Release Date: June 26, 2009

(out of 4)

It would be a better world if a movie like "The Stoning of Soraya M." didn’t have to exist, but since execution of women does exist in Middle Eastern countries in the present day, then such a social protest drama must be served. Here’s a story that takes place in a small Iranian village where a mother refuses to grant her husband immediate divorce because he will skimp on supporting her children, and so through a series of circumstance, pays with her life.

The film opens with a French reporter (played by Jim Caviezel, “The Passion of the Christ.”) stranded in the village after his car breaks down. While he awaits a mechanic to fix his car, he is detained by the town’s “crazy” woman, whom in truth is the aptly heroic Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo, “House of Sand and Fog”). Zahra’s sister was Soraya, the mother who was “legally” executed by a male pig-headed mob the previous day. Soraya tells her story into the journalist’s tape recorder as the film flashbacks to days previous.

Soraya’s boorish husband Ali (Navid Negahban) wants rid of the marriage immediately so he can run off with a teenage girl. Soraya is then propositioned by the town’s Mullah in exchange for financial support, but she refuses. Soraya’s inflexibility soon frustrates the men in the township. She is then offered a job to work for a recently widowed man and his handicapped son. It is a completely platonic relationship between Soraya and her employer. Ali sees it though as an opportunity to build a false case against his own wife for adultery where the punishment is met by death.

Coming to her sole defense is her sister Zahra, a strong-willed woman but… she’s still a woman in a culture clearly biased towards men. “This is a man’s world!” Ali exclaims proudly to his son. Prejudice is heavier than sympathy, and even the woman of the township gossip in Soraya’s disservice. The crux of the film is the hours surrounding the accusation, the informal trial and verdict decided upon men while Soraya and other women are absent, and the arrangement of the execution that is carried out in Mel Gibson-style graphic violence (some people might have a problem with the over-emphatic visual shutter speed in capturing this scene).

Some dialogue is overstated in order to distribute its message about violence against women. Aghdashloo’s performance works best within the film, it is the most natural and effortless of any of the performers. Certainly her Zahra is a courageous character, one willing to speak out fervently against injustice when most contemporary women within the culture are too easily hushed. Caviezel only appears at the film’s bookends (was his appearance made to invite comparison to “The Passion of the Christ?”), but drop any preconceptions of why he’d take such a minimal role. His work is honorable.

Director Cyrus Nowrasteh’s work is honorable, too, even if his film lacks subtlety. Subject matter has been translated to screen without compromise, you get a political science idea of why decency is misplaced in this town, and therefore, the film succeeds at leaving you shaken. The most chilling aspect is how the town celebrates in the evening following the stoning, which makes you ponder if these people would ever have the capacity to celebrate over something joyful or affirming. Ali and his above the law accomplices seem prone to living by horrendous traditions. The film is based on the 1994 published international bestseller of the same name written by Freidoune Sahebjam, Caviezel’s character. This is a downer per se, but one with a purpose to spread awareness of global politics.