It'd be easy to condemn the entire Islamic religion for the brutal practice of stoning, but to it's credit this controversial film by Cyrus Nowrasteh never takes that step. The Stoning of Soraya M. is a gut wrenching tale, of a young woman named Soraya, living in a small Iranian village in 1986. Her husband, a ruthless pitbull of a man, has grown tired of her and wishes to marry a 14 year old girl, but he can't afford two wives or the strain of child support. So he along with a group of willing conspirators manufacture a tale of adultery against her, the ultimate price of which is death by stoning.
Only one woman has the courage to stand up for the truth, and that is Zahra, played beautifully by Shohreh Aghdashloo. Zahra is from another age, unwilling to quietly play the subservient role or blindly follow the orders of fallen men. She speaks up to the power players in her village often, seemingly without fear of consequence. When a journalist's(Jim Caviezel) car breaks down in her village, Zahra fills his ears with a tale of murderous deeds undertaken as the supposed will of God, praying that he will take her message and broadcast it to the world since she herself can not do so.
This film will stick with you long after the final credits have rolled and the lights have gone up. It will open your eyes to the sheer cruelty of the barbaric practice of stoning, a terrible reality for too many women even in today's world. Bear in mind that the stoning sequence is particularly long, almost unbearably so, and it doesn't flinch even a little. It will unsettle some, but that is exactly the point. This film has been banned in Iran for a reason. Shohreh Aghdashloo, who most will remember from House of Sand and Fog and is an Iran ex-pat herself, shoud earn an Oscar nom for her brave performance. Don't go into this expecting to leave happy, but you will have something to talk about after.
8/10
