The Stoning of Soraya M.

Background

French-Iranian journalist and war correspondent Freidoune Sahebjam was traveling through Iran, when he came upon Soraya Manutchehri's village, where he learned from her aunt about Soraya and her cruel fate. He would make Manutchehri's death the subject of his 1990 book La Femme Lapidée, which was translated into English in 1994. The Stoning of Soraya M. is an adaption of the book.

Soraya Manutchehri (Persian: ثریا منوچهری, romanized: Soraya Manuchehri; the "t" in the transcription by Sahebjam followed French spelling rules; c.1951 – 15 August 1986) was a 35-year-old woman who was stoned to death in the small village of Kuhpayeh, Iran, after being accused of adultery.

Unnamed witnesses have claimed that Manutchehri's husband, Ghorban-Ali, a prison guard with a petty criminal past, was eager to get rid of her in order to marry a 14-year-old girl. Not wanting to support two families, nor return Soraya's dowry, he spread false rumours of her alleged adultery after she began cooking for a local widower. Abetted by venal and corrupt village authorities, who turned her father against her, he accused his wife of adultery. She was convicted, buried up to her waist, and stoned to death.

Her death has been described as a slow, painful event with "a carnival atmosphere led by village elders". After her death, the body was allegedly left outside so that animals could "ravage" it.

Plot

Stranded in the remote Iranian village of Kuhpayeh, a journalist is approached by Zahra, a woman with a harrowing tale to tell about her niece, Soraya, and the bloody circumstances of Soraya's death by stoning the previous day. The two sit down as Zahra recounts the story to Freidoune, who records the conversation. The journalist must escape with his life to tell the story to the rest of the world.

Ali is Soraya's abusive husband who tries to get the village's mullah to convince Soraya to grant him a divorce so that he can marry a 14-year-old girl. Ali is able to convince the mullah by making threats to tell the village about his past as a convict.

Ali's marriage to the teenager is conditional upon Ali's ability to save the girl's father, a doctor who has been sentenced to death for an unspecified crime. Ali and Soraya have two sons, and Ali does not want to lose them. After a woman dies, Ali asks Zahra to persuade Soraya to care for the woman's now-widowed husband. Soraya starts working for the widower, and Ali uses this situation to spread lies that Soraya is being unfaithful to him so that she will be stoned and he can remarry. Ali knows if Soraya were dead, he would not have to pay child support either. Ali and the mullah start a rumor about her infidelity so they can charge her with adultery. They need one more witness to her "infidelity" to be able to formally charge her. They manipulate and threaten the widower into backing up their story. Ali then drags Soraya through the streets, beating her and publicly declaring that she has been unfaithful. Zahra intervenes, and takes her niece, Ali, and the mayor to talk privately. They bring the widower to the home, and, after he lies as instructed, a trial is pursued. Only men, including Soraya's father, are allowed while Soraya is confined in Zahra's house. She is quickly convicted. Zahra tries to flee with her and after realizing she cannot, pleads with the mayor for her life, even offering to switch places with Soraya. The conviction is upheld.

Soraya's father is given the first stone to throw, but he misses her repeatedly. A woman in the crowd pleads to the mayor that the stones missing are a sign that Soraya is innocent, but none of the men listen. Ali takes up stones and throws them himself. Her two sons are also forced to throw stones. The widower is given stones as well but instead walks away in tears. The crowd finally joins in and Soraya is stoned to death.

Cast

Mozhan Marnò as Soraya Manutchehri

Shohreh Aghdashloo as Zahra

Jim Caviezel as Freidoune Sahebjam

Parviz Sayyad as Hashem

Vida Ghahremani as Mrs. Massoud

Navid Negahban as Ali

Vachik Mangassarian as Morteza Ramazani, Soraya's father

Bita Sheibani as Leila

Noor Taher as Kataneh

David Diaan as Ebrahim, the mayor

Ali Pourtash as the mullah

Laila Qutub as Mehri, the 14-year-old girl

Release

Box office and financing

The film's domestic gross was $636,246. It grossed $1,090,260 worldwide.

Film received financing led by Mpower Pictures, the company started by President John Shepherd, Stephen McEveety, and Todd Burns. Additional financing came from

Blackwater founder Erik Prince.

Critical reception

The Stoning of Soraya M. received generally mixed reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 58% approval rating, with an average score of 6 out of 10, based on 85 collected reviews. Its consensus states: "The Stoning of Soraya M. nearly transcends its deficiencies through the sheer strength of its subject material, but ultimately drowns out its message with an inappropriately heavy-handed approach." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, gives the film an average score of 50 based on 20 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".