hasank

This movie is brilliant and it is relevant today as never before. I don't think it praises or prioritizes political marketing over political idealism or grassroots activism. It is a very realistic depiction of politics in mass media era -a bit cynic maybe- (Surely, the yes vote became possible in Chile not just because of a single ad. But this is a movie=dramatization). A viewer can and should watch a movie critically. She has to learn to evaluate and fill the absences herself; see the underlying points and judge whether it ultimately tries to destroy the reality, mislead us or not.

For me, this is quite an intelligent, thought-provoking, self-reflexive product. And, it is especially relevant for us, living in Turkey, at this very moment, before a referendum in which our leader wants to establish a one-man rule through one.

I haven't laughed so hard for a long time.

that is the greatest mockery, pure parody I have come across for a long time (watch it together with the Lobster-love as another convention-, even funnier than that).

that romantic poet was such a blockhead, probably as much as everyone and every institution around him. that is laughter, looking backwards from nowadays.

on a more serious base, that is proper history of manners a la Norbert Elias. the issue here is historical sociology and psychology and class dynamics; not the biographical-individual pain of creation or romantic aesthetics.

Mustang tackles with Turkey's most important problem, the issue of woman in society: her secondary place and the patriarchal chains around her, due to culture, politics, religion and socio-economic development. Therefore, the director's effort should be viewed as most welcome and needed attempt. I think the director manages to show the virtual prison experienced by all sort of women in our society, through the case of those sisters.

However, and despite the director's best intention, movie in general fails to deliver an authentic picture of everyday life and details in the country. Oppression of girls and their youthful desires is correctly depicted as a whole, but done in somewhat unrealistic ways. You get the feeling that the director, the script writer, and even the actors remain quite "foreigners" to the situations they are interested. Some are accusing the director as orientalist (playing to Western gaze) because of these failings. I don't agree, but it would be better if they had worked more on the everyday life and details of the countryside where the film occurs (like better local dialogue, better acquaintance of local customs).

In short, I found Mustang a very important movie, but with its own problems. Technically it does not offer something novel, but it is courageous directly to point the gender issue in a very conservative society.