The Patience Stone (15)

Directed by Atiq Rahimi

5 Stars

There's an old feminist joke that is very relevant to The Patience Stone.

When God made man he looked at his puny creation Adam and said: "Well, we can do so much better with the next one."

That's a telling jibe at the misogyny at the core of all religions. But the Abrahamic tradition - including Judaism, Christianity and the Islamic faith - has over the years perpetuated the power of patriarchy.

Since many of its original scripts edited out women's contribution to history, it has been central to the culture of resistance to rip away those veils of obscurantism.

Such is the intention of French-Afghan director Atiq Rahimi's adaptation of his own novel, helped in no small measure by the screenwriting skills of Claude Carriere.

The title of the film relates to a Persian myth about a magical stone that delivers those who confess their "sins" from all suffering.

But, unable to take the weight, the stone and new incarnations, as this film reveals, are emerging from the dust.

The Patience Stone is set in an unnamed Islamic state constantly at war, where communities are forced into change.

People challenge convention, even to the point of co-operation and collaboration, especially to ensure the survival of their children.

We're introduced to a young woman (Golshifteh Farahani, recently seen in Ridley Scott's Body Of Lies) with two children who's trying to keep her comatose, wounded older husband alive - not easy, as he's got a bullet lodged in his head.

Beginning as a monologue to a husband in a vegetative state, the film slowly evolves to reveal more than seven veils.

The woman is told that if she prays morning to night for 99 days it will save her husband's life, even though the local mullah won't cross her threshold because she tells him she has the curse.

Not only does this force her to venture forth for help, the prayers over time slowly turn into a confession, revealing things that would normally have her stoned to death.

Apart from the woman being considered secondary to her sons and her arranged marriage proving fruitless, it's an eye-opener on life behind the veil, like learning the tricks of the "virgin" trade.

But the woman develops new experiences and relationships, aided and abetted by her prostitute aunt (Hassina Burgen) who tells her that if threatened with rape, a woman best tell men she's a whore, since men prefer virgins because they don't wish to be "contaminated."

This film will no doubt be attacked as insulting to Islam but in fact it's an insult to every member of the misogynist club.

They should all be strapped in a chair and forced to watch, listen and learn.

Excellent.