Mustang

Mustang follows five Turkish sisters as they’re confined to their home after a “scandalous” incident, with the narrative detailing the siblings’ ongoing efforts at living their lives and preparing for their respective (and mostly forced) marriages. First-time filmmaker Deniz Gamze Ergüven delivers a gritty, authentic-seeming drama that never quite manages to become as riveting as one might’ve hoped, as Mustang‘s overall success is hindered by an egregiously deliberate pace and almost total absence of riveting, captivating sequences. It goes without saying, then, that the picture benefits substantially from the uniformly stirring work of its five central actresses, although the somewhat padded-out and repetitive midsection ultimately does threaten to cancel out Mustang’s positive attributes. The whole thing admittedly does rebound for a fairly (and comparatively) compelling third act, which does, in the end, cement Mustang‘s place as a mostly watchable (yet curiously uninvolving) drama that shines a spotlight on a seriously backwards culture.

**1/2 out of ****