This film was released 13th May 2016, and is no longer screening.

★★★★ The Irish Times

★★★★ Entertainment.ie

Five orphaned sisters are kept under strict lock and key in a remote Turkish town by their aunt and uncle until one by one they are married off, as long as their virginity can be assured to prospective suitors. This is a conservative, traditional community where parents still seek evidence of consummation from couples on their wedding night.

An entirely innocent encounter with a group of local boys at the outset draws increasing restrictions on the girls’ freedoms and basic rights –
we follow the ensuing emergency marriage preparations through the eyes of the youngest of the girls, Lale (Günes Sensoy) who says in voiceover, “our house became a wife factory.”

Lale comes to realise that escaping this well-furnished prison is the only course of action left to her. Modern patriarchal Turkey comes under scrutiny in Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s remarkably assured debut. (Notes by David O’Mahony.)

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Mustang is also this month’s Feast Your Eyes (May 17th) and IFI Explorers (May 18th).

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