The Patience Stone

Afghan exile Atiq Rahimi teams with veteran screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière for this adaptation of his own award-winning novel. As with Rahimi's 2004 feature debut, Earth and Ashes, the story revolves around a confession. But the husband (Hamidreza Javdan) cannot hear a word his wife (Golshifteh Farahani) is saying because he is in a coma after being shot by a brother jihadist in a petty squabble. Furious at being deserted by his family and comrades, and left with nothing after a decade of marital servility besides two daughters and a bombed-out house, the wife vents her frustrations in a series of monologues whose critique of traditional patriarchal Islamic values will provoke more fury than her unchaperoned encounters with a bashful soldier. Farahani is no stranger to controversy and plays her part to perfection. Thierry Arbogast's lustrous photography and Erwin Prib's evocative, claustrophobic sets are equally impressive. But it's Rahimi's courage as both writer and director that makes this intense and perceptive picture so unflinchingly compelling.