The Stoning of Soraya M. - Movie Review
About.com Rating
The Story of Soraya M. brings to light the harrowing practice of the stoning to death of women who've been accused of adultry. It's actually done--yes, in this day and age--in a number of nations, but this particular incident occurred in rural Iran in 1986. Journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, an Iranian who was living in Paris, learned about the stoning accidentally, when he was in Iran on assignment and his car broke down in the town where it occurred.
When Sahebjam returned to France, he wrote a best-selling book that let the world know the shocking story of Soraya M.
Presenting the Story of Soraya M.
There's no way that The Story of Soraya M. could have been filmed as a documentary.
The kind of heinous human behavior that's shown in the film is hidden behavior. No surprise. When townspeople stone one of their neighbors to death, they just don't welcome cameras to record their actions.
In fact, it's amazing that Soraya M.'s story survived and became widely known to the world at large. When his car broke down in the town where it happened, Freidoune Sahebjam (played in the film by James Caviezel) was approached by Soraya's sister, Zahra (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo), who told him about what had happened. The film opens with their meeting then, as the story progresses, switches to flashback.
Soraya (played by Mozhan Marnò) was a loyal--if unhappy--wife and mother of two sons and two daughters. She was known by her neighbors to be kind, a good friend, attentive to her family, generous to other townsfolk who asked for or needed her help.
Her husband, an influential man in the town, was the only person who didn't appreciate Soraya's qualities. He wanted a divorce so he could marry a younger woman, the daughter of a wealthy businessman in Tehran. So he falsely accused Soraya of adultery--a crime punishable by death by stoning. Soraya was a victim.
Compelling Authenticity
Although the film claims to be neither a documentary nor an unbiased view of what happened, The Story of Soraya is faithful to the book, and the book is an accurate account of what actually happened in rural Iran.
Most of the cast members are Iranian, or of Iranian descent, and they capture the ambience, the reality of the town. The movie is filled with a wealth of details--the way the men posture and the women use their chadors as social props, for example--that give it a compelling authenticity, even though the movie making had to be done in Jordan (near Petra) rather than in Iran, which for obvious reasons doesn't approve of this movie, and strictly controls filming within its borders.
Yet the tone of the film is unmistakably Iranian, and the stoning, in particular, is brutally and terrifyingly realistic.
The Cinema of Brutal Reality Has Real Impact
The emotional impact of The Story of Soraya M., which is about as realistic a telling of this tale as is possible, is heightened by the stunning performances of Mozhan Marnò and Shohreh Aghdashloo, who give their characters tragic stature. Marnò brings astonishing grace, dignity and resolve to Soraya that is reminiscent of Antigone, and Aghdashloo's a larger-than-life Greek--or Persian--chorus wrapped up in one woman whose wisdom, wiles and physicality fortify this film's truth telling.
Again, there's no actual footage of any of the central characters--nor of the incident itself--that could be used to create a documentary, and many of the principal eye witnesses, including the key figures of Zahra and Freidoune, are now deceased or otherwise unavailable. But, by closely following the narrative of the nonfiction book, choosing his locations very carefully and working primarily with Iranian actors, director Cyrus Nowrasteh, whose family hails from Iran, has done an admirable job of recreating that rural town and its blood-letting ritual. And, it's both gripping and harrowing. You know from the start what's going to happen in the end, but you never know when it's going to happen and you can't help but hope that the outcome will be other than the one you, with a sense of horror, anticipate.
A Contemporary Tragedy
That we know the film is a true story, and one that represents what may be going on somewhere in the world right now, gives it much more impact than, say, The Lottery, that brilliant Shirley Jackson short story that's taken as a parable about the human capacity for senseless brutality against ourselves.
The Stoning of Soraya M. is a modern day tragedy and, like any good film-- documentary or narrative--elucidates our cultural climate and both defines and describes the civilization in which we live.
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Film Details:
- The Stoning of Soraya M.
- Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
- Written by Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh & Cyrus Nowrasteh, based on the book by Freidoune Sahebjam
- Release Date: June 26, 2009, USA Theatrical
- Running Time: 116 mins.
- Parental Advisory: Content advisory for parents
- Country: US Production, filmed in Jordan
- Language: English and Persian, with English subtitles
- Production Company: Fallen Films
- Distributor: Roadside Attractions
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