The Patience Stone

2012 [FRENCH]

Drama / War

9
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 84% · 61 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 75% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.1/10 10 5706 5.7K

Plot summary

In a war-ridden country, a woman watches over her husband, comatose from a bullet in the neck and abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.

Director

Atiq Rahimi Photo
Atiq Rahimi

Top cast

Golshifteh Farahani Photo
Golshifteh Farahani as La femme
Hiba Lharrak Photo
Hiba Lharrak as La fille ainée
Aya Abida Photo
Aya Abida as La jeune soeur
Mohamed Al Maghraoui Photo
Mohamed Al Maghraoui as Le mollah
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
940.3 MB
1280*546
Persian 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  ar  fr  gr  es  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 10
1.89 GB
1920*818
Persian 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  ar  fr  gr  es  
24 fps
1 hr 42 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by postsenthil 7 / 10

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

Noted Afghan born writer/director Atiq Rahimi adapts his own prize-winning novel to a screen drama in The Patience Stone.It is the story a nameless Muslim Woman (Golshifteh Farahani) caught in the cusp of a fierce war zone in an unnamed country (what could probably be Afghanistan). She is tending to her much aged husband (nameless gain), a wounded warrior who is presently in a vegetative state with no apparent sign of life or senses. Early in the movie when the onset of war is obvious, she packs off her two children to a safe haven. However, she is forced to stay on to look after her husband. A husband whom she had not met even after her marriage. She married a photograph of him as he was fighting for the cause. On his return, the husband turns out to be an oppressive and conservative person in stark contrast to all her dreams. Now, on finding him in a comatose deaf-mute state, she, for the first time since her marriage, feels a surge of freedom. She sees him as the titular mythological Syngue Sabour or The Patience Stone to which one can pour one's heart out without any inhibitions. She feels herself recounting to him her deepest feelings and secrets to a great cathartic and therapeutic effect. The movie, in most part, is a monologue, by the woman played by Golshifteh Farahani, confiding her secrets to her husband. The marvellous actress delivers a stellar performance which is the keystone holding the entire movie together. In a performance that straddles a whole spectrum of emotions, she forges an immediate and compelling connect with the viewers and keeps them emotionally invested in the story.Writer/Director Atiq Rahimi provides snapshots of the social and political conditions of the region. While Farahani's narrative reveals the ultra conservative male dominated society with little, if any, freedom or respect for women, her travails during the ongoing war point to the existential crisis that hounds the populace there.
Reviewed by corrosion-2 7 / 10

Glowing Golshifteh

The Patience Stone is based on an old Persian fable about a stone to whom one can confide all one's problems and worries. Here though the stone is an Afghan man, reduced to a vegetable state by the war. His wife (Golshifteh Farahani) uses his inability to comprehend and talk back to tell him things that she would not dare to say otherwise. With his disability she's been left to feed herself, her two children and continue buying medicine to keep her husband alive. The only job available for an Afghan woman in her desperate situation it seems is prostitution.Atiq Rahimi has directed from his own novel. He wrote the script with the renowned veteran screen writer Jean-Claude Carrierre. It is, I feel, a story best suited to theatre with its long monologues. The film however, belongs to and is carried by Golshifteh Farahani's magnificent performance. This is a very tough role where she has to, for most part, talk to a body lying motionless and unresponsive on the ground, unable to engage in any dialogue. A poetic film which is not for all tastes but which will richly reward those who appreciate its form and messages.
Reviewed by whatalovelypark 7 / 10

Worth watching if you're interested in human behaviour

Universities across the world put forward that humans choose their own partner and marriage, and that everyone is the same as a Western person. Yet we know that this isn't the case.This film presents the life of an Afghan woman, who is in an arranged marriage, and if he dies, she will simply be married off to one of his brothers. It's an environment where there is no love between husband and wife. The film gives a rare presentation of the lives of women in the non-Western world. It's probably the best film I've seen to do this. Actress Golshifteh Farahani does a great job of presenting the material in a warm and likable fashion.It's worth watching and thinking about. A little slow, but very well made, scripted and acted. Very watchable.If you're interested in what life is like for non-Western women, it's definitely worth seeing.
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