Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a 2008 drama film, titled The Stoning of
Soraya M. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care. French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam
is traveling through Iran when his car breaks down. He waits by the road for a
couple of hours until a small bus comes by that accepts to pull his car to the nearest village,
Kuhpayeh. All this is seen by Zahra, who has visited the river to bury some bones and clothing
shreds that almost got eaten by the wolves. She rushes back to town to see Freidoune leave his
car with the local mechanic Hashem, who at first does not want to take the job, but changes his
mind when Freidoune gives him some extra dollars. Zahra notices he keeps a tape recorder in his bag
and tries to approach him to tell him the village hides very dark secrets, but she is interrupted by
the town's mullah, Sheik Hassan and the mayor, Ebrahim, who call her crazy and send her away.
The two men are noticeably uncomfortable with Freidoune's presence in their village,
and after asking him some personal questions, they try to get him to have lunch with them,
but Freidoune turns them down and goes to a café alone. There, he is approached by Zahra again,
who throws at him a little paper ball containing a bone and a map to her house.
Freidoune decides to play along and visit her while making sure nobody has followed him.
After sending his niece's young girls back into the house, she makes tea and asks Freidoune to
please listen to her story, which he accepts and prepares an empty tape to record it with.
It all started some weeks ago. Zahra had a niece, Soraya Manutchehri, who was married to an abusive
man called Ali. They have four kids together, two boys and two girls, but their relationship
is non-existent. Ali wants to divorce Soraya so he can marry a fourteen-year-old girl,
Mehri, but Soraya will not give it to him because she can't maintain the family by herself.
Ali tries to get Sheik to talk to her, and when he refuses, he threatens him with revealing to
the village his past as a convict, so Sheik has no other option but to accept. Sheik visits Soraya
at her home and, unaware at first that Zahra is around listening to their conversation,
he tries to remind her of her duties as a wife, which if she can not fulfill, then the best idea
is to accept the divorce. Ali will allow her to keep the girls while he takes the boys,
and Zahra can keep the house as well, but this is not enough for them to survive.
Sheik decides to add a little extra offer then: he can provide for her and her daughters and while
doing so, he can visit Soraya and she can be a kind of temporary wife for him. At that moment,
Zahra steps in and kicks him out after yelling at him for treating her niece as a harlot.
Once he is gone, Zahra asks Soraya about her relationship with Ali, and her answer
is to show her the bruises he leaves on her body whenever he takes what he wants.
Some hours later, while Soraya and her kids are sharing a meal, Ali returns home and yells at her,
saying she has shamed him and made him the town's laughingstock for not accepting the divorce.
He starts talking to his two boys about all they could do if they were able to leave, turning them
against her for not wanting the divorce and not having an ounce of shame when mentioning Mehri in
front of his children. Soraya starts accusing Ali of being a bad husband for wanting to abandon her
and the girls without providing for them, but her oldest son cuts in, yelling at her and telling her
not to speak like that to a man. Ali orders her to clean the table, and feeling furious at the
situation, Soraya throws a plate on the floor, smashing it into pieces. When Ali tells her she
owes him money for that, she finally reaches her limit, so she grabs her girls and tries to leave
the house. Ali hits her twice, trying to scare her into staying, but Soraya stays brave and
leaves with her daughters to stay at Zahra's, who promises to speak to the mayor to get his help.
She thinks she may gain his favor because he used to be into her and even tried to marry her once.
Their talk is suddenly interrupted by Hashem, who comes asking for Zahra's help with his terribly
sick wife, since the doctor is out of town. On the way to his house, Zahra sees Ali in his
car with another woman, but for now, she must concentrate on Hashem's wife. Sadly however,
there is nothing Zahra can do: she is already dead by the time they get there. She spends the night
getting her ready for burial as tradition demands, and in the morning, Soraya comes to help, kicking
out all the women that already trying to take the wife's belongings without respecting her death,
claiming Hashem won't need them. Once she's done with the body, Zahra is called over by Sheik,
who tells her Hashem can't take care of his house and his son alone, so it would be a good idea for
Soraya to help him. Zahra accepts to talk to her only if her niece will get a wage for this work,
money that will only be hers and Ali can't touch. Sheik accepts the deal. As Zahra leaves
the building, she's stopped by Ebrahim, who warns her to watch her mouth or she will get in trouble.
Soraya begins to work with Hashem, quickly gaining both his and his son's appreciation, unaware that
Ali is always watching them interact from afar. Hashem treats Soraya well, and this puts her in
a better mood. She starts making her own clothes and gives some of her money to Zahra, who hides it
and saves it so in the future she can finally have enough to divorce Ali and still support
her daughters. One night, Ali talks to Sheik and tells him he thinks Soraya is cheating on him with
Hashem. The punishment for infidelity is stoning, so Sheik thinks Ali is going too far with these
accusations, knowing Soraya isn't the type to do this kind of thing. Ali just says he doesn't want
to pay for her support and promises he'll find a witness so they can take this to trial, but first,
he is going to start a rumor about Soraya's night visits in their little town. The following day,
while helping at the bakery, Zahra already hears those rumors coming from the other women's mouths.
Soraya has a day off so she goes on a picnic with her daughters and picks up some flowers that she
later takes to Hashem's house as decoration. When he returns home earlier than she expected, he
invites her to stay over for dinner, but she turns him down even after hearing he hates to eat alone.
The following day, Zahra sees Ali and Sheik having a meeting with Ebrahim,
who will only accept to put Soraya on trial if he receives actual proof or witnesses.
Afterward, Zahra tries to talk to him as well, accusing him of plotting with Ali and slapping him
on the face when he implies Soraya may be sleeping with Hashem. After calling him Ali's slave,
Zahra goes to see Soraya and tries to warn her of what is going on, but Soraya thinks her aunt is
just being paranoid. Meanwhile, Hashem is called to have a meeting with Ali and Sheik so they can
ask him about Soraya's behavior around him. These questions make him uncomfortable, and the fact
they offer him a contract he can't read doesn't help matters, so he decides to leave. However,
Ali and Sheik follow him home and threaten to send his kid to a mental hospital or prison if he
doesn't accept to be a witness on Soraya's trial. Not wanting his son to suffer, Hashem gives up and
accepts to lie for them, saying Soraya sleeps in his bed and talks to him as if he was her husband.
Moments later, Ali shows up at Soraya's house and drags her out to the streets, hitting her in
front of a crowd while accusing her of cheating on him. Zahra jumps in and gets between her and Ali,
calling him out for making such a public show out of a private matter. After asking one of her
neighbors to get the mayor, Zahra takes Soraya to hide her in her house, and Ali follows them
there. Ebrahim arrives soon afterward and hears Ali present the proof of Soraya's infidelity:
he saw them touching hands and whispering to each other like a couple while smiling.
Soraya swears she never cheated, and Zahra points out it isn't a crime to be nice to people,
but at that moment, Hashem arrives and tells the lies Ali had manipulated him into saying.
This is enough for Ebrahim to pursue a trial. He, Ali, his friends and sons, Sheik, and even
Soraya's father Morteza Ramazani are allowed to assist, but Soraya herself must wait at home.
A couple of hours later, the verdict is announced by her own father: Soraya has been found guilty,
and she'll be stoned in an hour. When the news reaches Zahra's home, she tries to help Soraya
escape, but there are men outside that push them back into the house. Accepting her fate, Soraya
says goodbye to her daughters by giving them her old family jewelry, and Zahra accepts taking
care of them when she's gone and one day, telling them the truth of what happened to their mother.
In the meantime, the village men get ready for the stoning by picking up rocks and digging a hole.
Even the kids are helping while Sheik gets his beard trimmed and Ebrahim prays to his god,
asking for a sign that he's doing the right thing. Soraya's youngest son comes to say
goodbye as well, but the oldest still hates her and takes his brother away. As Soraya finally
breaks down and starts crying, Zahra tries to offer one last moment of comfort by brushing her
hair and singing a song for her. When the time comes, the two of them walk through the streets
together while doing their best to dodge the angry mob of men that want to insult and hit Soraya.
Once they reach the place where the event will happen, Sheik and Ebrahim once again announce
the verdict and method of punishment, causing the crowd to cheer. They're suddenly interrupted
though, by a group of traveling artists that want to perform in the market, but they're kicked out
before they can do anything. After removing her chador and revealing a white dress, Soraya is tied
up and lowered into a hole on the ground, which is then filled up again until only the upper half
of her body is sticking out and she has no chance to escape. Zahra tries to get between her and the
mob, asking them to let her take Soraya's place, but she's dragged away so the stoning can begin.
The first two stones are thrown by Morteza, who doesn't consider her his daughter anymore,
but he fails both times. One of the women in the crowd considers this may be a sign that she's
innocent, but she is ignored. Ali goes next and his stones do hit, making Soraya cry and bleed.
Sheik goes next, and after him, both of Soraya's sons throw stones at her too. Hashem is also given
a turn, but he can't bring himself to do it, so he leaves the area with his son before the
whole crowd joins in and throws stones at her until she dies. After everyone leaves,
the traveling performers cover her with a blanket. Later in the evening, Zahra and her friends take
the body to leave it near the river while the town celebrates. Back in the present, Freidoune
finishes recording Zahra's story and takes the tape out of the recorder, leaving it on the table,
right before Hashem comes to tell him his car is ready. As they return to the repair shop, they
see Ali driving by and hear him say to Sheik that his wedding to Mehri has been canceled because he
couldn't help her father, which was part of the deal for him to get her hand. This upsets Hashem,
who comments he's lied for nothing, gaining Ebrahim's attention. Hashem admits having lied
and being threatened by Ali and Sheik, and this enrages Ebrahim, who wants to call out Sheik for
it. However, this will have to be discussed later: right now, they must stop Freidoune from leaving.
The journalist ignores them and gets in his car, but Sheik has some Revolutionary Guards
under his command, and they threatened Freidoune with their weapons to make him hand them his bag.
He's only allowed to leave after they destroy all their tapes, but on his way out of town, Zahra
gives him the tape he left at her house. The car starts malfunctioning again, so she gets between
him and the crowd to give him time to get it to take off. Freidoune manages to get away regardless
of the stones thrown at him, and Zahra celebrates the fact the story will reach the whole world.
Freidoune would later publish the story as a book, which has become an international bestseller.