The Stoning of Soraya M:
When Life is Stranger—and Scarier—than Fiction

By Rebecca Park, Contributor

The Stoning of Soraya M. isn’t an easy film to watch. And it doesn’t fit in with typical Transformers-esque summer fare. The villains are average men and women—husbands, fathers, neighbors—and the violence is all too real. But there’s no excuse for passing it by when it is released June 26.

The story is rather straightforward; it’s all there in the title. Based on a true story, Iranian Soraya M.’s husband wants a divorce, she doesn’t, he involves other villagers in a conspiracy that leads up to the brutal titular climax. Director Cyrus Nowrasteh avoids self-righteous preaching and oversimplification. He presents a story of humanity gone astray, obviously condemning the social structure that allows such injustice and human rights violation but never suggesting the superiority of the Western world.

Power lies in the picture. The film depends on images to tell its story. Powerful details that don’t need words, deepening the universal humanity of the characters. A close-up of the mullah’s prayer beads, a constant reminder of the all-too-familiar hypocrisy of a man who claims to speak for a higher authority yet is more concerned with earthly power struggles.

Sympathetic portrayals of male characters prop up the film’s resolve to resist falling into finger-pointing caricature. Hashem, Soraya’s neighbor and employer, gets caught up in his fellow villagers’ scheme against the charming woman. But actor Parviz Sayyad conveys his character’s loyalty, conflicted conscience, and eventual remorse with a quiet intensity that transforms a supporting player into the last standing pillar of righteousness.

The Stoning of Soraya M. is worth seeing for its aesthetic quality, the singular beauty of its powerful images. It is a must-see for its message, the passionate cry for justice despite desperate conditions.

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