The beauty of immutable truth commands a certain silence, and this paradox is reason to see The Stoning of Soraya M., which opens today in

This film couldn’t be more timely as our good brothers and sisters in Iran struggle valiantly to triumph over evil.

The Stoning of Soraya M. was originally written by the French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam. Iranian-American Cyrus Nowrasteh and his wife, Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh, adapted the book into a screenplay, and Cyrus directed the movie as well.

The film is set in 1986, as Freidoune Sahebjam (Jim Caviezel) is driving through Iran and his car breaks down outside Kupayeh. A bus picks him up and tows his car into town, where Freidoune meets Hashem (Parviz Sayyad) the mechanic, who is depressed and refuses to work until the next day. Later, Freidoune will know why, but he must get to the border by nightfall, so he overpays Hashem to get the job done.

A woman in black traditional dress approaches Freidoune, asking if he speaks English. She is Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo), the aunt of Soraya M. (Mozhan Marnò).

The mayor, Ebrahim (David Diann), and the mullah, Sheik Hasson (Ali Pourtash), rush in to chase “crazy” Zahra away and sheepishly welcome the stranger who is dressed in western garb. Freidoune tells them that he must work, so they press him. What does he do? Where does he come from? And will he dine with them?

As Freidoune sits alone in a café, Zahra is able to sneak past a watchman to throw the journalist a bloodstained fabric swatch and a hand-drawn map to her home. When he arrives, she says, “Start your machine. Voices of women do not matter in here. I want you to take my voice with you.”

Despite what you may have read elsewhere, The Stoning of Soraya M. isn’t about so-called women’s rights or any of the other buzz words thrown around by political operatives. Nor is it some screed against Islam or Iran per sé.

Zahra died three years after she met Freidoune Sahebjam, and last year, at the age of 75, he died. Now, because of them and everyone who made The Stoning of Soraya M. into a film, we have another compelling proof of the law that is written in our hearts. So, will you take Zahra’s voice with you?

Published at RenewAmerica.com, SperoNews.com, RegularFolksUnited.com, DailyEstimate.com and other sites.

Myrna Sokoloff and David Zucker.

If you couldn’t stomach the thought of seeing Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs or Brian De Palma’s Redacted, consider treating yourself to An American Carol, which opens in movie theaters today. This gutsy satire by David Zucker challenges Michael Moore, Rosie O’Donnell, Barack Obama, the ACLU, the Recreate ’68 movement, the Hollywood establishment and even jihadists, but that’s not the half of it. After all, this Zucker comedy was sophisticated by Republican Myrna Sokoloff.

How did this Republican woman become a screenwriter and executive producer in Hollywood? Well, that was not so easy.

Myrna Sokoloff comes from a conservative Republican family in Connecticut. Yet when she moved to New York City and took a political job during Mayor Ed Koch’s administration, she found a one-party system as she represented Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein in real estate development to the Jewish community.

In 1986, Sokoloff worked on ABC’s star-studded July 4 TV special Liberty Weekend and wanted to switch her career, so the producers told her that she should move to L.A. There, Sokoloff sometimes reverted to politics, such as working on Jerry Brown’s 1992 presidential campaign and as a staffer for Senator Barbara Boxer.

Sokoloff was a Democrat because she thought the DNC represented the downtrodden and the poor, especially women. “However,” she said, “as time went on, it seemed to me that the only [women's] issue became abortion.” Sokoloff deeply loves her family, especially her 17 nieces and nephews. Therefore, she became disturbed that Democrats and liberal women’s groups belittle moms who stay home to raise their families.

As President Bill Clinton was being impeached, Sokoloff suffered another rude awakening. “I became incensed,” she stressed. “If a Republican president had done what he did, the women’s groups would be out there protesting and saying he had victimized a young woman–but it was all about being Democrat.”

Shunned by the liberal sisterhood for her insights, suddenly Sokoloff was lonely. In solitude, she began listening to Rush Limbaugh because he made her laugh. Indeed, reality was over the top, so why not try to cure certain ills with comedy?

By 2004, the master of questionable taste and former Hollywood Democrat David Zucker befriended Sokoloff through the Republican Jewish Coalition. (Zucker’s long list of hits includes Airplane!, all three Naked Gun flicks, Ruthless People, and Scary Movie 3 and 4.) Appalled by the far-left reaction to the September 11, 2001 attacks on America, he and Sokoloff produced political TV spots, starting with the Club for Growth’s “Kerry Flip-Flop.”

Over the course of four years, Sokoloff and Zucker then wrote An American Carol with liberal Lewis Friedman,* who was “willing to sell his soul” for longtime friend David.

An American Carol is loosely–and they mean loosely–based on the Dickens masterpiece A Christmas Carol. As Grandpa (Leslie Nielsen) celebrates Independence Day, his grandchildren plead for a patriotic story. Grandpa takes them to MooveAlong.org’s annual Hollywood extravaganza, where indie filmmaker Michael Malone (Kevin Farley) is awarded for his boisterous ode to Cuba’s commie “health care,” but depressed because Die, You American Pigs! is a box-office bomb. Consequently, Malone cannot finance his feature debut, Fascist America, or muster much enthusiasm for his latest cause celebre to abolish the Fourth of July tradition. When a terrorist cell leader and his sidekicks (take that literally) come upon Malone, whose America-bashing documentaries are intensely popular in the Middle East, they see him as Allah-sent and tempt him with $10 million to make their next suicide-bomber recruitment video.

After Malone refuses to attend his nephew Josh’s (Travis Schuldt) July 4 family picnic, the ghosts of JFK (Chriss Anglin), General George Patton (Kelsey Grammer), George Washington (Jon Voight) and the Angel of Death (Trace Adkins) offer him redemption.

Most scenes are fearlessly funny slaps at leftwing and jihadist lunacy, but they are cringe-free laughs because providence protects the open-souled. Still, two of Sokoloff’s favorite parts are seriously personal.

In the movie, Malone sees his nephew depart for combat. Sokoloff wrote that scene to honor all American military families. The day after Zucker cut the scene, he told Sokoloff that it choked him up because the character Josh represents everything good about America. I never expected to fight tears during a Zucker comedy, but Sokoloff got me too.

There is also the matter (or should I say immaterial?) of faith in An American Carol. Sokoloff earned her degree in religion and philosophy at Boston University. “And,” she said, “I also have a master’s degree in Jewish education from Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. So there’s a whole other part of me that you didn’t know about.”

Thus, another one of her favorite scenes is Michael Malone’s encounter with George Washington, who tells him, “When you meet the Almighty, only truth will do.”

“We always had the whole scene in there,” said Sokoloff. “It’s a serious scene, there’s no way around it and David always had a problem with having this serious scene in a comedy. So we agonized over how to make it work. Actually, Jon Voight loved the scene and he added his own lines–the ones about freedom of speech and religion. When Washington takes Malone to St. Paul’s Chapel, it sets up Malone for the fact that he will face his own death… And unless you believe in your own death, you have no chance of redeeming yourself.”

I have a few reservations about An American Carol, most importantly the point where the ghost of Patton tells Malone that we have to give up some freedom for safety. I discussed this with Sokoloff, explaining that various acts of Congress and executive orders unconstitutionally license the U.S. government to invade our privacy, and arrest and prosecute individuals without cause. Related creepy developments include widespread video cameras and airport photo scanners that penetrate travelers’ clothing.

Sokoloff replied, “It is a concern, but in this time when things are dangerous–during the times when we were at war, under Lincoln, under Roosevelt, rights were curtailed for the safety of everyone–and I don’t mind being searched if it’s going to catch somebody with a bomb who would get on a plane with me and 300 other people.”

All things considered, An American Carol is thoroughly entertaining, just when we need some good laughs–and reason for hope.

Published by The American Spectator. Copyright © 2008. All rights reserved by author and publisher.

*After publication of this article, Sokoloff explained that Friedman joined the screenwriting team shortly before the movie was filmed.

Kirk Cameron in Fireproof. Photo by Todd Stone. Courtesy of Sherwood Pictures (c) 2008.

Most Hollywood movies disappoint us with anti-heroes, but Kirk Cameron comes to the rescue in Fireproof: Never Leave Your Partner Behind, a Provident Films/Sony BMG release due in American movie theaters on September 26.

In Fireproof, Cameron stars as Captain Caleb Holt, a brave firefighter who saves strangers from peril. Nevertheless, after Caleb nearly dies while rescuing a child, he says, “The newspaper called me twice wanting an interview. Seems I’m a hero with everybody in the world, except my wife.”

Fireproof is the third feature film written by brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick of Sherwood Pictures in Albany, Georgia – a project of Sherwood Baptist Church where they are pastors, producers and directors. Their last film, Facing the Giants, was panned by some critics, but popular among Christians. Fireproof has a few moments characteristic of low-budget independent films, but it should duly impress everyone. It’s got gripping action, adventure, love and comedy.

Stephen Kendrick said, “We’re not going to Hollywood trying to win an Academy award. We are in the trenches, working with couples on a day-to-day basis.” So, instead of the usual fiction where boy-meets-girl, they sleep together, quarrel and somehow end up together, Kendrick said, “We decided that we wanted to take the audience on a journey of what’s really going on in marriages right now.”

Cameron makes it easy to admire the Capt. Holt, who leads his men with valor and good humor. At home, however, Caleb has spiritually abandoned his wife to obsessions such as internet porn. When she wants a divorce, Caleb’s father (Harris Malcom) challenges him to “The Love Dare,” a 40-day rescue plan for his marriage. Since Caleb thrives on challenge, he accepts the dare.

Despite the beauty of the plot, it has overtones that the husband is more to blame than the wife. However, as Caleb humbles himself to Catherine (Erin Bethea), obviously both spouses are responsible for their marriage. Day after day, Catherine turns a cold shoulder to Caleb as he nobly tries to rekindle her faith in him. Worse yet, she betrays him to her coworkers.

Thus, Kendrick explained, “The initial reaction is that people care about Caleb ’cause he’s trying, but Catherine is hardened. But we said, let’s be as real as possible and then, ultimately, at the end of the movie, does the audience care about them getting together?”

Alex and Stephen Kendrick with director of photography, Bob Scott (center). Photo by Todd Stone. Courtesy of Sherwood Pictures (c) 2008.

Kendrick has noticed that wives usually take the first steps to salvage troubled marriages, but often husbands are oblivious. He stated, “There is a male tone in our movies to help men. Alex and I are very passionate about that as we’re working with men… If the men are willing to step up and be men and pour back into the relationship – that is one of the keys to saving marriages.”

Even though this movie deals with widespread crises such as addictions to porn, Fireproof is artfully made so that adults get the big picture and children don’t lose their innocence. After all, Kendrick said, “We know that this will end up in the DVD library of families and, during nap time, a seven year old may get it out and watch.”

Former teen idol Kirk Cameron walked away from typical Hollywood productions long ago, but the role of Capt. Holt is perfect for him in so many ways.

In real life, Cameron starred as Mike Seaver in ABC’s sitcom Growing Pains. Despite the adoration of millions of fans, 17-year-old Cameron was empowered through humility. At the height of his fame, young Cameron the atheist wondered, “If I die today and find out there’s a god, is he going to be impressed with my celebrity like everyone else?” That question changed everything in his life.

He said, “It’s a whole convoluted web of twisted things in the entertainment industry. And when you try to take a stand, there’s a cost to it.”

Kirk Cameron and Erin Bethea in Fireproof. Photo by Hayley Catt. Courtesy of Sherwood Pictures (c) 2008.

That cost includes the challenge of romantic roles. Cameron said, “I love my wife. I promised to love and cherish her to the exclusion of anyone else. A lot of actors will justify a lot of stuff in the name of art. I don’t feel that way, so I won’t kiss any other woman other than my wife. I’ve had that conviction for years. And in this movie, there’s that touching and romantic scene where Caleb and Catherine come to some resolve in their marriage and Chelsea came in and played the role of Catherine in silhouette. How can you do a movie about marriage and your life without holding true to that?”

Indeed, Cameron has had that conviction for years. Once he became a Christian, Cameron wanted no part in leading anyone to sin, so he fought to remove sex scenes from Growing Pains – and often he won. Consequently, some ‘where are they now’ TV retrospectives mock Cameron as if his beliefs ruined the sitcom. Therefore, Cameron wrote his memoirs, Still Growing. Among the fascinating details, for 17 years Cameron has been happily married to Chelsea Noble, the actress who played his Growing Pains girlfriend, and they have six children.

Now Cameron is so committed to Fireproof that he volunteered his talents like the rest of the actors in this ego-free indie production. He said, “Love is not a feeling, it’s a commitment. Love is a promise and love is an action… What struck me most about Fireproof is they hit the bull’s eye on the issues that people struggle with in marriage. I think that people are going to say, ‘I’ve been there. That’s me. That’s my life. That’s my relationship on several different issues.’”

Cameron’s instincts were proven true by my friend Linda, a divorcée who saw a pre-release screening with me. As both of us wept at the conclusion, she said, “That’s exactly how it is.”

In the end, people do want Caleb and Catherine to triumph in love. As Cameron said, any man would “give his right arm” to hear what Catherine eventually tells her husband and it is profound in its simplicity – so profound that grown men cried too. 

There is much more to the story of Fireproof: Never Leave Your Partner Behind. See the preview and find a theater at FireproofTheMovie.com. 

Copyright © 2008 Anita Crane. All rights reserved. This story may not be rewritten, republished or otherwise redistributed without prior written authority by the author. First published by SperoNews.com on Sept. 25, 2008. Updated for DVD release and published Feb. 2, 2009 by CatholicExchange.com.