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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SARMAN who wrote (275974)	7/9/2010 12:50:26 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

'The Stoning of Soraya M.' Is Straightforward But Timely Well-Acted and Brutally Delivered, This Powerful Film Enriches Our View On Iran's Current Events Soraya (Mozhan Marno) is stoned to death in director Cyrus Nowrasteh's latest film, based on a novel by Freidoune Sahebjam. As the film "The Stoning of Soraya M." stages its titular event, director Cyrus Nowrasteh liberally allots time for the cinematic realization of Soraya's (Mozhan Marno) tragic end. On the screen, a woman's upper torso protrudes upright in blood-spattered sand and rocks. Her dark, thick hair is uncovered, adorned only with thick streaks and droplets of red. As her rib cage gives way under the weight of her drooping head, drifting closer and closer to the earth, white rocks fly out of the hands of her father, her husband, even her two young sons, landing squarely on their target, killing her slowly with each maliciously aimed blow. And as the red of the blood contrasts against the white sand surrounding the half-buried body, a dark green blanket is brought by traveling circus performers to cover up the brutality of the town's men, and the colors of the Iranian flag remain in focus, in contemplation of the violent history of the landscape, a violence that continues to the present day in Iranian streets. Based on the novel by French-Iranian reporter Freidoune Sahebjam, played in the film by Jim Caviezel, the story illuminated on the screen is set in 1986's Iran, with the Ayatollah and Shia mullahs exerting despotic pressure on the Persian people. The film is pervaded by the misogynistic marginalization and abuse of women and girls in the town of Kupayeh, but the story told here is just as much about the indoctrination of male citizens from a young age. Soraya's aunt Zahra, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo ("House of Sand and Fog") is emblematic of the citizens' sense of injustice under this new regime, after having had a taste of women's suffrage and stabilizing infrastructure before the overthrow of the Shah during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The dramatic film functions in a space similar to a documentary, and as Nowrasteh breathes life into this true story he employs cinematic artistry as a means to an end that educates and illuminates a dark past, without overt or distracting stylistic choices. Much like Caviezel's Jesus of Nazareth and his crucifixion in "The Passion of the Christ," the violence portrayed on the screen is unbearable at points. Hand in hand with the graphic physicality of the film, the psychological battles between characters are similarly difficult to withstand. Watching children and friends of Soraya throw stones after being told, "With each stone your honor will return," and "Go ahead, boys. For God," is just as hair-raising as watching the special effects team hard at work throughout the lengthy stoning scene. The story is the main character, woven into place by beautifully acted roles-Caviezel even pulls off a subtly French-inflected English when he's not conversing in Farsi. The timeliness of the film's US release, amid daily news reports and Twitter posts regarding the riots in the streets of Iran, has already been called to the public's attention by major news networks and publications. This relevance, coupled with the timeless necessity of giving voice to underrepresented peoples and individuals, bolsters the effectiveness of a film otherwise unexceptional in its stylistic accomplishments. Seemingly running down a list of cinematography to-do's, including a dolly zoom and flying stones turning into doves, "The Stoning of Soraya M." accomplishes its main mission as expressed by Zahra's promise: "I will tell the world." The narrative frames through which the film is told function to bring us closer to the intimate details of Soraya's experience and furnish us with perhaps a better understanding of the depths of the injustice taking place in present day Iran. dailycal.org