The Patience Stone ( Afghanistan, 2013)

I picked this film when I read this was the Oscar entry from Afghanistan. But apart from the Afghanistan tag in the production company (Along with French collaboration), there is no reference of the word “Afghanistan” in the story line, nor we get to know where the story is set. Just like we don’t get to know the location of where the film is set, we are unaware of the names of the characters. They address others by how they are related to each other or by their occupation. This might be done intentionally or the film maker (Director- Atiq Rahimi) thought it was unnecessary. 

The story is set in a front-line town, which is getting heavy shelling as there is a war going on. The main plot of the story is a man (Husband), wife, their two daughters, her aunt and a stuttering soldier. 

The man (Husband) is in a coma-stage, he has recently taken a bullet on his neck owing to a family conflict. The wife takes care of the husband, hoping that he will get back his senses. With no one to take care of their daily needs, she depends on her aunt. The wife comes to know about the traditional myth about “Patience stone (Syngue Sabour)” from her aunt. Talk to a stone, sharing ones feeling, sorrows, happiness and suffering. The stone will listen to it and one day it will break. 

The wife (Golshifteh Farahani) starts to treat her husband as a patience stone. She starts to say about her early life on how she was bought up by her father, who used to gamble and fight all day with her mother. She shares on how she got married to him in spite of his absence (She will get married to his picture and dagger). She goes on with the monologue on how she was watched by her mother-in-law in the name of purity and the true story behind the birth of their daughters. At one stage she starts to question about how Khadija (First wife) taught Mohammad that he was a prophet. By interpreting Koran the wife concludes that Khadija should be a prophet.

Finally, did the stone break is the climax. 

Golshifteh Farahani is a treat to watch. Owing that she has the large screen space and the talk time, she takes the whole film, with a mere dead role by the husband (Hamid Djavadan).

Country Series – This will feature countries from alphabetical order, A to Z. One film from a country will be written on a weekly basis. This weak is Afghanistan. Next in the series will be from Burma.