The Stoning of Soraya M

Based on a true story, the drama tells of an Iranian woman (Mozhan Marno), a good mother and wife, who finds that a deceptive man (James Caviezel) can ruin, even destroy a life, in order to get what he wants. Her husband is a philanderer, now desiring a new wife, a child bride. His lust defines his character, as he uses innuendo and deceit in order to get the town to turn on his wife. He proclaims her to be an adulteress, knowing the religious law will find her guilty and the village will stone her to death.

The film is brutal in nature and in imagery – brutal in that it shows how some people will do anything to lift themselves up, including the defamation of another. And as the title warns, we will witness the ritual of public stoning.  As in The Passion of the Christ, the filmmakers spare no detail in the execution scene. Indeed, the final shot of the dead woman is as bloody as the body of Christ in Mel Gibson’s Passion.  It is not a scene for children or young teens. This may raise the question, why is it suitable for adults?

Sometimes imagery is needed to send the most poignant and urgent of messages.  And as the man once said, the first step in any battle is to be informed.  Sometimes for outrage to turn into action, truth in all its goriness must be witnessed.  This makes The Stoning of Soraya M an important, if somewhat unpleasant movie-going experience.

The Stoning of Soraya M will unnerve and disgust, but it will reveal crimes that remind us that true evil exists and threatens to destroy the soul of man.

The film is rated R. (An evil man calls his wife obscene names and three or four uses of the s-word; false witnessing in the name of God and there is a realistic depiction of the stoning to death of an innocent woman.) The death scene becomes very bloody – this is not for children or the squeamish.

Phil Boatwright reviews films from a Christian perspective at previewonline.org.