In the blistering hot Iranian deserts, an honest and dutiful mother is harassed by lies, rumors, and accusations. As the sands of time gradually fall, Soraya finds her life imminently moving towards an undeserved end, for behind the sparkling golden dunes of Iran crawl secrets that the world must never know... here, Soraya will soon be another of these secrets.
It's a small village set remotely in the middle of sandstorms and dust, no traces of magic carpets or genie lamps to be found. Maybe if she had this fiction, her life would have been saved. Saved from the government of men and men only. In Iran, women have no rights. No rights to protest, no rights to protect themselves, no rights to prove the men wrong. If a man accuses a woman, she must prove him wrong. If a woman accuses a man, she, too, must provide evidence. Due to this, the women's drive for their rights is not passionate and fiery but lukewarm and dim.
Allow me to introduce the characters before moving on with the story.
- Soraya - honest mother who loves her two daughters and two sons dearly
- Ali - Soraya's abusive husband, a shady fellow who resorts to low tactics in order to divorce and marry another
- Zahra - Soraya's protective and loving aunt, also the narrator of the story (she informs the French journalist of what happened to her niece)
- Hashem - a man Soraya works for after his wife dies
- Hassan - the village mullah
- Mayor - the mayor of the village
- French journalist - passes through the village a day after the incident, stops long enough for Zahra to tell Soraya's story
I dare say the beginning of the story is already explained through the character introduction! A French journalist, supposedly the author of the book the movie is taken off of, stops in the village and is approached by Zahra. She pursues him in order to tell him what had happened the previous day. That is Soraya's story.
Ali wishes to divorce Soraya in order to marry the daughter of a wealthier family. Soraya, however, refuses, saying that he has a duty to his wife and children. Ali and Hassan begin a plot to aid the divorce. Soon after, Hashem's wife dies, and Soraya ends up working for him in his household. Ali suspects that Soraya is practicing infidelity with the widower, an accusation that is not true in any way. Hashem knows this, yet, threatened by Ali, admits that Soraya had been sleeping in his house and saying things that "only a husband should hear." As it is men spouting the lies, Soraya cannot win her innocence in the so-called crime. As a result, with everything against her, the town convicts her of adultery. Those who want to help her cannot. Those who can will not.
The crowd forces Soraya into a vulnerable pose, wrists and ankles tied together. Stones that either whiz past her or mark her body red create Death's symphony. With every hit, you hear the woman's grunt and the dull thud of rock meeting fragile skin. Then crimson leaks out, juxtaposed against the white garments adorning her pitiful frame. Father, husband, sons... they all take their turn, and, soon enough, she collapses. Her eyes, glazing over, roll up, as if pleading the heavens for release, a sign that she is still alive. A sign that continues the pelting and the pain... and Soraya dies amid the golden dunes she had called home. Her hourglass no longer trickles. The body will turn chilled despite the sweltering heat of the Iranian sun. Soraya is now the newest addition to Iran's collection of secrets.
Of course, Zahra does not plan on letting those secrets remain as simply secrets. She pushes the responsibility of truth onto the French journalist. He escapes the village unscathed, ready to let the whole world know what has happened.
Ha, well, I enjoyed writing the above passage. If it sounds cheesy, tell me. I'll have to work on it. It's a rather saddening and distressing death because you know it is not fair. But what's fair in this life we have? If we do not have this "fair" then we should be striving to achieve it, no? It does not seem like Iran is doing its best job at it.
More on the movie, I think the acting was rather believable, although the ending where Zahra screamed that "the world will know what happened" seemed a tad forced. Otherwise, I commend some of the spine-chilling lines in the film, like "with every stone you throw, your honor returns!". Is that not rather scary? You can even imagine the despair Soraya must have felt once the mullah uttered those words. I also found the moment where Zahra was shrieking Soraya's innocence and begging the others to release her to be tear-jerking. Coupled with a scene where a woman claimed the missing stones (at first, they did not hit their target...I believe Soraya's father was not throwing seriously because he still felt an attachment to his daughter. That, or he was growing old and senile and could not aim well. Your choice.) to be a sign that Soraya was not guilty, you found yourself becoming desperate for Soraya's freedom. Yet, really, you shouldn't have hoped for that, because it should have be given that Soraya would die from stones. In the end, it'd just be crushed hopes and indignation.
In addition, I learned that the book this movie was based on is banned in Iran. :)
