I am disturbed and shocked, not only by the contents in this film, but by how this film has caused some, at the screening, to adamantly stereotype the practice of stoning as solely an Islam culture. It has also served some as a base for promoting anti-Iran sentiments. Hey this film is a fiction! It is easy to forget that this barbarous and hideous judicial form of capital punishment has origins, not only in the history of Islamic shariah, but also in ancient Greek, Christian and Jewish texts of antiquity. While stoning, in Judaism and many other cultures, has long been abolished, cases of stoning are still being reported, not only in strict Sharia-governed countries, like Iran, but in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emigrates, Nigeria, Somalia and India.
This film has its winning appeal as a result of the very memorable and remarkable performance of Shohreh Aghdashloo as Zahra, and the visually astounding shock-inducing scenes exhibiting the stoning of Mozhan Marnò's Soraya. Yes, this film succeeds fabulously in delivering phenomenally detailed visuals that are both dramatic and emotionally wrenching to experience. A woman so horribly stoned to death as a result of her husband's evil intention, lies, and desire to replace her for a younger woman! Indeed, as a woman, I do weigh that as highly abominable! As a woman, I'm already feeling obligated to rage against every detestable practice of stoning!
However and as with any other film suggesting to its viewers that it is based on a true story, this film is still a fiction... exactly in the way it is being classified. Interesting characters, fictionalized for our entertainment! Not surprising, there are many instances in the film that seem over-dramatized, and there are situations that fail to justify commonsense reality. Oh yes, the film does jolt one's senses to utter appall and disbelief, yet it offers little clue to what, in the film, is fact or what is imaginative creativity.
Based on the book of on the book of an expatriated Iranian journalist, Freidoune Sahebjam, who lives in France, this film takes the audience into a seeming God-forsaken and isolated, little rural Iranian village, with probably no more than 100 inhabitants. We are introduced to a soul-searching Muslim lady, Zahra, seen picking up skeletal pieces and washing them. An aggrieved lady, no doubt, trying to make sense of her world. Jim Caviezel's Freidoune, a French journalist, happens to be passing through this obscure village and he has troubles with his car. He finds a local mechanic to repair the car. . Freidoune becomes Zahra's stroke of luck to get her concern and anger heard. Like Freidoune, the audience is taken into a shocking revelation of the story of Soraya M, before and after her stoning. Yep, Cyrus Nowrasteh has succeeded in rocking the viewers' nerves with a horror tale about the most brutal and savage acts of cruelty in smallville Iran. Oh yes, we are observing a village with its social and cultural environment, and landscape, that seem not to have changed since the 7th Century, probably!
This film reminds me of the many isolated rural places in the world where great scientific advancements and achievements have bypassed, thus leaving their inhabitants without real beneficial progress. Can we blame their common folks for clinging to their ancient, oft times barbarous ways and beliefs, if there is really nothing exceptional to get excited about in their routine lives? Oh yes, I did enjoy watching Zahra's rebellious courage in the film. But poor voiceless Soraya... the lone cries and boldness of Zahra can't save Soraya from her ugly fate. To see women having to be treated like bonded labor, or chattels, in the guise of adhering to religious beliefs, is so awful!
There are abundance of intriguingly interesting events and elements in the film. Yet there are some questionable logic about this fictional film. For instance, the few scenes, close to the film's end, seem too hurriedly crafted, making the ease with which Freidoune is finally allowed to get into his car and leave, is too absurd for me to swallow. Hey, the people responsible for Soraya's horrendous and merciless death are the very same people, quick enough to suspect Zahra's purpose for inviting Freidoune into her house, yet so absurdly witless and unconcerned, at one point, about letting the journalist leave. Besides, does a taped voice-recording of an anonymous source have any evidential value to a journalist's claim as fact?
At the screening, the audience was informed that the filmmaker, responsible for producing this film, was also responsible for the production of The Passion of the Christ. However, I'm not sure whether the intention of Grace Hill Media, a religion-based PR firm, to stereotypically promote the film as an anti-Islamic or to pump up anti-Iran sentiments would actually benefit the film, its actors, or even its filmmakers. Of course, I'm reminded of how Mel Gibson's career and personal life had taken a toll... very possibly as a result of the anti-Semitic controversies over his "The Passion of the Christ" film.
6.5/10
This film has its winning appeal as a result of the very memorable and remarkable performance of Shohreh Aghdashloo as Zahra, and the visually astounding shock-inducing scenes exhibiting the stoning of Mozhan Marnò's Soraya. Yes, this film succeeds fabulously in delivering phenomenally detailed visuals that are both dramatic and emotionally wrenching to experience. A woman so horribly stoned to death as a result of her husband's evil intention, lies, and desire to replace her for a younger woman! Indeed, as a woman, I do weigh that as highly abominable! As a woman, I'm already feeling obligated to rage against every detestable practice of stoning!
However and as with any other film suggesting to its viewers that it is based on a true story, this film is still a fiction... exactly in the way it is being classified. Interesting characters, fictionalized for our entertainment! Not surprising, there are many instances in the film that seem over-dramatized, and there are situations that fail to justify commonsense reality. Oh yes, the film does jolt one's senses to utter appall and disbelief, yet it offers little clue to what, in the film, is fact or what is imaginative creativity.
Based on the book of on the book of an expatriated Iranian journalist, Freidoune Sahebjam, who lives in France, this film takes the audience into a seeming God-forsaken and isolated, little rural Iranian village, with probably no more than 100 inhabitants. We are introduced to a soul-searching Muslim lady, Zahra, seen picking up skeletal pieces and washing them. An aggrieved lady, no doubt, trying to make sense of her world. Jim Caviezel's Freidoune, a French journalist, happens to be passing through this obscure village and he has troubles with his car. He finds a local mechanic to repair the car. . Freidoune becomes Zahra's stroke of luck to get her concern and anger heard. Like Freidoune, the audience is taken into a shocking revelation of the story of Soraya M, before and after her stoning. Yep, Cyrus Nowrasteh has succeeded in rocking the viewers' nerves with a horror tale about the most brutal and savage acts of cruelty in smallville Iran. Oh yes, we are observing a village with its social and cultural environment, and landscape, that seem not to have changed since the 7th Century, probably!
This film reminds me of the many isolated rural places in the world where great scientific advancements and achievements have bypassed, thus leaving their inhabitants without real beneficial progress. Can we blame their common folks for clinging to their ancient, oft times barbarous ways and beliefs, if there is really nothing exceptional to get excited about in their routine lives? Oh yes, I did enjoy watching Zahra's rebellious courage in the film. But poor voiceless Soraya... the lone cries and boldness of Zahra can't save Soraya from her ugly fate. To see women having to be treated like bonded labor, or chattels, in the guise of adhering to religious beliefs, is so awful!
There are abundance of intriguingly interesting events and elements in the film. Yet there are some questionable logic about this fictional film. For instance, the few scenes, close to the film's end, seem too hurriedly crafted, making the ease with which Freidoune is finally allowed to get into his car and leave, is too absurd for me to swallow. Hey, the people responsible for Soraya's horrendous and merciless death are the very same people, quick enough to suspect Zahra's purpose for inviting Freidoune into her house, yet so absurdly witless and unconcerned, at one point, about letting the journalist leave. Besides, does a taped voice-recording of an anonymous source have any evidential value to a journalist's claim as fact?
At the screening, the audience was informed that the filmmaker, responsible for producing this film, was also responsible for the production of The Passion of the Christ. However, I'm not sure whether the intention of Grace Hill Media, a religion-based PR firm, to stereotypically promote the film as an anti-Islamic or to pump up anti-Iran sentiments would actually benefit the film, its actors, or even its filmmakers. Of course, I'm reminded of how Mel Gibson's career and personal life had taken a toll... very possibly as a result of the anti-Semitic controversies over his "The Passion of the Christ" film.
6.5/10