# Mustang (2015) Review: Five Sisters Against the Walls > Mustang is Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Turkish-language debut about five orphaned sisters locked away ahead of arranged marriages: vivid, angry and full of life. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/mustang-2015-review/ Published: 2026-07-23 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 4/5 ## Verdict Yes. It is a gripping, beautifully acted coming-of-age drama with real fury underneath, though its fable-like simplicity sometimes flattens the adults around the girls. ## Is Mustang worth watching? **Yes. Mustang is a vivid, furious and often joyous drama about five sisters fighting for their freedom, and its young cast gives it an energy few coming-of-age films can match.** Deniz Gamze Ergüven turns a story of confinement into something closer to a prison-break film, full of mischief and rebellion as well as dread. The reservation is its fable-like shape: the adults are drawn in bold strokes, and viewers looking for a more nuanced portrait of the family's world may find it schematic. ## What is Mustang about? [Mustang](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/mustang-2015/) is set in a village on Turkey's Black Sea coast, far from Istanbul. Five orphaned sisters live with their grandmother and their uncle. On the last day of school they play in the sea with boys from their class, an innocent afternoon that a neighbour reports as scandalous. The family's reaction is swift: the girls are taken out of school, their clothes are replaced with shapeless dresses, and the house gradually becomes a fortress designed to keep them "pure" until they can be married off. The story is seen largely through the eyes of the youngest, Lale (Güneş Şensoy), a fierce, clear-eyed girl who refuses to accept what is happening. Her older sisters are played by Doğa Doğuşlu, Elit İşcan, Tuğba Sunguroğlu and İlayda Akdoğan, with Ayberk Pekcan as their uncle. Ergüven's feature debut runs 97 minutes and is in Turkish. It is an international co-production, and it was France's submission to the Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. ## Five performers, one tangle of limbs The film's great strength is the sisters themselves. Ergüven shoots them as a single, restless organism, forever sprawled across beds, tangled together on the floor, whispering, laughing and plotting. None of the young actors feels like she is performing; the ease between them makes it entirely believable that these girls have grown up together. Güneş Şensoy is extraordinary as Lale. She gives the character a stubbornness and intelligence that make her the film's moral compass, and her narration frames the story with a child's mixture of anger and incomprehension. The older sisters each respond differently to their confinement, some with defiance, others with resignation, and the film takes care to give each of them a personality of her own. ## Beauty and menace in the same frame Visually, Mustang is sunlit and sensual. The camera lingers on long hair, bare feet and summer light, and that warmth makes the gradual tightening of restrictions all the more disturbing. As bars appear on windows and the walls rise higher, the house becomes both home and prison, and the film captures that double meaning through space and framing rather than speeches. Warren Ellis's score adds a restless, yearning quality to the most important sequences. The comparison most viewers reach for is Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides, and the parallel is apt. But Ergüven's film is angrier and more concrete, grounded in the specific social pressures of arranged marriages, family honour and control over young women's bodies. ## Where the fable simplifies The film's clarity is also its limitation. The grandmother and uncle are seen almost entirely from the girls' perspective, and while that choice is deliberate, it leaves the adult world with little complexity. It is easy to see why some critics found its picture of provincial life too flat. As an emotional experience it is powerful, but as a portrait of a community it is intentionally partial. Some darker turns in the story arrive with an abruptness that the film's brisk runtime does not fully absorb. ## Who should watch Mustang? It is essential for anyone interested in coming-of-age cinema, stories about sisterhood, or films about women's autonomy. It suits older teenagers and adults. The film includes themes of sexual abuse and self-harm, handled without graphic detail but with real weight, and some viewers will find parts of it distressing. For more Turkish cinema: - [Brother's Keeper](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/brothers-keeper-2021-review/), a stark drama about two boys at a remote boarding school, where adult authority is just as unforgiving. - [Winter Sleep](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/winter-sleep-2014-review/), Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Palme d'Or winner, a slower, more talk-driven study of power within a family. - [Three Monkeys](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/three-monkeys-2008-review/), a tense family drama about secrets and control. ## The verdict Mustang is a vivid, heartfelt film about girls refusing to be tamed, powered by a remarkable young cast and a director with a strong visual voice. Its broad view of the adult world keeps it from complete mastery, but it remains one of the most memorable coming-of-age films of its decade. **Rating: 4/5** ## Related title - [Mustang (2015)](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/mustang-2015/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)