Film Festival Volunteers Share First Independent Film that Inspired Them
This is the first blog post in an ongoing series leading up to our 5th Annual Greater Farmington Film Festival to showcase how our most active volunteers first became interested in independent films. This first film was shared by Ardeshir Irani, who has been involved in helping promote our festival since the 2nd year. He and his family came to our first one and he volunteered as soon as it was over. The film is an Iranian film titled "The Stoning Of Soraya M."
"It is a very disturbing film definitely not for the weakhearted.
I love independent films. Many of them inform, educate and also entertain you in a way regular feature films don't.You get a behind the scenes look at the day to day life of the common folk, their trials and tribulations and how they live and make ends meet.Many of these films spotlight social injustices that mainstream media find uncomfortable or non profitable to portray.The movie that inspired me was a 2009 Iranian film called "The Stoning Of Soraya M."
It is based on the novel "La Femme Lapidee" by Freidoune Sahebjam which in turn is based on a true story. The story revolves around a journalist whose car breaks down in a remote village in Iran and while he is getting it repaired he is approached by Zahra an elderly woman with a harrowing tale to tell about her niece Soraya and her death by stoning the previous day. The two sit down as Zahra recounts the story to the journalist who records the conversation with his tape recorder. He then has to escape with his life to tell the story to the rest of the world.The movie is very well made, the plot unfolds beautifully as you are taken on a journey showing you how an innocent but defiant young woman is wrongly framed for adultery by her own husband who is secretly desiring to marry a younger woman. The final stoning scene is possibly one of the most unbearable scenes in movies that I have ever seen. Officially banned in Iran, the film went on to win numerous awards at film festivals throughout the world."
Many thanks to Ardeshir for sharing how he became involved in independent film! Stay tuned for more inspirational film choices from our Greater Farmington Film Festival volunteers.
