Films about disfigured children can sometimes be difficult to watch. Our hearts ache for them. Whether at the hand of man or nature, the cruelty set upon them is righteously deplored. But in Girl With No Mouth, self-pity is replaced with self-reliance. And we applaud every triumph.
Turkish director/co-writer Can Evrenol draws us into his dystopian world by introducing us to Perihan (Elif Sevinç), a preteen with a disfigured mouth permanently sealed shut. Perihan—which means Fairy Princess—lives with her father, Sermet Yesil.
Toiling in a tiny vegetable garden and generating electricity on a bicycle-powered generator, they’ve learned to survive in a world that has collapsed in on itself.
When her father is killed by her uncle, Kemal (Mehmet Yilmaz Ak), she finds herself alone in the wild. Kemal and his two soldiers are tasked with hunting down Perihan and other deformed children. As enforcers for the ‘Corporation,’ they’ve been sent to destroy what that entity has wrought, the mutation of children.
While fleeing Kemal, Perihan is snared by three other children who call themselves pirates. There’s Yusuf (Ôzgür Civelek), an obese young teen with no nose and a big appetite; Badger (Kaan Alpdayi), a curious, tiny tot with no ears; and the Captain (Denizhan Akbaba), a blind teen who has proclaimed himself the lord of these flies.
Working together, the foursome manages to evade Kemal and explore the wilderness in search of a Lost City. Keeping hope alive and his band of pirates entertained, the Captain makes up fantastic stories involving himself and his followers.
Stumbling into an abandoned town, our pirates discover Çavus’un Karisi (Özay Fecht), the wife of a military officer who has committed suicide. She protects the pirates with an automatic weapon, keeping Kemal and his corporate lackeys at bay. In a final battle where all seems lost, Peri must draw on her wit and courage if she hopes to survive.
Less optimistic and more foreboding than Goonies, but with the same heart, Girl With No Mouth isn’t really a horror film. Driven by an undercurrent of despair, there is still hope, enough to keep us rooting for our little band of mutants. The film obliquely argues that, if humanity is to survive, it may very well depend on the wit and resourcefulness of its smallest ‘pirates.’
Besides Girl With No Mouth, Evrenol has independently written, directed, and produced several short horror films. He has won a number of international awards, as well as being officially selected to more than 40 international genre film festivals around the world.
Subtitled and just a tad over 90 minutes, Girl With No Mouth is due to release on Blu-Ray, DVD, and VOD across North America on December 8th via Indiecan Entertainment.
Alex A. Kecskes is a published author of "Healer a Novel" available on Amazon. He has written hundreds of film reviews and celebrity interviews for a wide variety of online and print outlets. He has covered red carpet premieres and Comic-Con events for major films and independent releases.
