One moment of power

“The Stoning of Soraya M.” is a single-scene film. There’s only one thought on your mind coming in, and the weight of inevitable tragedy will be there as you take your seat and keep you pinned while the credits roll. One scene is where all the film’s power lies.

The rest is as bland as an Iranian desert.

Based on Freidoune Sahebjam’s book of the same name, “The Stoning” is a tale of persecution set in a remote Iranian village that follows the setup, condemnation and killing of Soraya M. (Mozhan Marnò) by her husband Ali (Navid Negahban), the town’s mullah (Ali Pourtash), and the community as a whole. The path to Soraya’s death begins when Ali wants to remarry to a much wealthier and younger girl. To allow this, he needs to remove his current wife from his life. She refuses divorce, which would be accompanied by prostitution to the mullah, so Ali builds a false case of adultery against her. Her punishment for this accusation is the film’s one scene.

It is gruesome and breathtaking and impossible to hide from. Meticulous detail is given to the preparation for the stoning, as Soraya learns her fate and must wait while a hole is marked off and dug, which she will be buried to her stomach in, and rocks gathered. Before they take her out, she promises that she will not cry; as the village’s children click stones together while she walks to her death she holds firm, but when a stone punctures her forward, streaming a line of blood down her face, she bursts into a wail of outrage and fear. The villagers line up to throw the stones, which pass from the hands of her husband, her father and even her two sons.

Speechless isn’t the clichéd response n it’s the only response. But now that time has passed, I have a mouthful of words for “The Stoning.” First, words of praise for attacking not only the practice of stoning, but the subjugation of women and lack of respect for human life that allows such a practice to exist; second, a realization that the film is only as strong as this message. To confuse message with artistry is to inflate “The Stoning.”

Outside of the climactic sequence, there is little else that feels realistic in the film. A majority of fault lies in the characterization of the leading and opposing figures: Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and Ali. The former is the only woman in town to defend Soraya. The main narrative of “The Stoning” is bookended by scenes in which Zahra tells Freidoune (James Caviezel), a journalist passing through the city, what happened. Caviezal and producer Stephen McEveety serve as connectors to “The Passion of the Christ,” which is by far the superior film. Further similarities between the two are obvious and include the overzealous acting of Aghdashloo.

There are few scenes where she isn’t playing the moral compass, as if that was necessary, by denouncing someone in true religious fashion n hands high to damn souls to hell. Such reactions are appropriate given the abuse Soraya goes through, but a state of constant reaction limits Zahra. The emotion she channels is enough to exhaust viewers before the highest outrages are played out, and being hit with the high and mighty right away leaves the film bland, a diluted mixture of melodrama and the news.

But Zahra seems complex at every angle compared to Ali. With eyes constantly narrowed in that evil-and-up-to-no-good way, he is obviously the villain. He might as well wear a placard around his neck that says so. Making Ali a personification for the detestable is “The Stoning” taking things too far. It should be naturalistic. But Ali’s features, including a snake-skinned voice, are so one-sided that he doesn’t seem a person at all. He’s more a cartoon villain with a strong resemblance to Jafar. That’s not good for a movie based on a true story. Ali’s looks are a regrettable mistake, because even without those eyes and that scraggly beard his actions would be more than enough to prove he’s evil; he spends the entire film in deception and abuse.

Ebrahim (David Diaan), the town’s mayor, is the lone well-crafted character. He has doubts, he acknowledges mistakes, he regrets; that makes for believable emotion.

Other aspects of “The Stoning” n from music to direction to cinematography n are mediocre, neither taking from nor giving to the overall. Left over is one brilliant scene in which to pose a cast of stock characters. The level of detail given to the final moments would have made for a better film if more evenly applied. But “The Stoning” is ever focused on one thing, ever about the big picture and what people will think on their way out n if they can manage the words. So it saves everything for the end. That, along with moral weight, makes “The Stoning” so easy to praise. Treating women as subhuman and then murdering them is so reprehensible that the film can base its merits on outrage. Seeing “The Stoning” is already being used as a protest, which, appropriately, is how it’s most effective. Its importance is established in one scene and then outside the screen.

2 out of 4 stars

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