The Stoning of Soraya M

Set in Iran in the 1980s, The Stoning of Soraya M. tells the true story of a woman who is wrongly accused of a crime and consequently stoned. Village leaders condemn Soraya M. to death for allegedly committing adultery. The accused woman’s husband creates this conspiracy to have her killed so that he may marry a teenage girl. In secret, Soraya’s courageous aunt shares her story with French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam (James Caviezel) who happens to be traveling through the area a day after the brutal killing.

so, I watched this movie the other day, and it.... hasn't left me. You know those conversations, articles, or things you watch and see, that seem to follow you everywhere? I am sure we can all recall a thought that seemed to loop around within our minds, that idea or thought, or some conversation.

Needless to say, this movie has been that for me the past few days.

And I was reading about it, because this movie truly just makes you wonder:

Now that I know this, now that I am aware of this injustice, what can I do about it?

Found this interview of one of the actors in the movie.

Read it! I believe the things he says are fairly powerful.

Caviezel: I watch it as a way of practice. Watching a film, how it’s powerful is -- you don’t have to actually live it out. In this little box in this room where the viewer is watching this movie, he transcends from wherever time period he is in and he goes there and he witnesses it. And his soul goes to the place that it knows, which is cowardice, courage. It calls you out. It knows what you would do before you do it.

Let’s say, you watch a story like this and you would have run. You would not have wanted to have been involved. Some people walk away enraged that that secret is out there now or they will cover and say it’s about something else… exploiting women, or you’re attacking religion. Deep down it comes from another place because what you are in private is who you really are. And others will take it as, you know, I’m a coward. I’m not there yet. I got to be there.

I realized the Church isn’t just about Sunday. It’s seven days a week. The gospels are living out on Tuesday when you find out that someone else at your work was raped and now you’ve got to get involved in it. And it may cost you your own name, you may lose your job. In other instances, you may lose your life. But then I ask you, when do the gospels really become real or is it just a book that we read. Many people now look at it as a place of where it’s Happy Jesus… happy talk. Tell me how I’m going to prosper. Well, I think you may financially sometimes. But let me tell you this much, you can’t take it with you. Even if you could, well I won’t even go there because you can’t. But I think the prosperity that God’s talking about is the one where Heaven gains, not yourself. It’s what you do for Heaven. That’s where you’re going to be spending most of your time, not here on Earth. This is just a trial.

We’re all going to go through these persecutions, but what I’ve found now is that many Christians don’t want this. They’ve molded into this pagan attitude of secularism. It’s what I want, what I need, what I’m about, my things. It’s all about me. So a film like this makes you naked. You realize what you would do. It’s hard because this is a film that is relatively pretty recent. And you know, they still stone. Last month, there was a stoning in Iran. There is a stoning in any area that has Sharia Law. They do these public stonings. All I know is what I’ve got to do. And it’s to get involved.