Güneş Şensoy

In Mustang (2015), Güneş Şensoy’s Lale watches the adults as though she is working out how much she can get away with. She is the youngest of five sisters, and Şensoy makes her resistance convincing by keeping that calculation visible. Her shifts between playfulness and sharp attention give Lale a life beyond the demands of the story. We believe in a girl who thinks for herself, even when other people would prefer that she did not.

Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven makes the sisters’ company enjoyable before showing it under threat. With Doğa Zeynep Doğuşlu, Elit İşcan, Tuğba Sunguroğlu and İlayda Akdoğan, Şensoy suggests the familiarity of girls who know how to amuse one another without making an occasion of it. We were moved by the sisters’ pleasure in being together; their shared humour makes the threat to that closeness hurt. The adults can be too bluntly written, but these five performances give us particular people to care about, and Şensoy’s alertness keeps Lale from becoming simply an illustration of youthful defiance.

Her early television work included the child Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan in Magnificent Century: Kösem (2015). Later credits include the short Speechless (2019) and the television series The Turkish Detective (2023). She also has a composer credit on Speechless. Our enthusiasm rests chiefly on Lale; we would be cautious about treating that performance as a promise of what every later role will offer, or assuming that watchfulness is all she has to give.

Lale’s voiceover in Mustang can over-explain what Şensoy has already conveyed through her watchfulness. We need little help understanding that she is measuring the adults and looking for the limits of their authority. Ergüven gets more from her when the performance can move between humour and vigilance without a commentary telling us how to read it. Start with Mustang for the five sisters together, and pay attention to Şensoy when Lale is busy assessing how far she can push her luck.