Mustang
Short description
Set in a village in northern Turkey, this drama follows five orphaned sisters whose lives change after they are seen playing with boys from their school. This behavior causes a scandal among their conservative relatives, who respond by restricting the girls' freedom. Their home becomes like a prison where schooling is replaced by domestic chores and the family begins arranging marriages for them. Bound by a shared desire for independence, the sisters struggle against these constraints to reclaim their autonomy.
Mustang was the first feature film directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Alice Winocour. The cast features Güneş Nezihe Şensoy, Doğa Zeynep Doğuşlu, Elit İşcan, Tuğba Sunguroğlu, and Ilayda Akdoğan as the sisters, with Ayberk Pekcan playing Erol. A co-production between Germany, Qatar, Turkey, and France, the movie was produced by Charles Gillibert.
With a budget of 1 million USD, the film earned 5 million USD at the worldwide box office. It was selected to represent France at the 2015 Oscars. The movie is well-received by audiences and professionals alike; it holds a 7.6 rating on IMDb from 43,000 votes and a 7.7 rating on TMDB from 1,490 votes. Film critics gave it a higher score of 8.1 based on 156 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- Lale tells her uncle that she wants to go to the final match of the Super League quarterfinals. There is no such thing as a quarterfinal in the Turkish Super League.
- Deniz Gamze Ergüven met her co-writer, Alice Vinocur, at the Cannes Film Festival’s Atelier for emerging filmmakers, where they were the only women participating in the program. Ergüven came there to work on a film called “Kings,” but was unable to attract producers and sponsors to continue working on the film. Therefore, Vinocur suggested that Ergüven make a smaller-scale film to prove she could become a director. Together, they began working on “Mustang.”
- In the scene where the grandmother opens the wardrobe, we see a T-shirt with the hashtag “#direngezi” – a famous slogan of protests against the destruction of Gezi Park in Taksim Square.
- The girls are planning to attend the Galatasaray-Trabzonspor match. They tell Yasin that they need to go to Trabzon, but later, when we see them on television, the scoreboard first displays Galatasaray, meaning the match was in Istanbul, not Trabzon.
- When the uncle watches the match with his friends, the inscription ligtv.com.tr can be seen on the screen, indicating that this is archival footage.
- Shortly before starting filming, director Deniz Gamze Ergüven learned she was pregnant. Upon hearing this news, the lead producer told her she would no longer be working on the film and informed the other team members, claiming the film would be a disaster. Despite this, the other producers supported the director, and filming continued and was successfully completed during Deniz’s pregnancy.
- “Mustang” was the first full-length film by director Deniz Gamze Ergüven. Before that, she had made three short films.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
