It is only fair warning to point out the horror and fright one faces during "The Stoning of Soraya M.," a powerful statement against cruelty, sadism and sexism in terms of the ultimate power of the male/husband in Iran, if not in the entire Middle East. But a 20-minute scene of a woman being stoned to death is more than a little devastating.
The film, which opens today, is based on a piece of non-fiction, "The Stoning of Soraya M.: A True Story," by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in an Iranian village. While it is being repaired, he listens while a passionate Zahra (a fierce portrayal by Shohreh Aghdashloo) tells the tragic story of her niece. The fact that the journalist is played on screen by James Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus Christ in "The Passion of the Christ," where the death scene also was over-long and over-violent, may be a coincidence, but it adds to the impact of the story, which actually occurred in 1986.
Mozhan Marno is Soraya, a patient, uncomplaining wife to Ali (Navid Negahban), who suddenly becomes aware of the lissome, nubile charms of a 14-year-old girl. Ali wants custody of his sons and does not want to pay alimony, so he convinces a couple of his buddies to be witnesses to a charge of adultery. Religious and political figures in the small Iranian town in quaver at the lies but fall in line behind Ali and his vicious slander.
Cyrus Nowrasteh directed, and wrote the screenplay in collaboration with his wife, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh. It’s raw, and while he’s over the top from time to time, it’s mostly for effect, and it works. Aghdashloo is most impressive as Zahra. Her husky voice is powerful and a wonderful tool, and one immediately remembers "House of Sand and Fog," for which she was an Oscar nominee (Best Supporting Actress) and the honoree by the New York, Los Angeles and Online film critics groups. Caviezel has little to do besides listen.
Marno is effective as the hunted, haunted wife, who tries to do whatever her husband asks (demands is probably a better word) but cannot win the beauty battle with the teenager for whom Ali lusts. Negahban depicts cruelty in powerful style; the emotion is a jewel brilliantly mounted in a setting of smug male superiority. "The Stoning of Soraya M." is a powerful film whose pain and violence is only equaled by the viciousness of the evil it is attacking.
At the Tivoli.
-Joe