A powerful story ruined by a pathetic production. The title is revealing and it cancels the analytic tendencies of the viewer: the movie starts in point A and ends in point B (read the title), stoning is bad, women have less rights than men. Not to mention the tragicomic ending (the movie’s last scene).

There are dramatic events going on today in the world. Take for example the case of Aisha Ibrahim Duhulow, a 13 old girl from Somalia who was stoned to death in 2008 because she reported that she was raped: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/dont-kill-me-she-screamed-then-they-stoned-her-to-death-1003462.html Considering the subject (Iran’s Islamic revolution in the ‘80s) of this 2009 movie corroborated with the present international political circumstances (USA vs.Irak-Afghanistan-Iran) I must say that The Stoning of Soraya M. is a very subtle propaganda movie. I’m dissapointed because the director/writer is not interested (not even trying) in analysing (or understanding) this aspect of Islamic culture and tradition. The whole movie is a hopeless race against the clock (see Die Hard trilogy) with an announced ending.

The stoning scenes in Zorba the Greek or Costa Garva’s Z are anthological. How about the twenty minute long stoning scene in The Stoning of Soraya M.? It’s not a coincidence that producer Stephen McEveety collaborated with Mel Gibson on The Passion of the Christ, where James Caviezel (the journalist) played Jesus. John Shepherd, the second producer, played a role in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. The stoning scene in The Stoning of Soraya M. is just another snuff exercise.