NEW Stoning Of Soraya M (DVD)

Like many an excellent film, this one is difficult to watch, but well worth it. It is a fine film that should be supported, and circulated, and admired. It derives it's power from its clear and shocking narrative and from the outstanding performances of its cast, and its unsparing attention to the suffering of Soraya M. who is stoned to death in her village in Iran. The fact that people are being stoned today in a number of countries is as horrifying as it is true. What can we do to stop this barbaric practice? What can we do to support the women in these countries who cannot defend themselves against laws that denigrate their value and impose upon them unfair standards for their defense in criminal proceedings? --- This is a brave film for focusing on one such case, and the egregious cruelty heaped on the victim. And it leaves the viewer wondering what a stoning means for all the people of a village who participate in it, including children who gather the stones. Whatever one thinks about these basic questions, one can be assured that this is first and foremost a good movie, with high productions standards --- worth seeing, worth owning, worth passing on to others. Highly recommended.

"The Stoning of Soraya M." is a must see film on all levels. This film is even more stunning on Blu-ray high definition and will leave you speechless. Tastefully done, director Cyrus Nowrasteh has made one of the most important films ever to be made about the inequalities in the Middle East.

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Freidoune Sahebjam, a French-Iranian journalist (played in film by Jim Caviezel), wrote The Stoning of Soraya M which is based on his own experience of being forced to stop in a remote Iranian village after his car broke down. He was one of the first to report on the troubles in the Bahá'í Faith community in Iran.

While waiting for his broken car to be fixed, Freidoune is approached by Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo) who is the aunt of Soraya. Zahra notices that Freidoune has a tape recorder and asks to speak with him. The townspeople assure him that she is crazy but he humors her anyway. Once the recorder is placed on the table, Zahra begins telling her nightmarish story.

Soraya (played by the beautiful Mozhan Marnò) is a married mother of three in the film (six in real life). Needless to say her plate is full. Her unfaithful husband Ali (Navid Negahban) has fallen for another woman and doesn't want to wait for a timely divorce. He decides to find the quickest way to get rid of her and cooks up a dishonest scheme to get Soraya convicted of adultery, a crime punishable by death in their twisted culture.

Ali, with the help of others, takes advantage of a vulnerable local mechanic (Ebrahim, played by David Diaan) whose wife has just died. They offer to pay Soraya to cook for Ebrahim and take care of his children while he is working. This provided "legitimate" grounds to pressure other men to be witnesses for the prosecution.

Based on the descriptive title of the film, we know the outcome, which could lead one to believe that this could easily be another snuff film like The Passion of the Christ. A short build up with 90 minutes of grotesque torture. Thanks to the wonderful direction of Cyrus Nowrasteh this is not the case. While the climactic stoning itself is difficult to watch, it is less than a quarter of the film.

The bulk of the film focused on giving us a sense of the people in this community and the corruption that it breeds. While keeping the actual stoning to a minimum, the film gives us an important window into an overlooked part of the world. However uncomfortable it is, we feel as if we are in this town watching the story unfold. Several people in the audience behind me could be heard uttering passionate reactions throughout.

What makes Soraya M enjoyable (and even the hardest scenes bearable) is that our frustrations are released through Zahra's vocal opposition. She is an outspoken female opponent to the misogynist culture in which she resides. At one point she is told, "muzzles should be for women, not dogs." With a reaction like that we know she is saying the right things to upset the right people. The rest of the women in town are either indoctrinated into believing they are worthless or intimidated into silence. Without Zahra's presence the film would be torturous to watch.

Interestingly, by doing a simple search on the Internet I was able to find an awkward amount of reviews unfairly criticizing this film as either anti-Iranian propaganda or a manipulative melodrama. The people who believe this must be the same who subscribe to the idea that "terrorists are people too."

Even Roger Ebert blasted the director because the film ends on a positive note that he finds corny. An important film like this must have some element that is redeeming. If we all leave feeling awful we will never want to watch the film again (nor recommend it to others).

Instead, Soraya M ends on a positive note and allows us to leave the film scarred but hopeful that people are speaking out about the oppression of women in the Middle East (women's groups where are you?).

Many may not know that while this film is based on a true story, most of the actors are Iranian natives who fled years ago (including the outspoken Shohreh Aghdashloo). This adds an important element of realism to the film that helps expose a part of the world that is too often referred to or assumed as a peaceful.

This film has not yet had a wide enough release. Unfortunately, it is harder than it should be to get distribution for a film that is emphatically for the protection of women in a part of the world that leaves them helpless. Coming to DVD on March 9th, "The Stoning of Soraya M" is a must see!!

I have seen two films about the life of women under Islamic fundamentalism: "Osama" about life under the pre 9/11 Taliban rule in Afghanistan, a film made by Afghanis; and now, "The Stoning of Soraya M." based on the true story and book by an expat Iranian journalist, and the film also involving many expat Iranians, about the early rule of the Ayotollahs after the fall of the Shah. Both are chilling, sobering, and despairing accounts of the lives of women who have few rights and virtually no say in their own destinies.

As Soraya is told in this film, in accusations of adultery the woman "must prove her innocence" but if accusing her husband she "must prove his guilt". This is the hypocritical and pardoxical world women find themselves when a society turns to a fundamentalism and fanatacism that denies them full legal and moral standing.

It would be almost impossible to believe that a barbaric punishment like stoning would actually take place in the 21st century. And yet I have seen actual documentary footage of it, in today's Iran. Who would have believed we would see beheadings, and all the other forms of 12th century barbarism reappear in our age?

I don't need to tell you this story. The title tells you where it is going, and you can be sure that injustice is woven throughout this tragic story. The debasement of Islam, the confining of the society in the name of religion, the double standards applied to men and women, the intimidation of basically good people by the pressure and fear demanding conformity, the corruption of law and justice. These themes present themselves as we watch the inevitable unfold inexorably leading to tragedy.

The actors are all fine, and the filmmakers have wisely told this story straight, without hysteria and amplification, but simply, directly and straight as a gut punch. And the ending is as terrible as one imagines, presented in all its brutality but with as much restraint as the filmmakers could manage without denying the truth of this terrible torture/punishment.

And in the end the courageous aunt of Soraya who has defied the conventions and corruption of power that has brought this about shouts to the heavens that the world will know of this! This film didn't do much at the box office, but it is now on DVD and one can hope it will reach the world now. Everyone should see this film and the others that cry out at the injustice and brutality that is daily delivered to women all over the world, from the Middle East to Asia to Africa. The world will never sort itself while women are brutalised, enslaved, degraded and ultimately tortured and murdered.

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