Cutting Through Rocks
Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni
Resistance is an art – no one has mastered it better than Sara Shahverdi: in her village in northern Iran, she has long been known as a troublemaker for standing up for herself and other women against local patriarchy. That she becomes the first woman to win the election as village head is a sensation; less surprising is that she immediately begins to turn the village on its head. The documentary follows her closely as she prevents forced marriages and teaches girls how to ride motorcycles. She wants to give them a bright future. This soon makes her a thorn in the side of conservatives, who resort to devious means to stop her success.
Shot over more than seven years, the documentary by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni shows the ongoing struggle for women’s rights in Iran from a new perspective and places its trust in hope and optimism.
2 May 2026
18:30 h, Elysee 2 im Festivalzentrum
More information
| Direction | Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni |
| Country | Iran |
| Production year | 2025 |
| Duration | 95 min |
| Language | Farsi, Arabic |
| Language Version | OV with English Subs |
| Genre | Documentation |
| Production | Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki |
| Production company | Gandom Films |
| Distribution | Autlook |
| Cast | Sara Shahverdi |
| Director of Photography | Mohammadreza Eyni |
| Montage | Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni |
| Sound | Mauricio López |
| Music | Karim Sebastian Elias |
Sundance Film FEstival 2025, DOK Leipzig 2025: Audience Award, Oscar nominee 2026
in partnership with:
About the directors
Sara Khaki is an iranian-american Filmmaker. She studied Cinematic Arts at UMB and received her Masters at the New York City School of Visual Arts in Social Documentary Filmmaking.
Mohammedreza Eyni is an iranian Filmmaker. He studied Cinema at the Tehran University of Fine Arts.
Together, the two founded the independent nonfiction production company Gandom Films, which receives funding from the Sundance Institute. They started their shared cinematic project with Our Iranian Lockdown in 2020. Cutting Through Rocks, their longest film production, was released at the Sundance Film Festival 2025 to critical acclaim and won the Grand Prize of the Jury for World Cinema Documentary. The film is also nominated for an Academy Award.
Press reviews
"In so many ways, Shahverdi is an exceptional subject for a documentary. A charismatic, bullish and boisterous woman with an acerbic sense of humor, the 37-year-old is fearless and well-spoken. Emblematic as she is of Iran's burgeoning changes both socially and politically, she gives us access into a universal struggle for gender equality." (Gregory Nussen for ScreenRant)
"Sara’s charisma and sheer willpower drive the narrative forward. As she pushes girls to stay in school, dream of careers in medicine, teaching, or engineering, and take control of their lives, her vision becomes a glimmer of hope in an otherwise suffocating social landscape." (Davide Abbatescianni for Cineuropa)
International Feature Film Program
