World Cinema Amsterdam | Internationaal filmfestival | 18 – 27 Augustus 2016

DENIZ GAMZE ERGÜVEN | TURKEY, FRANCE, GERMANY, QATAR | 2015 | 97' | TURKISH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

The setting is Turkey, a Black Sea coastal village. School's just out and the five orphaned sisters Lale, Nur, Ece, Selma and Sonay join a couple of boys from their class to have fun and fool around on the beach. Seeing the girls with the boys, a curious, meddlesome neighbour immediately reports them to their guardians, their extremely conservative grandmother and equally strict uncle Erol. All hell breaks loose. The girls, quite unaware of any wrongdoing, let alone having had any erotic intentions, are accused of being whores and called all other kinds of bad, depraved names. From one day to the next, their lives change drastically.

Everything that could possibly lead them astray is taken away from them: pretty clothes, makeup, cell phones. Aunts come to visit to teach them appropriate domestic skills as their uncle Erol goes looking for suitable husbands. Their home literally becomes a prison.

Debuting director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, who grew up in France, and French director Alice Winocour together wrote the scenario of this beautifully depicted indictment against the ultra-conservative ideology that demonizes and suppresses (budding) female sexuality. The film was awarded at the past Cannes Film Festival.

Distribution: from 1 October 2015, Cinéart.