Event

The Patience Stone

Directed by Atiq Rahimi
Dari with English subtitles
1 hr 42 mins, rated R

In a country torn apart by war, a young woman in her thirties watches over her older husband in a decrepit room. A bullet in the neck has reduced him to a comatose state. He has been abandoned by his fellow combatants and even by his own brothers. One day, the woman's vigil changes. She begins to speak truth to her silent husband, telling him about her childhood, her suffering, her frustrations, her loneliness, her dreams, desires and secrets. After years of living under his control, with no voice of her own, she says things she could never have spoken before. Her husband has unconsciously become syngué sabour (the Patience Stone)a magical black stone that, according to Persian mythology, absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. The legend of The Patience Stone also says that when it has absorbed all that it can handle, it explodes, causing the world to end. But, for one brave Afghan woman, it is a risk she's willing to take to unburden herself and be free. Directed and co-written by Atiq Rahimi, based on his best-selling novel.