Day 356: Mustang (February, 28)

Commencing countdown: TEN

There's an uncountable ways by which your heart can be broken by a movie. It can be by the overwhelming manner of movies as Son of Saul or Oldboy, that kept you from even breathing in rage, disbelief, staggering sadness. I gave you only two examples, but Omad and life are full of those kind of movies. There's times when our hearts are broken and full of love at the same time, as happened in Room, Short Term 12 (to remain with Bree Larson), Rust and Bone - again, referring just to a few ones.

There's a multitude of ways to have our hearts broken by movies. None better or more important than the other. Just different. On this day, my heart was like it was made of crystal, shattering in a million tiny pieces before the terrible truth of Mustang. At the end, I was quietly crying on my seat on the end of the row, without a clue about what do with my heart.

I know it sounds over dramatic and even cheesy, but this is what happened with me today. We make the same journey of the five main young girls on here going from a happy and easy time, having good laughs, to the awful realization that the world is still punishing girls and women for being females. Deniz Gamze Ergüven chose her feature debut to tell us what means to be a girl in Turkey. And the result is a heartfelt movie about how this world truly sucks most of times regarding human rights.

I'll write about some facts in the movie bellow. So, if you don't want any spoilers (they're not big, though), it is better to stop just now :)

It is really inscrutable how a society can put a great shame over girls just for growing up but only gives a mere slap on the hand of men that abuse their kids at home. Really? When and why that became acceptable in any way?

Mustang talks in a delicate manner about this inadmissible incongruity through the story of five orphan girls living with their grandma and uncle. In Portuguese, it's named Five Graces (grace in a Christian sense) and it is indeed. The girls are a grace that the people raising them don't recognize as such. Lale is who guide us through their story, and she is just amazing. She is the youngest and the most nonconformist by their situation. Through her narrative, we witness the many perverse aspects of their reality. Is there love? Yes, and that's one of the triumphs here. But love cannot prevent the unfairness and violence of raising a girl under such hideous notions.

A movie doesn't need to be relevant to be good. But this one is fundamental for current times. And being like this, it is truly heartbreaking.

This scene reminded so much of  The Virgin Suicides, another amazing
movie about the harmful menace of repression

Mustang. Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven. Cast: Günes Sensoy, Doga
Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan. Writers:
Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Alice Winocours. France/Germany/Turkey/Qatar,
2015, 97 min., Color (Cinema). 

PS: Oscar night! Yes, we're going to a party, party :)