire to be equal. The fact that we are not very articulate about it makes characters like the grandmother exist.
There is an evocative quality to the film's cinematography. Did you decide this approach from the screenplay stage or was it something that developed during production?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: First of all, we had to make something glorious and very full of life. From the script stage there were always passages or movements from light to darkness. The beginning of the film had to be extremely sunny: the age of innocence, fun, joy. We had to capture the life and the power of these girls. Then, as the characters leave the story it becomes darker and darker everywhere and it’s colder. Eventually it turns into complete darkness like in the last wedding. You have that movement in the dramatization of the light. There was something about the characters being full of life and the light they reflected that was glorious. At the end of the film we see dawn again. There was also something musical about the film in terms of the drama. I remember at some point I had written a part with trumpets and then all of a sudden I had this little interlude. I was thinking, “Now once you have the trumpets you can’t stop. You are not allowed to do this,” so I took that and threw it away. There were natural movements of light, maybe it was metaphorically musical, but all of them were natural movements of strength.
Was shooting a film like this in Turkey a difficult task based on the content and the situations it deals with? It seems like this small town was perfect for the film in multiple ways.
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: I was trying to be under the radar as much as possible. For a long time when I was going back and forth to that little town I would never say what I was doing there. Ultimately I came with my team and it took two hours and then everybody in the city knew what we were doing there. There is so much gossip in Turkey, if you sneeze somewhere someone in another village will say, “Bless you.” People know everything about what you are doing. It was a very conservative place. I loved that because people were extremely welcoming, but some people were against the film too. Women in the restaurants there eat on the first floor and the men eat downstairs. I didn’t immediately understand that, so I would eat downstairs with the men and then I thought, “I’m just going to do it the way they do it." People were extremely respectful with me and with the girls, but of course I didn’t share the content of the script with anyone. I would say, “It’s a fairy tale about being a girl.”
I'm sure you've read tons of reviews and pieces comparing the film to Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides.” What are your thoughts on this at this point?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: I understand. There is this one shot when the girls are in the room and I understand that’s why. For me these girls are like the hydra: a body with five heads. They’ve been going through a shock and they are not at all like those in “The Virgin Suicides.” The fact that there is are a group of girls in the bedroom seems to spark that comparison. The book and the film say so many things about sisterhood, but when you see two people kissing in a film you don’t necessarily think about “Casablanca." There are less films about sisterhood, so of course it resonates in that particular spot. I’ve read the book and I’ve seen the film. I was disturbed after a while when people asked the question over and over again, so I thought, “Ok, I’m going to give in.” In the book they talk about when teenage girls have their periods it’s such a big deal, and I’m sorry to say this because it’s private, but in the group of actresses that is always a subject. Who has had it, who hasn’t, etc, and it’s a big discussion each time. That’s exactly like in the book. It’s true. That’s what happens in sisterhood when there are a lot of teenage girls. So I see how it resonates.
It seems like a lot of people finding puzzling to see France submitting a film set in Turkey and in Turkish as its Oscar entry in the Best Foreign Language category. What does this mean to you? How surprising was it for you and your team?
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: It came out quite organically and I think it’s a beautiful thing. For me it’s very touching. I’m originally Turkish, then French. I’ve been going to this film school in France where they take six directors per year after a long contest. Then for four years you make films and you have all these professionals come in and out. You grow up as a filmmaker in front of the eyes of the industry. I had already run representing France at the Cannes Film Festival with a short film in Turkish years ago. Nobody ever asked because the film was obviously French. “Mustang” was initiated by France, my producer is French and my team is French. Once we made the film it was immediacy embraced by the ministry of culture, there was no distinction between our film and all the other French films released this year.
We hadn’t even finished the film when it was selected for Cannes and we were invited by the ministry of culture as part of a celebration of French cinema. They embraced me with my different origins and it’s a way of saying, “Look at who we are. France now is this, with people from different backgrounds.” It’s such a big statement for them to do that. It moves me very much particularly because I had very complicated relationship to France. Plus, the Foreign Language Oscar goes to the country, not to the director or the producer. It’s a huge responsibility.
The minute they told us we were stuck to the ceiling out of joy. We literally needed someone to bring us down. After that there was such a sense of responsibility. We’ve been entrusted with this. My favorite quality about French cinema is this diversity. There are a lot of international films supported by France; then there is the Cannes Film Festival, which is the place where people are most curious about cinema and different points of view from all over the world; and then there is the French audience, which is curious to see films in any possible language. There are more movie theaters in Paris than in any other city in the world and audiences there are so curious. We are at a time when Europe is moving towards values that are extremely right-wing and all of a sudden France says, “Bam! We are behind this film with a different origin and the values of this specific cinema.” It goes straight to my heart.
"Mustang" is now playing in L.A. and NYC.
- 11/25/2015
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
France's Oscar submission Mustang (previously reviewed) focuses on five orphaned sisters going through adolescence in a Turkish village where hormones are considered to be the ultimate evil. Worried about their reputation, their grandmother decides the best way to care for them is by marrying them off as soon as possible, but the sisters have very little to say in the decisions made for them. They don’t understand why hanging out with boys is wrong, or why they should be married to strangers. Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, in her feature length debut, tells a revelatory tale of oppression, but for all the hardships on display in the film, she keeps the style playful and fresh, reminding one of what it feels like to be a teenager oblivious or careless of the darkness in the world.
Most impressive of all, is the director’s work with the five actresses playing the...
Most impressive of all, is the director’s work with the five actresses playing the...
- 11/20/2015
- by Jose
- FilmExperience
The school's out for the Summer, but for the 5 luminous protagonist orphan sisters, the indignity of being virgin brides in a 'wife factory' has just begun. After some innocent water splashing horseplay with the boys on the beach, they become prisoners in their own home. It was a neighbor woman in (in the girls' own words) "shit colored traditional garb" who informed their grandmother that they were acting indecently with the boys. The panicked grandmother locks them up in the house but still shields them from their brutish uncle's fury who is even more conservative. You see, according to Lale (Günes Sensoy) the youngest of the sisters who narrates the film, Istanbul might be about 'a thousand miles away', but the small coastal town they...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 11/16/2015
- Screen Anarchy
A pair of sections that we’ve been covering almost since its inception, the American Film Institute (AFI) announced their selections for the New Auteurs and American Independents line-ups and we’ve got a noteworthy, eyebrow-raising sampling of award-winning items from the Cannes played hellish immigration drama Mediterranea from Jonas Carpignano to Sundance (Josh Mond’s James White) to SXSW (Trey Edward Shults’ Krisha) winners. Since Park City days, our Nicholas Bell has reviewed a good chunk of these titles, but we’ll still likely have a couple of more reviews once the festival begins. Here are the selections and jury members.
New Auteurs Selections (11 Titles)
From Afar – When a middle-aged man is assaulted and robbed by a young criminal, an unlikely relationship develops. Dir Lorenzo Vigas. Scr Lorenzo Vigas. Cast Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva. Venezuela/Mexico. U.S. Premiere
Disorder – Matthias Schoenaerts plays an ex-soldier who becomes locked...
New Auteurs Selections (11 Titles)
From Afar – When a middle-aged man is assaulted and robbed by a young criminal, an unlikely relationship develops. Dir Lorenzo Vigas. Scr Lorenzo Vigas. Cast Alfredo Castro and Luis Silva. Venezuela/Mexico. U.S. Premiere
Disorder – Matthias Schoenaerts plays an ex-soldier who becomes locked...
- 10/15/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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