The Patience Stone

An unnamed Muslim woman (Golshifteh Farahani) in an unspecified urban war zone in Afghanistan dutifully cares for her much older husband (Hamid Djavadan), who lies comatose after being shot in the neck. Although the mullah said that the man would recover, he remains unresponsive. Making matters worse, the water-bearer hasn't come, and the wife has no money for medicine. When bombs explode, she and her two young daughters retreat into an underground shelter. Desperate, she evades marauding soldiers in order to seek help from her aunt (Hassina Burgan), a prostitute who observes, “Those who don't know how to make love make war.” Based on writer-director Atiq Rahimi's own 2008 novel, which won the Prix Goncourt (France's highest literary prize), The Patience Stone vividly depicts the grim realities of women oppressed under the Taliban regime. The title hails from a legend about the titular magical rock, which is said to absorb the misery of those who confide in it, until it eventually shatters. The distraught woman returns—day after day—to pour out the painful secrets of her heart to her injured husband. Hesitantly at first, and then candidly, she unburdens her soul in long soliloquies of self-discovery, detailing in flashbacks the harrowing abuses she has suffered, her deceits, and her yearning for romantic love. The compelling performance by Iranian actress Farahani—a real-life rebel, exiled from the Islamic Republic—enhances this profoundly disturbing film. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a "making-of" featurette (30 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a fine foreign film.] (S. Granger)