It’s the final day of school before the summer holidays in a small Turkish village. Lale and her four sisters are en route home, and make their way to the beach with their classmates. In relaxed mood the girls indulge in some harmless frolicking around, climbing on the boys’ shoulders for a water fight and snaking through the neighbourhood’s sunlit orchards, giggling away and gathering fruit together. On arriving home, they are met by their grandmother. They are each then given a sound beating, based on a neighbour’s claims to have seen the girls’ »inappropriate« behaviour on their way home. The grandmother and the conservative uncle with whom the children live now forbid the girls to have any contact with the outside world: the previously open house is put into lockdown. The girls’ life now consists of instruction in home-making, training in how to be a housewife and learning their ›proper‹ role for the future. Any hope of a return to their previous life fades, as the grandmother starts seeking out suitable husbands. The sisters’ courage and irrepressible desire for freedom drives them to come up with different ways of resisting their indoctrination.

The powerful and sensitive debut of the Turkish-French director is filmed solely in the captivating landscape of the Turkish Black Sea coast. Ergüven uses images with shimmering light to produce what swiftly becomes a dramatic story of a struggle against the oppression of and threat against femininity in a male-dominated society. The film sets the brutality of social norms up against the siblings’ youthful rebellion and the touching, natural filming approach adopted by Ergüven.

Awards for ›Mustang‹
Nominierung als bester fremdsprachiger Film – The Oscars 2016 | LUX-Filmpreis des Europäischen Parlaments 2015 | Bester Nachwuchsfilm – Europäischer Filmpreis 2015