The Patience Stone

In a war-torn, Farsi-speaking, burqa-bearing country, a young, nameless woman is aiding her former-Mujahedeen husband who is in a vegetative condition. Time passes without response, and she finds herself confessing her deepest secrets to him, as if possessed. It’s a penetrating, intimate monologue stemming from ten years of arranged marriage. Atiq Rahimi convincingly depicts notions of female sexuality in Afghan culture, and the ways Afghan women get around them. Thus, he reminds us that the country is much more than bitter, bearded patriarchs and submissive burqa babes. Even the mullah is sent packing because it’s that time of the month… mcv

Atiq Rahimi’s best-selling novel The Patience Stone won France’s most prestigious book award, the Goncourt Prize, in 2008, and has been translated into 33 languages. The movie premiered at and won Contemporary World Cinema in Toronto 2012, and Best Actress at New Horizons in Abu Dhabi the same year. Rahimi also won Prix du Regard vers l'Avenir at Cannes for Earth and Ashes (2003).