The craven community is persuasively created, the stages through which the atrocity escalates are convincingly handled and the climactic killing is almost unwatchable in its intensity.
The film risks vanishing without trace or fanfare. Please make sure it doesn’t. See it and tell your friends to see it
The group psychosis is chilling, but the film itself is uncertainly handled, and the syrupy-sorrowing music is misjudged.
American-Iranian writer/ director Cyrus Nowrasteh’s approach is hardly subtle, favouring didactic dialogue and overblown scoring. That said, a 20-minute stoning sequence possesses the shocking brutality of The Passion Of The Christ.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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