Mustang is a 2015 drama film co-written and directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven in her feature debut. Set at an unspecified time in the 2010s in a remote Turkish village, Mustang depicts the lives of five young orphaned sisters and the challenges they face growing up with extended family as girls in a conservative society. Mustang is an international co-production of France, Germany and Turkey.
It premiered at the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Europa Cinemas Label Award. Mustang was selected as France's submission and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 88th Academy Awards. It received nine nominations at the 41st César Awards and won four, for First Feature Film, Original Screenplay, Editing and Original Music. Mustang has received widespread critical praise.
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Plot
Lale, the youngest of five sisters, bids farewell at school to her teacher, who is moving to Istanbul. The sisters decide to walk home instead of taking a van. En route, they play a game of "chicken fight" at the beach with their male classmates. At home, their grandmother hits them for having bodily contact with boys and thus "pleasuring themselves" with them. Their uncle Erol is equally furious. From then on, the girls are forbidden from leaving the house.
