REVIEW: DVD Release: The Stoning Of Soraya M.

Film: The Stoning Of Soraya M.
Release date: 14th February 2011
Certificate: 18
Running time: 116 mins
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
Starring: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marnò, Jim Caviezel, Navid Negahban, David Diann
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: USA

In 1990 a book was published whose revelations about a shameful aspect of Iranian society radiated waves of shock throughout the entire world. The book, by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam was banned in Iran and condemned by Islamic Mullahs. The book became the basis for a major film in 2008 by an American director Cyrus Nowrasteh, who is of Persian descent. Released to critical acclaim, The Stoning Of Soraya M. tells the story of an Iranian woman at the receiving end of a small town’s corruption and religious brutality.

James Caviezel plays a journalist whose car breaks down outside a remote Iranian mountain village. While he leaves his car with the local mechanic to be fixed, he is taken aside by one of the village women, Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo) who implores him to record her story of the terrible events that have happened recently in the little village, and take it to the outside world.

Zahra recounts the story of her niece Soraya, married unhappily to Ali, an abusive and violent bully who seeks to divorce Soraya and marry a young girl he has met in the city. Soraya, fearful for her children’s wellbeing under the destitution that the divorce would cause, refuses, and so Ali cooks up a plan to end the marriage quickly and finally; to accuse her of adultery, a taboo punishable by execution in Islamic culture.

With the help of the corrupt village holy man played by Ali Pourtash, Ali spreads rumours of his wife’s infidelity, stirring up righteous hatred in the strongly religious community until the entire town is gradually turned against her. She is summarily tried and convicted of the crime, condemned to death and executed by a public stoning…


Contrary to what the title may suggest or the impact it has made, this is not a film about stoning. It is a film about misogyny, corruption, and a society which encourages paternalism, and the extent to which frightened men will go to reinforce this dogma - but it also happens to feature a stoning. The issue of stoning as a barbaric and immoral form of punishment is not what this film is primarily interested in, but rather how easily the strictly religious societies can be corrupted by evil men who see its rigorous dogmas as a means to their dastardly ends. And the film has more than its fair share of evil men.

One of the fundamental flaws in fact with The Stoning Of Soraya M. is how black-and-white things are, and how little credit Nowrasteh give us as an audience. We are walked hand in hand through the moralities, and left in no doubt how we are supposed to think and feel. It’s easy to root for the angelic, bullied Soraya, and to boo and hiss the demented Ali, the corrupt Mullah and the weak, manipulated Hashem. Things are nice and straightforward. But all this begs the question: what if Soraya had been guilty of the crime she is charged with? What if the men involved were not so outrageously evil, or possessed with a specific ulterior motive? What if it wasn’t so easy to pass a clear judgement on the rights and wrongs leading up to the event?

Nowrasteh certainly doesn’t bottle out when it comes to the horrors of the execution itself. The stoning is depicted in protracted, agonising detail, and full credit must be given for not shying away from the revolting reality of this barbaric practice. He masterfully builds up the tension in the scenes beforehand to unbearable levels, which undoubtedly owe something to the final scenes of Lars Von Trier’s Dancer In The Dark. There can be few more gut-churning sights committed to celluloid than a woman’s own sons gleefully collecting barrow-loads of stones alongside the other towns-children to be shortly used in her execution. It’s a shame that after masterfully building the tension for a good fifteen minutes, leading up to the stoning itself, Nowrasteh is guilty of a technical slipup, and fluffs it by giving Soraya a defiant speech to the crowd of baying, murderous townsfolk. Given the circumstances, it just doesn’t ring true, and the tension is sadly somewhat diffused.

The film is unashamedly religious. Several scenes are included of specifically religious significance, such as Soraya’s vision of heaven as she nears death, and the implication of divine intervention as the execution itself draws close. It gives an interesting colour to a film which is about the abuses of religion, and it’s as if Nowrasteh is keen to distinguish between God and the men who use him as an excuse to justify their own ends.


The Stoning Of Soraya M. has a lot going for it. It is frank, forthright, and in it Nowrasteh has managed to transfer a clear vision to the screen in a bold, uncompromising way. It’s a shame that he couldn’t have afforded the audience a little more credit and presented a story with less definite shades of black and white. We would inevitably have drawn the same conclusions about this horrifying form of torture and its corrupt perpetrators without having the morality spoon fed to us. LOZ

REVIEW: Cinema Release: The Stoning Of Soraya M.

Film: The Stoning Of Soraya M.
Release date: 22nd October 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 116 mins
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh
Starring: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marnò, Jim Caviezel, Navid Negahban, David Diann
Genre: Crime/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: Cinema
Country: USA

The Stoning Of Soraya M. is based on the account of French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, who, passing through an Iranian village, was told of the atrocious stoning of one of its female residents just 24 hours earlier. Its remake comes nearly twenty years after the release of Sahabjam’s book, but human rights activists claim up to fifty women were still in danger of stoning in 2010, despite Iranian officials asserting that stoning has been dropped by the penal code and these claims are simply being used as propaganda against their country.

After fathering four children with his wife Soraya, Ali now wants to marry the 14-year-old daughter of a condemned rich prisoner. However, his wife isn’t overly keen on the idea – knowing that without her husband, who is set to take their two boys away with him to the city, she would struggle to provide for their two young daughters.

With his wife unwilling to grant him a divorce – despite regular beatings and the pressure of religious figures within the village - Ali plots to set his wife up for “whispering and smiling” with another man, bribing and threatening villagers as he seeks to avoid having to pay support by ensuring his wife is sentenced to death by stoning, the punishment issued by Sharia Law for adultery…


The cinematography that opens the film, showing beautiful Iranian landscape, belies the terrors that lie within this country (even if it highlights how isolated women in this village are), and director Cyrus Nowrasteh wastes no time in arousing our emotions as we see a clearly upset elderly lady washing human bones in a stream, before being dismissed by the village’s men as “insane,” despite her distress.

The woman is Zahra, and she wants to tell a passing journalist about the horrors that took place in her village only the day previously. Her coarse voice only adding to the feeling of unease already stirred during the previous scenes.

Cyrus then allows the story to play itself out in its simplest terms – for the most part. There is no shift in tone after we’ve grown fond of characters through a contrived opening; instead we are immediately shown the unsavoury nature of the men who control this village and their intentions: Ali threatening the village’s Mullah (a fraudulent, in this case, religious cleric) so he will force his wife to agree to the divorce he desires. Few of the men show any conscience, and arguably the only one who does is the key witness in condemning Soraya to death. Here, women do their duty and step out of line at their peril.

Despite such a heavy-handed approach, the documentary-style approach to filming provides a sense of realism so vital to the retelling of a true story. Still, Cyrus cannot help but resort to a few Hollywood-esque techniques to force our emotions. Suddenly, in the midst of the melancholy, the director shifts to a scene showing Soraya happily playing with her daughters in a lush, almost CGI-like green, flowery field, completely contrasting the otherwise dusty, depressing village, or we see Ali watching over his wife from a high as he sets his plan into action – his intense eyes staring into the camera.

The performances are outstanding, particularly Navid Nagahban as Ali, whose menacing actions - turning his sons against their mother, with whom he’s quick to strike out against if she dares to vocalise her concerns – paint him as the archetypal villain, in a village of many (the village’s Mullah not above making sexual advances to a married woman). Mozhan Marno’s performance as Soraya is subtler, but no less affecting - particularly in the scenes where she prepares for her punishment. Her virtuous looks and restrained actions garner our sympathy as Ali plots and snarls, and her helpless situation is heart-wrenching. Shohreh Aghdashloo as Zahra, Soraya’s aunt, puts plenty of energy into her role as the voice of reason, but her character lacks merit given she’s allowed to confront and provoke the village’s men without reprimand when Soraya’s being subjected to such unfair punishment and the other women scurry around in silence cocooned in their black chadors.

The finale seems to build for an eternity, with the director keen to play on our knowledge of what is about to happen, and offering many false dawns of reprieve. When it finally arrives, the anxiety is palpable, and the scenes unflinchingly brutal – although the unexpected arrival of a colourful performance group, who subsequently provide an ominous drum build up to the stoning was unnecessary, and in all honesty distasteful, especially given we’d already bared witness to countless scenes of preparation, including the observation of very young boys collecting stones in wheelbarrows, which was far more powerful.


The picture makes some questionable assertions on men and Muslim religion as a whole in the Middle East, but given these heinous crimes do happen, and this is based on an actual event, you can forgive the filmmakers’ desires to paint this one black and white. However, whilst it’s undoubtedly moving, drawing attention to an important issue, a greater trust should have been afforded to viewers to understand the severity and potency of the facts without the uncomfortably superficial filmmaking tricks. DH