Tweet This Movie: #TheStoningofSorayaM
by Andrew BreitbartThis week’s Washington Times column:
Last Tuesday as I was driving home from a screening of “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” a profoundly moving and eerily timely drama that comes out Friday, I found myself stuck in a bizarre late-night traffic jam thinking of ways to spread the word about this potentially transformative movie that thrusts its audience into the day’s headlines and draws attention to the plight of those who could potentially topple Iran’s cruel and menacing theocracy.
With an LAPD helicopter hovering above me in the night sky, I called home to ask my wife why our neighborhood was cordoned off, with traffic enforcement redirecting cars around the perimeter of the Los Angeles Federal Building. She couldn’t find anything on TV. When I reached home, I discovered via Twitter that thousands of Iranian-Americans, plentiful in West Los Angeles since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, were demonstrating solidarity with family and friends in Tehran by protesting the rigged Iranian election results and drawing attention to the regime’s long-standing human rights abuses.
The closure of a segment of Wilshire Boulevard, a key east-west artery, spoke to the urgency and magnitude of the situation.
“The Stoning of Soraya M.” has the capacity to become a symbol for the Iranian counterrevolution. Its gripping narrative and unforgettable, graphic ending will open the eyes of Westerners who have only intellectualized the plight of many women in the Middle East and perhaps will influence those who have stood on the sidelines while these atrocities continue.
If properly promoted through the online social media that is informing the world and fueling mass demonstrations, this film could become a catalytic phenomenon where the new and old media organically work together to affect political and social change.
Co-written and directed by Iranian-American Cyrus Nowrasteh, and based on the 1994 novel by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam, “The Stoning of Soraya M.” focuses our eyes on the human rights injustices and theocratic tyranny.
You can read the column in full here.
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42 Comments
I believe is playing at the LA film Festival
I'll definitely check this one out when it comes on Blu-ray.
And I say "Blu-ray" not because I don't want to support it in the cineplex but because I haven't seen a movie at the cineplex since the incredibly disappointing "Beowulf." A home theater is one of the best investments you can make, friends.
I went to the LAFF screening! Read about my experience at the event here:
pmperez.wordpress.com
I have to say that the film is not on an entertainment level with me. It's more of an important historical movie. Something essential for people to watch and understand. See in a first-hand way of sorts, of what injustices occur to the women of this archaic governance of radical Islam law. The torture people go through.
It is not something we should turn our heads and say, well people live this way. People want to be free. It is innate.
It's humanizing to see the events in Iran seeking the liberties we take for granted in this country.
We must thank God for granting us life in this free nation.
I had heard of this story before. Extremely sad, but definitely a must see.
It's ironic that the movie is releasing now isn't it? Soraya M and now Nada, the little girl who was murdered in Iran during the protests. These are the faces of a counterrevolution.
Hopefully, the Iranian people won't have to endure this type of sub-human treatment much longer. Support the movie and support The Iranian People…………….
Despite the disturbing subject matter, "The Stoning of Soraya M" presents us, as "happy cultural warriors, rich and varied opportunities to discuss, advocate, and ultimately persuade those inside and out of our industry how a well produced, intelligently acted, and uncompromisingly directed film has the ability to make people think, feel, and hopefully examine what exactly is important to us as artists, Americans, and human beings. I was lucky to hear Ms. Ahgdashloo interviewed by Laura Ingraham and was impressed by the conviction and passion for this project which hits so close to home for her. This is a perfect example of how a work of art can reveal our less than admirable qualities and lead us to the question "Now what can you do to bring about a better solution for this particular situation?" Kudos to everyone involved in the making of this film.
Nice column, Andrew. It does sound like an amazing movie. It always takes a brave few to get the ball rolling, and it sounds like Zahra is one of them. It's sad for Soraya and others like her that it had to go on as long as it has.
I used to believe that the modern American liberal feminist was really interested in fighting for women's rights around the world. Then, when America spent blood and treasure to liberate women in Afghanistan and Iraq, the only reaction of the feminists was to decry George Bush. That's when I realized that the modern American feminist was more interested in spreading liberalism than women's rights.
Don't get me wrong; I hope this movie gets seen. But, the people who would be willing to take action to free Iranian women are already on board.
Why, may I ask, was the LA protest not covered by the loal news?
If it was significant enough to close traffic, it should have been significant enough to make the news.
Why do we hide these things from OURSELVES?
*Cough* the "smartest film critic in the world" thinks the movie fails miserably because it doesn't blame the USA. – http://bit.ly/xJXKp
"…there is something condescending and judgmental in the filmmaker's subtext that seems to exonerate Western culture as somehow less complicit in the atrocious murders that it commits against innocent and guilty citizens alike."
Liberal derangement at its finest.
Here are a few examples of coverage from the past week but don't let facts get in the way of fake outrage at the librul media.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-protest21...
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-iran-protes...
http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Thousands...
Everyone should read IvyBelle's review just so you can read the context behind her delicious line:
“Then I thought, 'That’s crazy!' – the LAFF would never have a Christian author speak at a screening.”
glitchglitchglitch
Thank you Andrew for bringing us the review of this movie, but more importantly for showing that Twitter and other social media can and will benefit Conservatives. Too many of us ignore new technology and how it affects politics and public opinion, I will admit I do not use in the same way others do, it does however make a timely news feed as long as you can verify and source the information.
I think the only thing important to the American liberal feminist is the abortion issue. If you're all for abortion at any time for any reason, then they're there for ya. If that's not your problem, they find it hard to be interested.
When you read something like this it makes you want to catch a flight and join the revolution. Iran is a pain in the a$$ of the world their demise, and I mean the Mad Ayatollahs would be welcomed, and would change world politics for the best. This is not just any country but one that’s sworn to the death of America, “The Great Satan,” and I don’t mean the Democrat party. I’m certain that a Jeffersonian democracy would not emerge, but anything would be a nice change.
"judgmental"
Oooh, can't have that, can we? Better to say that America imposed Sharia on Iran.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold the critic's Enlightened 21st-Century Thinking™.
I took a course in African religions and got a dose of Islamic religion. …Interesting…history…
Thanks again, Ivy.
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Thanks to the regime changes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the people in Iran clearly now feel the fervor of democracy.
I'm with you, but there IS the occasional "event" movie that will get me into the theater. Last year I saw TWO movies in the theater – Iron Man and The Dark Knight. Everything else, wait for blu ray (or HBO).
I really want to see this movie, and hope it's out on blu before too long.
That's an interesting question, Jeff. I saw it talked about on Fox News. I thought it would be all over the local media. Guess I forgot what city I was looking at.
My heart is in my throat when I see those images coming out of Iran. I pray for those people that they can effect the changes they need with minimal loss of life. I pray that God receive the souls of those who have died and comfort their families.
Repressive, overly controlling governments, take notice. Once your citizens start taking to the street, your days are numbered.
Andrew, I had guessed the site has the green background as a show of support for the people of Iran. Would I be correct? Either way, I like it.
Iran is at a tipping point, the people there see an unjust government and are rising up to confront it. This is a most important time, we are witnessing the beginning of a revolution and all we get from Washington DC is crickets….
Cyrus and Betsy wrote a fabulous script and he did an amazing job directing. The movie profoundly affected me for three entire days, and I hope it does the same with everyone who sees it, showing the corruption and manipulation and absolute bestial treatment of women that occurs so often in the "religion of peace."
Ivy, I'm writing my own piece for Big Hollywood about that same event, and have some things to say about Reza Aslan…
Great, can't wait to read it!
Okay, I'm going to have to find myself supporting the facts offered by Bob, a liberal. I guess it can happen . . . and now the universe will implode once I post this.
Come on, Bob, it was funny.
Anyway, while I was not home on Friday night when these apparently began, so I didn't see the news, I do recall hearing about the protests all weekend long ON MY LOCAL NEWS and I live in the L.A. area.
It was covered by the local news, but perhaps not at the moment that Breitbart's wife was checking the channels. In other words, they probably didn't break into any shows to do Breaking News, but I believe it was covered on the nightly news (11:00 p.m.) on Friday night and I know I heard about it all weekend long on the nightly news.
IT IS SO TRUE
"We must thank God for granting us life in this free nation. "
Amen!! And we must make sure that we don't let our freedoms slip away.
Multiculturalism is built upon a precarious foundation that presumes that ALL cultures are equally worthy. Toss aside the moral relativist fog that has enshrouded American education for the past thirty years, and consider the notion that good and evil actually exist. Some cultures are built upon good, and others have percolated up from evil. To love your neighbor as yourself; as YOURSELF, promotes actions toward the good. Distancing the other; dehumanizing the other, curtailing the RIGHTS of the other, paves the way for the most ahbhorrent and evil acts.
Fair enough. I stand corrected.
Like I told Bob, I stand corrected, and abashed.
Terrible movie! -3/5
As a humanist I am very much opposed to Islamic fundamentalism because it leads to things like this.
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