Cutting Through Rocks

Midwife by trade, motorcyclist by rebellion, and politician by defiance, Sara Shahverdi is a force unlike any her village has seen. In a remote part of northwestern Iran, Sara is the first woman elected to her local council, but it’s after the ballots have been counted that her true revolution begins. Fighting for women’s freedoms, she sparks a fire that stirs admiration, but also doubt — and opposition.

Winner of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Visions du Réel, Cutting Through Rocks is a vérité feat by directors Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, filmed over seven years with patient, razor-sharp clarity. The camera walks beside Shahverdi — not to frame her as a martyr, but to illuminate the quiet, daily acts of resistance that define her. What emerges is a landscape where tradition and transformation collide, solidarity can flicker and fade, and the cost of progress is exacted in shadows. This is not just a portrait — it’s a reckoning with the risks of dreaming aloud.

A dynamic slice-of-life portrait of the lives of women in rural Iran.

Aviva Dove-Viebahn, Ms magazine

A beautifully crafted documentary that celebrates the profound ways in which women like Shahverdi can – and do – change the world around them.

Sara Clements, Next Best Picture

Husband-and-wife team Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni document the first glimmers of social change with honesty, subtlety and guarded optimism, and their compelling film looks set to cut through.

Jonathan Holland, Screen International