The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)

Excellent but underrated film

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The Stoning of Soraya M is based on a true story where a husband (Ali) wants to get rid of his wife (Soraya) so he could go marry somebody else, so they plot to kill her by throwing stones at her until she dies. The stoning scene is certainly not for the faint of heart, it really disturbed and upset me. I hate the fact that women in the middle east are still being treated like this! And they always go on about how they're doing this for god, god wouldn't have wanted any of this! God wants peace and love. Please watch this movie, it is a must see before you die! Also when you finish watching this, tell your friends about this movie and they'll recommend it to their friends as well! This is a story that deserves to be heard.

It was totally engrossing and disturbing (and I mean this in a good way) but it seemed a little simplistic and manipulative. For example, the main bad guys had little nuance - they were pure evil (the mayor was the only character that was interesting). And the stoning scene was just too much. Yes, I understand that this really does happen, and that I should expect this in a movie with this title, but we just couldn't watch the whole, long stoning scene.

To think that people can justify stoning a woman to death, especially in this day and age, leaves one with a heavy heart. But this is from a side of the world when some cut a boy's penis for religious reasons, others mutilate young girls clitoris's and other throw acid at woman or burn them.All of these are subjects that could disgust and audience and give rise to high credit for having brought them to public attention.So this movie undoubtedly gets high praise for the subject matter.But IMDb is a movie rating site. As a movie I felt that this had many shortcomings. It was too long. The story lost impact as it dragged on an on. The actresses, especially the elder one of the leads, seemed to come from the Bette Davis school of over-acting. As someone else put it - in the manner of day-time soap operas. After watching the superb "A Separation" I was hoping to experience another slice of Iranian life. I notice at the end of the movie it said that it was made on location in the Middle East. Iran is not in the middle east, though this particular incident was based on occurrences reported of an Iranian village and some of those involved in the making the movie have Iranian heritage.Will we ever live in a world where such atrocities no longer occur? As John Lennon said - Imagine.

"The Stoning of Soraya", by far is too embarrassing and shameful. I felt deeply sorry for those so called actors and actresses who happened most of them to be Iranian. you just sold your people, your culture and your country for a fist of dollars coming from oil hungry companies who are trying to show a wild image of one of the oldest civilization in earth in order to rob its resources as they did and do in Pakistan, Afghanistan, south America and Arab countries. I would like to congratulate them for doing a job that no Arab, Afghan or Pakistanis dare to do. the countries who are way far strict and fanatic in Islamic rules and this thing happen more often there. but why should western media care as long as the resources are exploited and governments are their puppets? as a person born to an Iranian family, the only thing I share with this movie is the language. I was impressed how someone who was not born in Iran and haven't been even once there, made me so familiar with my country... bravo!