The Stoning of Soraya M.

In the desolate Iranian village of Kuhpayeh, a journalist (Freidoune) finds himself stranded due to mechanical troubles. His chance encounter with Zahra sets him on a perilous journey as she recounts the gut-wrenching tale of her niece Soraya's brutal demise by stoning just a day prior. The journalist and Zahra sit down as she shares her story, while he meticulously records their conversation. As the narrative unfolds, Freidoune is drawn into a web of deceit and oppression that threatens to consume them both.

At the heart of this tragic tale lies Ali, Soraya's abusive husband who seeks to rid himself of his wife to marry a 14-year-old girl. His Machiavellian tactics involve manipulating the village's influential mullah by leveraging secrets from Ali's troubled past as a convict. This carefully constructed scheme allows Ali to persuade the mullah to pressure Soraya into granting him a divorce, conditional upon saving the young girl's father, a doctor sentenced to death for an unspecified crime.

Ali's ultimate goal is to eliminate Soraya and gain control over her two sons. When a woman passes away, Ali seizes the opportunity to orchestrate a chain of events that will ultimately lead to Soraya's downfall. He convinces Zahra to persuade Soraya to care for the widower, only to exploit this situation by spreading malicious rumors about Soraya's supposed infidelity. His plan is to discredit her and then have her stoned, thereby freeing himself from child support responsibilities.

Ali, the mullah, and the mayor conspire to destroy Soraya's reputation by manipulating the widower into backing their fabricated story of adultery. The journalist watches in horror as Ali publicly humiliates Soraya, beating her and falsely accusing her of infidelity. Zahra intervenes, pleading with the mayor to spare her niece's life, even offering to take her place. However, despite her desperate efforts, the conviction stands, condemning Soraya to a terrible fate.

As Freidoune struggles to escape the village and share Soraya's tragic story with the world, he finds himself entwined in a complex web of corruption, deceit, and oppression that threatens to consume them both. The journalist must now navigate this treacherous landscape to bring Soraya's tale to light and expose the dark underbelly of this remote Iranian village.

As the merciless ritual unfolds, Soraya's father is granted the first opportunity to exact justice, but his aim falters repeatedly, a poignant harbinger of the tragedy that awaits her. A beseeching woman in the crowd implores the mayor to heed the warning signs – the stones missing their mark – suggesting Soraya's innocence, yet the male-dominated throng remains deaf to her pleas. It is Ali who takes up the mantle of justice, casting the stones himself with a determination that eventually gives way to desperation as his own sons are forced to participate in the gruesome spectacle. The widower, too, is presented with the stones, but instead of hurling them, he turns away in anguished tears, a stark contrast to the cold indifference of those around him. As the crowd finally joins in the stoning, Soraya's life slips away amidst the mindless brutality.

In the present, the widower reveals to the journalist that his car has been repaired, a seemingly trivial detail amidst the grave injustices that have transpired. The mullah and the widower are then confronted by Ali, who announces that he is canceling his marriage plans with the teenage girl, implying that he could not bring himself to spare her father from execution. Fueled by indignation at Ali's betrayal and the mullah's complicity, the widower confesses to having lied earlier. As the journalist prepares to depart, the mullah orders a Revolutionary Guard member to halt him at gunpoint, seizing his tape recorder and destroying its contents. Zahra then appears, holding aloft the authentic recording, her triumphant declaration that the world will now be apprised of the egregious injustice perpetrated serving as a beacon of hope in the face of unyielding oppression.