Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. “Cutting Through Rocks” opens at Film Forum in New York City on Friday, November 21.
Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s precisely lensed “Cutting Through Rocks“ is a deftly shaped work of cinematic nonfiction that opens with a literal bang, as we cut from a black screen to a middle-aged, headscarf-clad woman wrestling with a metal door that’s become unhinged; eventually she decides to buzzsaw through the surrounding stone enclosure to make it fit back in. It’s an apt metaphor for the formidable Sara Shahverdi, a longtime divorcee in a deeply religious region of northwest Iran — a woman who’s spent most of her life flouting gender norms and giving the finger to convention. The former midwife is also a vocal advocate for the empowerment of women and girls, which includes access to education and an end to child marriage. And, of course, she’s also an advocate for the right to ride a motorcycle, her greatest passion of all.
But perhaps most surprising is that so much of Shahverdi’s family and community admire her, enough so that she running to become the first elected councilwoman in her remote village might not actually be so farfetched. Which is how, while researching female entrepreneurs in their native land, the film’s US-based co-directors first became aware of the strong-willed candidate, and decided to follow the rebel’s unusual grassroots campaign.
Inevitably, the team of married filmmakers got more than they bargained for, and ended up embedding with their heroine and her community off and on for seven years, starting with Shahverdi’s large clan. It’s at her mother’s house that we’re first introduced to her six sisters and three younger brothers (and their extended families), the latter of whom would go on to try to swindle the female siblings — though wisely, not Shahverdi — out of their long-deceased father’s inheritance. That inevitably leads to a showdown that causes such a ruckus that one brother simply hands over the deceptively signed document for Shahverdi to rip up. “Sara rebelled today and started a coup!,” a relieved sister jokingly exclaims.
And then it’s on to the intimate gatherings of supportive female constituents, which aren’t campaign stops so much as they are a wily excuse to spread the girl power word. Shahverdi cautions one rather awestruck crowd that she can’t upend the sclerotic system alone. “You all need to want change.” To another room she orders, “Show of hands, how many of you are truly happy?” After some nervous chuckling, the rousing speech continues. ”People say, ‘Sara, you are the exception. You are different from the rest of us.’ I am no different. If you fight for what you want, believe me, you’re all like me.” She adds that when men ask why she isn’t feminine she replies, “I’m comfortable the way I am.” The demurely covered ladies seem equal parts skeptical and amused.
As they should be. For what Shahverdi doesn’t quite seem to grasp is that they aren’t all just like her. Thrust into the role of breadwinner at 16 when her father passed away, she’d always been brought up to be the son her dad had yet to have. As the last in a long line of sisters, Shahverdi was taught not only to ride motorcycles and work construction — but, crucially, to ignore gender norms. Permitted to go where the boys went and to dress as she pleased, it’s no wonder Shahverdi “felt free.” It was circumstances beyond the nonconformist’s control that allowed her to be “comfortable” in her own skin. A believer might even say it was her “fate,” and Eyni and Khaki’s methodically controlled direction allows “Cutting Through Rocks” to sustain the momentum that some might interpret as predestination.
Shrewdly, however, Shahverdi also makes the rounds touting bread and butter issues like bringing fuel to the village, which is music to voters’ ears. As a former midwife, she’s likewise the only candidate running who’s literally delivered a generation of her constituency — 400 people, to be exact — who in turn rally to the cause, which leads to the unlikely groundbreaker being elected with the most votes. Though naturally the community she serves also includes those she did not bring into the world: the elderly men who’ve long held power and are loathe to relinquish it. And complicating matters further, one of her younger brothers has also been elected, and he’s not about to let his big sister emasculate him in public.
Nevertheless, Shahverdi views her election as a mandate and wastes no time shaking things up. She visits a classroom of young girls and makes them sign a pledge to continue their education. When the male council members refuse to give her the village seal — the only means to stamp official documents – she simply takes it. And swiftly uses it for the paperwork that will finalize a husband’s agreement to split ownership of his house with his wife (now a prerequisite for gas to flow to any residency). When a distraught teacher calls to ask the newly elected official to intervene in the upcoming marriage of a 16-year old girl (already in the process of getting a divorce) she not only meets with the parents, but ends up convincing them to let her take their daughter in.
But of course bold moves prompt fierce backlash – against not just Shahverdi but those who want to follow in her shoes. Or as the uncle of one of the motorcycle enthusiasts who Shahverdi is teaching puts it, “Give girls shoes, just not paths.” It’s one thing for a community to back a woman, another to allow for a feminist revolution. So by the time Shahverdi’s health begins to decline due to stress she’s faced with an existential threat, a challenge to her very identity. It’s quite a lot of drama for one individual to experience. Not to mention two filmmakers to fit on the big screen.
And yet Khaki and Eyni do. Through majestic overhead shots of Shahverdi (and her young girl gang) speeding through the mountain-cradled landscape, alternated with intimate closeups (Shahverdi’s expressive face sometimes speaks louder than her words), we’re brought closer to a world both foreign and undoubtedly familiar. The result of an East-meets-West gaze (the fast-paced editing and Euro-tinged score emphasize the latter) that hits all the right (i.e., liberal) feminist beats. Which actually makes smart sense if the goal is to connect us to a plight halfway across the globe. And besides, as Shahverdi herself concludes after ultimately eschewing sweeping gestures, sometimes “a small step is enough.”
Grade: B
“Cutting Through Rocks” premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It opens Friday, November 21 at Film Forum in New York City.
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