Mustang

MUSTANG is set in Turkey, a country that is largely Muslim by population but singularly secular among Muslim nations. Secular and religious factions still wrestle for power and political expression there, and that conflict, where it addresses treatment of women, is at the heart of this story about the fate of five orphaned sisters. Raised in the rural north by their grandmother, at first they attend a coed school, socialize innocently with boys, wear Western clothes, and don't cover their heads in public. But after the girls are observed playing wrestling games in the water at the beach with some boys, their strict uncle complains that the family's reputation will be ruined by their "obscene" behavior. "Instruments of corruption," cell phones and computers, are removed and the girls become virtual prisoners in their house, unable to return to school. The academic curriculum is replaced by a program of cooking, sewing, and domestic skills. "The house became a wife factory," youngest sister, Lale (Gunes Sensoy), narrates. Marriages are quickly arranged before the girls can further sully the uncle's reputation. They are instructed that girls are not only worthless without intact hymens, but also pariahs who bring shame upon their families. Sonay (Ilayda Akdogan), the oldest, who has already had sex with her boyfriend "the back way" so as not to get pregnant, agrees to marry the boy. But Selma (Elit Iscan), the next in line, must be forced to marry a stranger. When she doesn't bleed after sex on their wedding night, the in-laws drag her to the doctor for an examination. Lale, displaying courage unusual in someone so young, watches her sisters being forced out and hatches a plan to escape to Istanbul, 600 miles away.