{"id":9332,"date":"2010-06-17T19:32:25","date_gmt":"2010-06-18T03:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9332"},"modified":"2010-06-18T15:31:05","modified_gmt":"2010-06-18T23:31:05","slug":"the-stoning-of-soraya-m-cyrus-nowrasteh-2008-usa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9332","title":{"rendered":"The Stoning of Soraya M. (Cyrus Nowrasteh, 2008): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"Driving through\u00a0a\u00a0small village in Iran in 1986, a\u00a0French-Iranian\u00a0journalist,\u00a0is told of\u00a0The Stoning of Soraya M<\/a><\/em>. – an event that occurred the day prior.<\/p>\n

Freidoune Sahebjam (James Caviezel)\u00a0has car problems\u00a0and is forced to stop for several hours in a remote village.\u00a0 After convincing a local mechanic to work on his car, he stops for a\u00a0refreshment at a nearby cafe.<\/p>\n

A strange woman named Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo) pursues Freidoune, and despite the\u00a0two local dignitaries that try to convince him that\u00a0Zahra is crazy, she manages to pass a note with her address on to him.<\/p>\n

Curious, Sahebjam follows his hunch and ends up at Zahra’s door, where she describes the\u00a0circumstances of her niece Soraya (Mozhan Marno).<\/p>\n

Soraya, an attractive mother of four, is married to Ali (Navid Negahban), a verbally and physically abusive womanizer.\u00a0 Ali wants to divorce Soraya, abandon his two\u00a0young daughters, take custody of his two sons, and marry a 14 year old girl and acquire her dowry.\u00a0 If Soraya agrees to her husband’s terms, she may keep their modest home and her two little girls, but will not be given any financial support.<\/p>\n

Soraya, knowing she cannot support herself, refuses the offer and Ali begins to think of another plan.\u00a0 Soraya secures a position with the widower Hashem (Parviz Sayyad), to cook and clean for him and his son.\u00a0 A chain of gossip about Soraya and the widower mysteriously erupts throughout the village, and Ali abruptly brings charges of infidelity against her.<\/p>\n

When denying the charges, Soraya is informed that a husband may bring any charges against his wife, and it is her duty to prove her innocence – but, if a wife brings charges against her husband, it is still her duty to prove his guilt!<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the stoning is brutal and\u00a0horrific.\u00a0 Not only do all of the townspeople show up to throw stones, but also Soraya’s father, sons, and her employer Hashem!\u00a0 Buried up to her waist, with her hands tied behind her back, Soraya endures one stone after another hurled at her face,\u00a0but she\u00a0refuses to cry out in anguish.<\/p>\n

A highly compelling film, with characters portrayed succinctly by both\u00a0Aghdashloo and Marno.\u00a0 In the lesser role, Caviezel portrays a subtle yet effective\u00a0Sahebjam, the real life journalist and author of the bestselling book which exposed the\u00a0present day stoning in Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. Driving through\u00a0a\u00a0small village in Iran in 1986, a\u00a0French-Iranian\u00a0journalist,\u00a0is told of\u00a0The Stoning of Soraya M. – an event that occurred the day prior. Freidoune Sahebjam (James Caviezel)\u00a0has car problems\u00a0and is forced to stop for several hours in a remote village.\u00a0 After convincing a local mechanic to work on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}