The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009)

FALSELY ACCUSED Mozhan Marno in The Stoning of Soraya M.

The protests currently galvanizing Iran don't focus on ending the barbaric custom of stoning as a punishment approved by Islamic law. But a reasonable person might well add the issue to the agenda after enduring this at times unbearably violent agitprop drama, based on the true story of an Iranian woman stoned to death after being falsely accused by her husband of adultery. The Stoning of Soraya M.'s drawn-out torture sequence is harrowing and lurid. Curious casting: Jim Caviezel, who himself endured onscreen torture as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, plays the journalist who reports the crime to the world. B