At a recent press event for The Stoning of Soraya M. Cyrus Nowrasteh, who co-wrote and directed the film, Mozhan Marno, who played Soraya, and Shohreh Aghdashloo, who played Soraya's aunt, Zahra, were interviewed. The three interviews totaled more than an hour in length and are excerpted here.

Shohreh Aghdashloo spoke of the way the film came together as something of a miracle:

A little over a year ago Cyrus called and said he had this screenplay and he was wondering how sensitive I am towards the subject. I said, "Never mind my sensitivity. This is a must-tell story. But whoever you have, I've been waiting for you for twenty years." He didn't have a producer at that time. Within a week he found the producers—and what producers! Producer of The Passion of the Christ, Steve McEveety. Within two weeks he went to Jordan for scouting. Never heard of before—in two weeks you don't go for scouting. In ten days he found this village. You could not have found a better place. It was amazing. When he sent me the pictures I could not believe my eyes when I looked, they looked so much like the villages in Iran. In less than a month we were ready to fly to Jordan. A month and a half of filming. Less than a year it went to Toronto Film Festival. Isn't that a miracle?

Each of the interviewees was asked to speak of what they wanted for the film. Mozhan Marno replied:

Having spoken to so many people after the screenings, everyone has a different experience and takes away something unique. I think the film is about corruption, about the abuse of power, about mob rule and hysteria. Then on a more local and dramatic level it's about a woman—an ordinary woman placed in an extraordinary circumstance. I read a review of the film drawing a parallel between this and our own death penalty. I think there's an opportunity to turn the mirror around on ourselves and look at our own justice system. There are so many things you can take away from this film. That's one of its strengths.

Shohreh Aghdashloo spoke of her desire to have the film shown in Iran.

I am so much hoping that people would see it—not only in the capital and big cities, but also in the villages cars cannot get to, but donkeys and camels can. They would put the film on top of the donkeys and camels, send them to these villages, show them on a white piece of material to people who have not seen television yet. That's what I am hoping for—that it will be watched in the countries that most need it to be watched.

When asked what the she hopes the film does there, she said:

Awareness—bring about awareness. Once the information is out—awareness is out—then we can hope for a remedy. Up until people are trying to dismiss whatever happens beneath their nose or sweep it under the carpet—of course nothing happens. When you bring it out and show it to the whole world as Zahra wished, then the remedy will find us rather than us finding the remedy.

When Director Cyrus Nowrasteh was told Aghdashloo's vision for the film, he responded with his own:

I want as many people to see the movie as possible—everywhere. I intended it for an international audience. Obviously, that is the hope of every filmmaker—that people will see his movie and be moved by it. The issue of stoning itself was discussed in the interviews. When asked why he's making this film twenty years after the events of the film, Nowrasteh said:

Because it's still going on. Amnesty International in their latest report—Anmesty International's 2008 report—says that eight women and one man have been stoned to death in the last year. Stonings are going on in Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan. So I see this as a very contemporary story.

Speaking later about the legality of stoning in Iran, he said:

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