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The Stoning of Soraya M. (review)
The Stoning of Sorayra M. (USA 2008, 114 min, dir: Cyrus Nowrasteh, cast: Mozhan Marno, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jim Caviezel)
Jim Caviezel played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. In The Stoning of Soraya M. he plays a reporter happening upon a story about a modern woman who must walk her own steps to her village’s version of the crucifixion. This actor’s personal passion expressed in his adopting of special needs children, and his support of politically incorrect causes; makes his participation in this singular, powerful movie all the more interesting.
A movie is what it is on screen: that is everything. Or is it? The writer/director of The Stoning of Soraya M. is known for taking on non PC subjects and making statements of personal conviction. Both Caviezel and director Cyrus Nowrasteh are drawn to a story that defies audience sensitivities to paint truth, harshness, courage and sadness. Soraya (Mozhan Marno) brings dignity to her own death.
Mozhan too, is no stranger to speaking out. She starred in a one women show 9 Parts of Desire about women in war-torn Iraq. The play, written by Heather Raffo (also the title of a book about the Middle East by Geraldine Brooks), comes from Ali ibn Abu Taleb, an early leader and scholar of Islam who said, “God created sexual desire in ten parts: then he gave nine parts to women and one to men.”
Soraya M’s husband accuses her of adultery so he can be free to marry a younger woman he has found in a nearby city. That the punishment for adultery is death by stoning doesn’t disturb him. Nor does he flinch at throwing the first stone at the head of the mother of his children as she waits defenseless: buried to her waist in the village square.
It’s easy to eject the DVD after seeing The Stoning of Soraya M. and condemn Iran as a primitive country driven by the intractable dogma of the Ayatollahs. But Iran is, in may ways, actually quite permissive: if you are a man.
Soraya M. is about that one part of desire granted to men and how the rage, feared impotence and lust for domination over those other nine parts propels men towards madness and grisly murder. Ali ibn Abu Taleb did not restrict his observation to Muslims. Violence towards women can happen anywhere, and it does.
Link to this Post: http://www.moviewithme.com/blog/archives/967
May 18th, 2010 at 17:08
Finally… a review of a film that should have received far more recognition than 90% of the films released in 2010!
This film was the ONLY one in the pack that truly took my breath (and everything else in me) away! It’s weaknesses are over-arced by its strengths … its rawness a stark contrast to the unfortunate homogenization of American cinema where boys in cartoon gear slay imaginary evil forces. SORAYA M is a nightmare: a real nightmare. And it should scare its viewer into compassionate activism against the truly sadistic, pathetic rage that so often overcomes men in their primitive quest to retain their singular part in the ten sexual desires. The weakest moment in this film was the Reporter… a kind of bookend “Johnny come lately” impotent to stop anything yet virile enough to unleash the event on the World. The strength of this story lies in the Women — their earthy, emotional, intelligence sharply defined & polarized the inherent differences between male & female. The unfortunate aspect of this film is that the “stoning” of women is not just a phenomenon of Islamic culture but is epidemic in pretty much all cultures across the great void of our world. It’s just more disguised behind the “veil” of so-called civilized Western society where Women are physically, emotionally, financially, culturally beaten up by “small” men with “small” egos and their one-tenth desire to dominate that which they will never dominate: the Woman who runs with Wolves.