Blu-ray Review: Powerful & Compelling ‘Soraya M.’ Arrives on DVD
by Christian TotoThe 2010 Oscar ceremonies have come and gone without a word spoken about “The Stoning of Soraya M.” The searing drama, based on true events, follows the torture of an innocent Iranian woman charged with adultery. It’s the kind of message movie Hollywood doesn’t much care for, stories showcasing horrors that can’t be directly blamed on western culture.
But the drama, released today on DVD and Blu-ray, deserved a smattering of Oscar buzz all the same. What other movies bring the issue of Sharia law to light in such fashion? More importantly, why didn‘t Shohreh Aghdashloo’s blistering performance earn her a place in the Best Actress category?
“Stoning,” directed and co-written by “The Path to 9/11” screenwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh, takes us to a remote Iranian village under the thumb of Sharia law. Young, attractive Soraya (Mozhan Marno) is raising four children with little help from her husband, Ali (Navid Negahban). When Ali decides he’d rather be married to a 14-year-old Iranian girl, he tries to pressure Soraya into granting him a divorce.
When she refuses, Ali accuses her of sleeping with a villager for whom she provides housekeeping duties.
She’s clearly innocent, but Ali is able to muster enough manufactured evidence to reinforce his case. What follows is a harrowing march to the titular stoning, an unblinking vision of a culture which subjugates women and human decency.
What sets “Stoning” apart is the detail Nowrashteh brings to the narrative. The villagers aren’t caricatures save for the villainous Ali, and we get to see the smaller moments of the village come alive.
The stoning itself is a horror movie more frightening than “Saw” or “Hostel.” It’s difficult to watch, but the director clearly wants people to understand the ramifications of cultural rot.
The film’s framing device delivers some clunky exchanges, but the sheer power of “The Stoning of Soraya M.” cannot be denied.
The Blu-ray extras include a three-part documentary detailing how “Stoning” came to be. The featurette could use some editing, but it’s noteworthy for showing a film director lose his cool on the set. Most DVD extras are simply glib shout-outs to the product in question.
The extras also detail the balancing act the crew accomplished in dealing with untrained movie extras and physical hardships which made each day of shooting a struggle.
Nowrasteh, an Iranian-American himself, says he insisted on casting Iranian actors in the main roles as a way to honor the country.
The modestly budgeted film suffered from on-set language barriers, a remote location with limited transportation access and having to stop production five times a day to allow for prayers.
“The surrounding craziness helped the movie,” Nowrasteh says. “It gave an air of reality to everything. This was not make believe.”
Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, the director’s wife and “Stoning’s” co-screenwriter, says the film was meant to honor real women, like Soraya, who suffer at the hands of cruel cultural traditions.
“We’re trying to illuminate something that isn’t talked about enough,“ she says.
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71 Comments
I want to know…WHERE ARE THE WOMENS RIGHTS GROUPS!?!??! Oh…I forgot…it doesn't matter what happens to women if they're not from the western world…sad….very sad. Says VOLUMES for these so-called womens rights groups, doesn't it!?!?
Well, it matters if something a Republican president does makes their lives worse. If their lives improve, or if a Democrat fails to intercede, nothing to see here, move along…
It's appalling that NO(S)W (National Organization of Some Women) wasn't supportive of our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan to reopen schools for girls, our support of women having businesses, etc. Shameful, just shameful. Note to NO(S)W–most of the women in the world care more about safety, well-being, and growth than they do about the abortion issue. Get over yourselves!
I know I could not watch this movie! Just reading about what women are subjected to in such cultures is sickening enough.
I saw this in the theater, and highly recommend it. It's a well made film, and so much more meaningful than many of the Oscar nominated films. The stoning scene is difficult to watch, but the film is a very moving and powerful indictment of a culture where the rights of women are completely depenedent on the good will of men. When we left the theater, the young producers were outside handing out wristbands for the cause of fundamental rights for women in the Muslim world, and they said the film was being widely distributed in Iran, hand to hand, underground. It had had a part in inspiring the women of the Iranian protest movement.
Did this site ever talk about the Oscar-nominated film Persepolis, which was also about Iran? That's right, while the film was unsparing in its condemnation of the Iranian regime, it didn't peddle in the most extreme agitprop that you guys seem to prefer.
Evidently the feminist movement has dissolved into a babykilling agenda, that's all they care about.
Expecting them to care about the effects of sharia on women, or fgm that goes on around the world, is like waiting for Santa.
Probably wasn't a movement there anyway, rather a reason to rail against the American systems. Born in the sixties,along with other fellow travelers, we can thank the reds , the academe, and the progressives for yet another waste of time and misdirection of our children.
I saw this one, and I have a tough stomach and I don't bat a eye on most things, this one was a tough for me and I am tougher than most. I left the theater with the knowing that the only thing for us as Americans we can do is to go and crush these people to the likes that makes Germany and Japan a look like a touch foot ball match.
FALSE. please see my reply to JVO, and hopefully, perhaps get involved. It can be as simple as writing a letter, and making your voice heard for those women who are denied a voice of their own.
You do realize that Women's suffrage in the United States occurred because of progressive movements, correct?
It is true that Islamofascist cultures deny women basic rights.
However, I prefer to look at something like stoning as a "human rights" issue generally, because we in this country pedestalize women to the point of ridiculousness (this goes double for social conservatives):
http://roissy.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/dont-get-m...
http://www.singularity2050.com/2010/01/the-misand...
I am not foolish enough to suggest that men get routinely stoned (with actual stones, not recreational drugs) here or in Iran. I am suggesting that you see this issue as important because human beings are losing their rights, not because women are morally superior to men.
The Islamofascist way is bad, but it doesn't need to be replaced by reflexive chivalry.
Wasn't yesterday "International Women's Day"?
No mention anywhere of this or of one of the biggest human rights violations in human history: millions chinese girls missing (aborted? sold? Where are those girls? as Mark Steyn says) due to China's one child policy, where boys are favored.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/xinran
Western feminists don't give a damn about the plight of millions of Muslim women, please, their focus is keeping the abortion mills open and functioning unfettered in the west. That and keeping the gender studies racket funded on our campuses. And, add their permanent narrative of vilifying white males.
In the hypocritical multicultural universe of western feminists brown skinned Muslim males misogynist and physically violent behavior towards women gets a pass. Our feminist hags have no moral authority.
Meanwhile on today's front page of the WSJ it's reported that 378 Nigerian Christians were savagely murdered Sunday by the Religion of Peace. I didn't check this morning, but, you can bet that the liberal lemmings in the MSM are playing that down.
In the universe of liberal multiculturalism all manner of barbarism must be ignored to keep the all-cultures-are-equal narrative intact.
It's so much easier, and takes so much less brain power, for those on the far left to just not address these issues, to just say "all cultures are equal" and not have to make "judgments" like the evil right does. Judgments involve thinking and finding out the facts. It's so much easier and involves way less of that difficult thinking stuff to just always blame America, and if you can't find a way to blame America just ignore the situation, and besides that way you can get invited to all the lefty parties.
If you think that's a fact (which I would dispute being related to women in the movement, and also knowing the part that pesky mormons played in the process) then you have to accept that the progressive movement ain't what it used to be.
so why didnt this movement start in the middle east or soviet union or china? They have atheists there right? and yes, atheism is progressive is liberal is socialism is communism.
Would you dispute the fact that the freedom of any woman to have an abortion for any reason at any time in her pregnancy is the main plank of NOW?
Would you dispute the fact that they show no support for a woman unless she supports the abortion plank?
Would you dispute that they show no support for conservative women?
Would you dispute that while they supported Anita Hill, because Clarence Thomas was not in favor of abortions on the scale that they are, and that they did not support any of the women who claimed to have been harrassed by Bill Clinton, because he supported abortion??
Would you dispute the fact that NOW support has nothing to do with being a woman, but with being pro abortion?
Are you actually contending that women's suffrage was not a tenet of the progressive movement and that a pretty progressive president signed the 19th amendment into law?
I just find it humorous to see people use the blanket term of "progressives" when they don't know its roots. I'm slightly thankful I wasn't sent to work in a coal mine when I was a young but instead got to see Yellowstone National Park and eat clean meat.
Islam means to SUBMIT, it does not mean peace. As long as there is Islam there will always be terror. Terror on others & terror on those shackled to the religion. OH wait, one can leave Islam… but is marked for death… of course. And so our children are being taught by Atheists that Christianity & Islam are relatively the same.
I too have a difficulty watching this film, knowing the ending, a million times over in the history of Islam. In Christian lands, there is hope, and progress, and liberty, and freedom, and an ever evolving understanding and of the truth of Jesus Christ's message.
Umm…the soviet union had and China has woman's suffrage…and they happened when they became communistic nations…the Soviet Union had women's suffrage before the united states.
I'm not a fan of socialism nor communism but just wanted to point how how stupid and ill informed you comment was.
Of course this movie wasn't mentioned by the Academy. If the majority of the quacks in Hollywood had it their way, they'd have this country reverted back to the biblical era all the name of "Global Warming." This is the same era that current day Muslim nations are living in, and why there is still such barbaric practices, like stoning, that are common occurrences.
*your comment was. I should clarify this to say "universal" women's suffrage.
In addition if you equate all those terms I seriously doubt you know what they really means. They can overlap but they can also be completely different and separate and are certainly not synonyms.
*mean
The silence and lack of support, by many in the Hollywood community, for 'The Stoning of Soraya M.' doesn't surprise me. I expect it. This film deserved to be recognized for so many reasons, which are mentioned by CT. A powerful movie, from start to finish. I'm glad to learn it's available on DVD and hope that audiences will find it.
On a slightly different note, the arrest last week of Iranian director, Jafar Panahi, and the silence by those in the Hollywood community, who *say* they champion free speech, disturbs me. Then again, when filmmaker Theo van Gogh was slaughtered in the streets of Amsterdam, a few years back, there wasn't much of an outrage over it. Hardly a peep. Go figure.
Keep Jafar Panahi in your thoughts and prayers:
http://wexarts.org/wexblog/?p=3901
No. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Also, are you aware that NOW is hardly the only feminist organization, and not even the only one in the US, and that not every feminsit is a card-carrying member?
and speaking of, WHO THE HELL DELETED MY RESONSE TO JVO? Practicing censorship on BigHollwood now when you are caught out on your lies?
I submit that "progressives" at the time would be absolutely shocked at what current progressives support, and that progressives were not the only support of womens suffrage, that it was brought about by many groups. Do you contend that the LDS church, about as unprogressive as one can get, wasn't a big supporter of women's suffrage?
oh yeah, NOW is always right there supporting women on the right. Face it NOW has little relevancy today and no one really cares what they have to say anymore. They denigrated so many women who didn't agree with them that it became clear they were only for women with the same opinions as they have.
I, along with many many women are for equal rights for women, equal pay for equal work, freedom from harassment, but don't like to call ourselves feminists because of the bad name early feminists gave that word. Wanting women to be seen as the same as or superior to men, denigrating men, family and religion, might attract some women, but not most
you mean… slaves are all equal. that's not women's suffrage.
pretty incredible… & you try to belittle me…. No way lil boy!
the other terms are just statistics… just numbers… Atheism Communism Socialism Liberalism… there are always exceptions, like Aynn Rand atheists… but statistically… I'm really damn close.
I anticipate that watching this is going to create a storm of anger and hostility towards those who gleefully practice Sharia Law….as well as the national and international womens' groups who decry poor women living in America.
I'm starting to doubt you even know what the term "suffrage" means.
But what you are trying to do is make an inflammatory statement that unfairly links different groups. I'm not talking about statistics, I'm talking about their ideals and tenets. There are Christian communists. There are atheist conservatives (as you pointed out). When you say you are "really damn close" I highly doubt that. If you want to work in statistics then, statistically, given how few people are atheists in this country the majority of people who have voted for progressives HAVE to be theistic for these candidates to win.
As for Progressives being the ones that gave us universal suffrage – if that is true (and it may be), I hate to say it is suspect, a buy off almost. We'll give you the right to vote and then pummel you with ideology so that you'll vote progressive more than you'll vote conservative. Kind of like what they did with the black community. I find it suspect that over 90% of blacks vote Democrat.
Progressives back then were just as bad as Progressives today although the Progressives back then were more open with their eugenics and racism. Now it's all hush hush and called other things (abortion rights and affirmative action and disparate impact).
I don't trust Progressives. I appreciate the right to vote, but that's as far as it goes.
echodelta…
Probably one of the finest articles, in the world…
That may be true but it would be impossible to prove and irrelevant to my point (I would contend that past republicans, like Goldwater, would look at "conservatives" now a days with disgust; I even have quotes to back this up) . My point was to list causes that progressives have championed. Do you disagree that they have been major contributors to women's suffrage, the national parks, and helping to reform the meat industry?
To be honest I didn't know that LDS helped to pass the 19th amendment. Do you have a link that backs this up?
then you know jack all about feminists, since now is but one organization amongst many. also, like your friend JVO, you seem incapable of using google, b/c if you knew how, you could see for yourself that NOW has many, MANY times pointed out and condemned the media's sexist mistreatment of Sarah Palin, including sexists comments and attacks at the hands of other leftists. but by all means, refuse to see for yourself and keep waving your arms and screaming about NOW while not actively doing anything yourself to help women in this country and around the world. And stop trying to spread the lie that feminists and feminist organizations (yes, including NOW) are ignoring the plight of our sisters around the world.
You do realize that …
Susan B. Anthony was a Republican.
Wyoming passed the first law to allow women to vote–it was signed by Republican Governor John Campbell.
On January 10, 1878, Republican Senator Aaron Sargent of California introduced the legislation that would later become the 19th amendment. It was defeated 4 times by the Democrat controlled Senate. The midterm elections of 1918 gave the Republicans control of both the House and Senate by a narrow margin and they were finally able to pass the amendment in 1919.
Just listening to any of them when they pop up on Fox is enough to make you spit – they are by far one of the most self-righteous 'I know better than you' groups out there – they have NO shame and on a whole, they sicken far more women than is reported.
so wait… communist chinese women get to vote? that's your attempt at demeaning me? you're saying suffrage is something chinese women have? they have to right to vote? they have a voice in the communist regime? they are represented equally? there are female leaders in the chinese dictatorship? & the soviet union? women? suffrage? REALLY!? you're still trying to squirm a bit of intelligentsia out of that!? SERIOUSLY?
well i like statistics… because when they are used, your & mine attempt at definitions & labeling, though helpful never show the big picture. statistics, historical in nature, and ever widening in compass, BOOM baby…. rock.
The torture and execution of women whose only offense is committing adultery would be hideous in and of itself. But I have long suspected that almost all, if not all, the women slaughtered this way are innocent of the crime of which they are accused.
Think about it, what woman would risk her life to have an affair with another Muslim man who will only treat her with the same contempt as that of her husband? It couldn’t be for the joy of sex because, not only are they taught there is no pleasure in sex, but many have been sexually mutilated for the purpose of making it difficult, if not impossible, to enjoy sex. No, the whole adultery charge is a simple way of men being able to kill off their wives once they get bored with them.
I hope Forty2 has some semblance, some miniscule amount of humility left in him to learn.
Where was NOW when Bill Clinton took advantage of some dopey, star-struck intern?
Where was NOW when it was revealed that ACORN would aid and abet in the prostituting of 13 year old girls from El Salvador?
My point? If you're waiting for NOW or any of these other politcal "human rights" organizations to stand up and do the right thing, you're going to be waiting for a long, long time.
That's great news, W. Real change has to happen from within.
I bught this on Blu today — can't wait to see it!
Well said, Lady.
Well I see you finally put "suffrage" into google dictionary. Like I said I'm not a fan of communism or socialism so I don't feel like defending them. I understand they do not work. I only pointed out that you were factually inaccurate about the Soviet Union and China. I really hate arguing about facts so I'm just going to leave it at that. You were factually wrong.
Could you rephrase your second paragraph in complete sentences and punctuation? Do you agree that this rational means that most progressives are theistic?
How does his refute what I said? Didn't a progressive president help to champion its passage?
Steve, the link to that story has expired. But I wanted to mention something I heard about recently. Something the Chinese must not have considered when they were disregarding their daughters was who will marry and procreate with their sons?
It seems that the male to female ratio in China is so out of whack that there are millions of men who are of marrying age for whom there are no spouses available. We should expect the Chinese population to shrink in the next couple of generations.
"The truth of Jesus Christ's message."
Amen.
Besides the political party back then was not that relevant to how progressive someone was. One of the most prominent, if not THE most prominent people of the progressive movement, Teddy Roosevelt, was originally republican.
The idea that a movie this sophisticated and with so much significance, even in our modern world, wasn't honored at the Oscars is cause for despair.
I may even write to our campus arts department and see if they can arrange a showing.
I don't know if I could stand watching this movie.
The various "rights" groups are nothing but fronts for Marxism.
Environmentalists (watermelons — green on the outside, red on the inside) use the planet, Mother Earth, the environment as a means to inflict communism on the world. Notice how little they say about China's environment.
So what if Muslim men stone their wives and "marry" fourteen year old girls? That's not NOW's purview.
NOW's more interested in making sure America becomes Socialist on its way to Marxist. There were NO women in the USSR's politburo, but NOW was busy raising hell about how badly women had it in the USA.
ACORN is supposed to care about 13 y.o. Salvadorian prostitutes? Give me a break. ACORN's job is to elect Marxists to office.
Look at every protest and you'll see the same signs and the same people. They might use women's rights or civil rights or gay rights as a vehicle, but their cause is Marxism. Unfortunately, because the Marxists have already co opted the media, that never comes out.
Hollywood has had a love affair with Marxism since the thirties (read "Red Star Over Hollywood"); there is no way in hell they'd promote a film like this when to do so might make capitalist America look good.
In a way, it's pathetic. These people have no idea that their lover (Marxism) is a monster.
You are right that NOW et al don't care about what happens to women but bringing abortion into it destroys your argument since abortion is unheard of in male-dominated Muslim societies.
OH… so we're working with your FACTS. As opposed to mine. I see.
the BOOM baby…. rock… ending of that sentence, just replace "…" with they… as in…they rock. Looking at the big picture. Like I don't consider women's suffrage in China, to matter diddly to the big picture of women's rights, anywhere in the history of women. Nor the communist dictatorship of the Soviet Union.
And dude, neither of us are writing a book or even an essay, so grammar antics is just, you know… your way of belittling to score points with… who do you think is reading this btw?
Wondering why this film isn't shown as a double feature with "Kandahar", a truly horrifying film about Afghanistan which came out about five or ten years ago.
I must admit I have no understanding of the Muslim world and the Muslim mentality. Why would Soroya allow herself to be stoned to death. Wouldn't any reasonable person facing that fate commit suicide? Why do women live in such hell? Since Islam promises wonderful rewards in Paradise, why do the females not kill themselves rather than live in such hideous circumstances?
I'll be honest. I didn't get the complete meaning of your second paragraph. I was not looking for a way to score points. I figured complete sentences might help. I honestly thank you for clearing this up.
This is why I dislike arguing about facts. One can just look them up to end the argument so why bother arguing. Search for "Constitution of the Republic of China" and universal suffrage. It is not "my facts" or "your facts"; universal suffrage is factually in their constitution. If you look up to what I have stated this is all I have contended. I agree with you that suffrage does not guarantee freedom and equal rights, but then again I never stated that it did.
Thank you. But, we both agree, that their nomenclature is really a lie.
If you do agree, then there's no need to use that in an argument.
It's like saying, we made Africans slaves. They were slaves in Africa to their warlords already! But I digress!
We both grow tired of this back and forth. See you in another article!
This site didn't exist when the film adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's comic came out, so naturally, it didn't cover it.
If you're referring to "Kandahar" that came out in 2001, then this movie should be boycotted. I'll explain why: it was directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf – a questionable character that was a teenage revolutionary during Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, but now involved with Iran’s opposition movement. The cherry on the cake is that he hired as an actor Dawud Salahuddin (plays a doctor in "Kandahar") – an American convert to Islam (currently on FBI's wanted list) that assassinated a critic of Ayatollah Khomeini in U.S. Ali Akbar Tabatabaei, Dawud was paid by Iran to do the dirty job and later on went to work as a chief online editor for Press TV (Iranian government owned propaganda channel). Maybe Mohsen indeed underwent a transformation and became committed to reform in Iran, if his convictions are true I don't want to besmirch a good man, but his past as a teenage Islamic militant and his decision to hire Dawud makes me doubt his true intentions. Just some food for thought.
To a liberal, submit does mean 'peace'.
The female genital mutilation indeed takes place in Africa and some M. E. countries like Saudi-Arabia, but it's not practised in Iran by Iranians, however Kurdish girls living in Iraq and Iran are not so lucky, according to the Shafii Islamic school to which most Iranian and Iraqi Kurds belong, female circumcision is obligatory for women, hence the practice in these communities is sadly widespread, however in Turkey or Syria's Kurdish communities (they mostly belong to Hanafi Islamic school) it's rare. The practise of FGM was brought to Iran by Arab conquerours.
maybe she thought the crazy thought that the truth might come out and that her hubby was lying. But in Islamic cultures the man is king. Women are lower than cattle. That is truely sickening.
It is also available through Netflix instant streaming.
Because of female shortage in China, North Korean female refugees that managed to escape to China are being kidnapped, raped and sold as brides in rural areas. There is a huge influx of Chinese men in Russia who are marrying Russian women because they can't find a wife in their native country, I don't mind the later since Chinese men who come to that country are mostly hardworking, don't engage in criminal activities and don't have a drinking problem, these qualities are very important for a Russian woman (I'm familiar with the mentality, I was born and lived there before moving to the west) considering the fact that it's getting harder and harder to find a normal Russian guy to marry.
HAHAHAAHAHHA! Good one!!!
For those interested in seeing the movie, it has now been added to Netflix' Watch Instantly service.
[...] Reviews: John Nolte at Big Hollywood Pam Meister at Big Hollywood Chuck DeVore at Big Hollywood Christian Toto at Big Hollywood Christian Toto at Pajamas Media Ed Morrissey at Hot Air James Bowman at the American Spectator [...]
Sad news about Mr. Panahi. May he be released soon.
Soraya also had 4 children. If there was the slightest chance she would be exonerated, that her husband might see the error of his ways, that Truth would prevail and save her family, I can see how she would stay. Also, she would most likely be damned by commiting suicide, so Paradise would not await her – only more endless agony.
What's your point besides blaming the victim, a poor woman of no means no less, that she didn't flee or commit suicide? Please, spare us your dimwittedness. Women live all around the globe in such hell holes because they have no choice. Your comments are bizarre.
Does anyone have any links on where/how often this still happens?
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