The film opens with Freidoune (Caviezel) breaking down in his car on his way to the border. Spending unwanted hours in a small village, he is approached by Zahra (Aghdashloo), a woman the villagers try to shoo away as they call her crazy. But Zahra has a terrible secret. She does all she can to get word to the journalist about a terrible injustice committed in the village the previous day when her niece, Soraya M. (Mozhan Marnò), falsely accused of adultery by her cheating husband, Ali (Navid Negahban), was stoned to death per Islamic law.

Stoning’s premise, repeated with numbing regularity around the world today, is made all the more pressing by the masses of Iranians protesting in the...

The film opens with Freidoune (Caviezel) breaking down in his car on his way to the border. Spending unwanted hours in a small village, he is approached by Zahra (Aghdashloo), a woman the villagers try to shoo away as they call her crazy. But Zahra has a terrible secret. She does all she can to get word to the journalist about a terrible injustice committed in the village the previous day when her niece, Soraya M. (Mozhan Marnò), falsely accused of adultery by her cheating husband, Ali (Navid Negahban), was stoned to death per Islamic law.

Stoning’s premise, repeated with numbing regularity around the world today, is made all the more pressing by the masses of Iranians protesting in the streets today while the brutal Basij militia tries to beat them into submission. If a nation thinks nothing of stoning women to death for the “crime” of adultery while killing peaceful protesters, it takes no imagination to think of what they will do when in possession of a nuclear bomb.

With a cast and crew of Iranian expatriates making a film about life in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nowrasteh could have easily settled for a selection of traditional Persian folk music. This would have been true to form, but likely would have missed the opportunity to tightly tailor the music to the requirements of film while appealing to wider audiences. It is interesting to see that Debney worked on “Passion of the Christ” (for which Debney was nominated for an Academy Award) along with Caviezel five years ago. Clearly Debney has developed a talent for producing Mideast-themed music for the big screen.

Cyrus Nowrasteh’s “The Stoning of Soraya M.” could not have come at a better time for the world. While Iranians struggle to transcend tyranny and most Americans, including our President, remain rooted in inaction, Stoning proves that Hollywood’s capacity to combat evil is still intact.

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cdevore/2009/06/22/review-stoning/