Mustang (2015) review

Five young girls in Turkey are imprisoned in their house by incredibly backwards relatives who heard that they were goofing around with boys on a beach (the activity was innocent but active - and dirty - imaginations turned it into something obscene) - the family then tries to marry off several of the girls before the littlest one helps stage a revolt (woo!). Ergüven establishes herself as a major voice with this, a strong and timely pro-woman (you can use "feminist" if you wish) picture, which concludes with both tragedy and (hopefully) success for the survivors. Perhaps the mostly male villains are a little too easy to despise - virginity tests? you can break that thing riding a bicycle - and the one girl's suicide is presented a little awkwardly (you'd think it would teach the "adults" a lesson, but it doesn't) although it's still a worthwhile full-length debut (with debt owed to both Sofia Coppola and Lukas Moodysson).