In 1994, an Iranian-born, French journalist named Freidoune Sahebjam released a book entitled The Stoning of Soraya M., detailing the accounts of a woman who witnessed the tragic and barbaric death of her niece at the hands of an entire village.
I don't have to tell you who the person is, or how she died, because it's all in the title. One can imagine that there are both feelings of nausea and a lack of suspense while watching, because we know what's coming up. We see what the title is, and on the film's cover is a woman buried waist-deep with bloody rocks strewn on the ground around her. I remember feeling the same way when I saw The Passion of the Christ, whose producers are behind Soraya M.'s creation. The stories of both movies are pretty similar, too: a person is betrayed, accused and sentenced to death in an unbelievably brutal and torturous manner.
In Soraya M., we get to meet the journalist, Freidoune, who would eventually go on to publish the book. His car stalls in the Iranian desert, which leads him to a tiny village that seems remarkably remote, even by desert village standards. Freidoune looks like an obvious outsider and receives curious stares from just about everyone. We can tell the village is up to no good by the time Freidoune drops off his car at the mechanic. He also catches the attention of Zahra, an old woman dismissed as a lunatic by the men in the village, who pleads with Freidoune to listen to her story. They eventually gain privacy, and Zahra tells her story into his tape recorder.
And so we see all the events leading up to Soraya's punishment and death. To keep it short: Soraya's evil husband, Ali, wants a divorce, but she does not give it to him because she wouldn't be able to survive on her own. Ali blackmails some guy into saying Soraya was making advances and sleeping at his house. The by-the-book mayor has no choice but to believe all the lies, as by Islamic law, the benefit of the doubt goes to the man unless the woman can prove her innocence. So she is sentenced to what all adulteresses are sentenced to: getting buried waist-deep with your hands tied down, and the entire village, including your sons, father and husband, chuck rocks at you until you die from it.
It's depressing to say the least. It's very well told, much like you would expect a movie based on a journalist's novel to be. All the whos, whats, whens, whys and hows are executed flawlessly one after the other. It's almost too cut-and-dry, though, like watching dominoes fall in a predictable pattern. The evil husband's plan goes off without a hitch.
But this movie is not necessarily about the suspense and the mystery behind the tragedy; the point of this movie is that it exists to be seen; an illustration that cruel acts such as stoning still exist in the most fundamental places on Earth. Zahra told the story to Freidoune so readers around the world could discover it. Cyrus Nowrasteh and the producers of The Passion of the Christ made this movie so people could watch it. Soraya's death might be considered a little less in vain for every person who is aware of it. You'll appreciate this movie for that reason.
The gritty cinematography style of the film makes for an interesting hi-def experience. With an LCD screen the grit is absolutely startling and makes the sun-soaked frames visually striking. For some that will warrant the HD upgrade, but even on the DVD copy upscaled on Blu-ray the picture is quite good. This is the only discernable difference considering the extras on both versions are identical.
Blu-ray and DVD Bonus Features
A okay amount of material: along with the trailer, there are two audio commentaries, both worthy of a listen with one featuring the directors and another with many of the minds behind the camera, and a pretty thorough behind-the-scenes piece.
"The Stoning of Soraya M." is on sale March 9, 2010 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh. Written by Cyrus Nowrasteh, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, Freidoune Sahebjam (book). Starring James Caviezel, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Mozhan Marno, Navid Negahban.
