The Stoning Of Soraya M Ending
Colette
This is a difficult movie to watch, especially the ending. You basically watch a woman as she is stoned to death. The viewer vividly sees the stones striking her, the graphic bloodshed, and all the rest of it is there on the screen. Soraya (Mozhan Marn) had been abused by her husband before this, physically struck several times and verbally abused as well. He has a girlfriend and wants a divorce and his plan is to blame Soraya for unfaithfulness and as the movie reveals, he is successful.
Very graphic stoning of woman by her husband, a crowd, and even her two sons; very bloody and graphic and difficult to watch; husband abuses wife and strikes her several times; bruises are seen on a woman's chest; verbal abuse by husband to wife; human throws a rock at dog; a rifle is held on a journalist and he is shot at as he attempts to flee in a jeep; a corpse is wrapped up and left at lake;
I've never heard of it, but after looking at your link and seeing that it is rated R for a "disturbing sequence of cruel and brutal violence and brief strong language," any kid of mine I let watch it would definitely have to be in their teens at the very least. How far into their teens would just depend on the kid, I guess, and how I thought they'd handle something like that. I can't specify right now as my teen is special needs and my next oldest is only ten (and I definitely wouldn't let my ten year old watch it).
I saw this on Netflix streaming. It is terribly depressing but people need to know that this sort of abuse continues in the world. I wouldn't recommend young children see it. It may be ok for older High School though. It was such a sad movie. I wanted to reach into the tv and take Soraya away from that horror. :(
It's an eye-opening movie. I think it's very important for people to see this so they are aware of what kind of things go on with Sharia (spelling??) law. Especially with the situation going on with the U.S. There are some places (meaning some city leaders) in the U.S. who are proponents of letting Sharia law into the U.S. It should be a required movie for everyone who would be voting for something like that.
I would caution that this film is about the abuse of authority, both secular and religious authority. It does not represent the justice (or injustice) of Sharia law, it shows what happens when corrupt officials deliberately pervert the law for their own ends.
Unfortunately this important film (which tells the true story of a human rights abuse in Iran) does have the potential to fan the flames of bigotry if the corruption and evil-doing of the officials in this story are to be conflated with what is right and just under Islamic law (which it certainly would not be).
For me this film was more about abuse of authority than Islamic law. These men were pigs. I will have my children watch it when they are older teens,esp. my daughter. I have never been much of a feminist, but movies like this make me more so......
My daughter and I will watch it together at some point; we're just not "there" yet. We're very involved with women's charities, and I'm halfway to misandry anyway, so wth. (Present company excepted of course. ;))
One could watch most of the film (being aware of what comes) and leave the end un-watched. What is going to happen is clear. Witnessing the conclusion left me shaken for days and weeks. I would suggest extreme caution.
Well, I am not a big crier/emotional person when it comes to movies. But, as much as I want to see this movie, I know that it won't be possible for me. Too much stress and no way to really internatlize it. I didn't make it all the way through the World Trade Center movie with Nicholas Cage or United 93 and I really had a hard time getting through "Not Without My Daughter"...a Sally Field film. "Not Without My Daughter" was based on the true story of a woman from our area. She grew up near hear, went to high school in our local district, and my dad knows her parents quite well. It was too close to home.
Sigh, this film is so important to our understanding of authority out of control, abuse, etc. but it is very hard to justify the internal chaos watching it causes when no matter what, life has to go on here and one can't be a wreck and get through the next day, week, or month that it takes to get over the horror.
Come on now, of course the film is about abuse of authority but such an abuse (read the stoning)could not have taken place were the punishment not allowed under Shari'a (as interpreted by the population of the village and many others) to argue otherwise is missing the truth.
1. A woman's testimony is only given half the weight of a man's, hence the fact that when there were two witnesses against the victim her guilt was "proven".I always thought Shari'a required 4 for cases of adultry
Your comment about the stoning being unjust is well taken, given the fact that the victim was framed. Were she actually guilty do you still maintain that the punishment would not have been seen as "just" under Shari'a? If so I would like to see your reference.
This was the MOST profound movie I have seen in a long time. Profound and disturbing. I watched it when all the hulabaloo was in the news about that woman in Iran accused of adultery recently in the news. Wow..... I sobbed through the end of it. To see what her own family did to her...my heart ripped apart.
It was definitely about a perverse law and man's sin. I had righteous anger after that movie. I've told many people to see it if they have a chance but I always preface that it is a HARD movie to watch.
Where did I bash Islam? What did I say that was untrue? Personal attacks including throwing accusations and accusing posters of bias without foundation is a poor tactic but it does enable you to avoid a question about an issue that YOU raised and now it seems prefer not to discuss.
I wasn't able to watch it in one sitting -- to desperately sad, too powerful, too inexorable. I watched it over a period of several days. When it finished, I was haunted by it for weeks. When I googled the actress who played Soraya, I was astonished that she was still alive -- the movie was so real.
To me, the most wrenching part was the layers of betrayal -- father, 'husband', even Soraya's own sons, even some of the other village women. And all for no reason. The irony of the only honest man being the 'slow' one. The entrapment in an isolated village. There is just so much here that is universal.
I did not find it as draining as Stoning and would have no issue in allowing older children to watch this one. Again one sees abuse of justice, courage in the face of a twisted system and a very sad ending. Potentially a very useful film when studying the Nazis. (For younger children the only really disturbing visual comes in the last minutes of the film)
The visual violence (in Sophie) is really only the last 3 minutes and it is not bloody or animated, it is more a sense of what is to come. The majority of the film involves conversations, it is sad....very sad but one of those films that I personally think people should see.
Stoning gets fairly graphic for the last 15-20 minutes plus violent episodes interspaced throughout, but again I think people should see that too. Given the comments (many echo what I too feel) we will certainly wait till the children are able to deal with that film.
We know what will happen. Part of the reason that the movie is powerful is that we see how a terrible confluence of circumstances leads inexorably to the final scenes. The movie was profoundly disturbing from beginning to end.
The Stoning of Soraya M. is based on a true story and a book by Iranian-French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam. It is about the stoning death (murder, more accurately) of a 35 year old woman in a small village in Iran during the rule of Khomeini in 1986.
James Caviezel plays Freidoune, an Iranian expatriate visiting Iran on assignment when he runs into Zahra (played with usual intensity by Shohreh Aghdashloo), Soraya's aunt, who convinces him to visit her to listen to her story. He is reluctant at first (seemingly sharing some native attitudes about womens' lack of worthiness), but Zahra's forthrightness and intensity convince him to give her a chance. He turns on his tape recorder and she begins to tell her tale.
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