Cutting Through Rocks

An energetic, inspiring, and feminist portrait of Sara Shahverdi, who defies gender roles and social boundaries in the fight for girls’ rights in Iran.

The film opens with a jolt: a cut from darkness to Sara Shahverdi wrestling with a metal door that has fallen off its hinges — an image as physical as it is symbolic. In a strictly religious region in northwestern Iran, she fights against child marriage, for girls’ rights, and for women’s political voice. With the camera close at hand, Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni capture her daily life as she rides her motorcycle, mediates conflicts, and refuses to be silenced. The result is an intimate, hopeful, and relentlessly driven portrait of courage in action.

• Sanjin Pejković