Movie review: 'Stoning of Soraya M.' a potent voice against oppression, misogyny

A riveting account of oppression, injustice and defiance, "The Stoning of Soraya M." dramatizes the true story of an Iranian wife and mother put to death under fundamentalist religious law in 1986. Arriving as the Islamic Republic's disputed election dominates world headlines, the film could hardly be more timely.

When French-Iranian journalist Freidoune (Jim Caviezel) is stranded in a remote hamlet with car trouble, he learns that an innocent woman accused of infidelity was killed by her rock-throwing neighbors -- a sentence dictated under laws ratified after the country's Islamic revolution. Telling the tale is her formidable Aunt Zahra (Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghadashloo).

Soraya's brutish, philandering husband, Ali, was tired of her and eager to trade up to a younger girl from a well-connected family. Because he couldn't afford two wives, he demanded a divorce. Soraya (doe-eyed Mozhan Marno), who couldn't support their four children on her own, refused for economic reasons. Ali colluded with the mayor and the village mullah -- a former criminal -- to frame Soraya for the capital crime of infidelity.

Under the kangaroo court terms of trial, unsubstantiated gossip was admissible and it was Soraya's responsibility to prove her innocence. Some villagers testified against her out of personal malice, others were coerced or misled, and she was convicted by an all-male tribunal. Following the travesty, the community, and even members of her own family, stained their hands in her "legal" execution.

The film is a simple, powerful morality tale in which good and evil are rendered in crystal-clear black and white. It is convincing and compelling in its details, from the Jordanian locations that stand in for Iran to the terrible sequence in which Soraya meets her fate. Producer Stephen McEveety ("The Passion of the Christ") understands the dramatic impact of unjust religious violence, and Iranian-American director Cyrus Nowrasteh makes viewers feel as if they are being bloodied by every jagged rock.

It is Zahra, not the visiting journalist, who emerges as the hero of the tale. She risks her safety by telling the story, hoping to bring international disgrace on corrupt authorities who thought they could act with impunity. "You take my voice" to the outside, she insists as Freidoune tapes her testimony. As her voice and others like it reverberate beyond the Third World, you can only hope Western public opinion helps stamp out the misogynist crimes they describe.

Colin Covert • 612-673-7186