Sundance 2025: Cutting Through Rocks (dirs. Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni) | Review

Cutting through imposing, ancient, and deeply entrenched rocks—it’s no easy task, especially when standing alone against an insurmountable challenge. Even more so when you’re a woman in a rural Iranian village, determined to shake the inertia of a society that oscillates between contentment with patriarchy and resignation to its weight.

But Sara Shahverdi is cut from a different cloth, and the film’s opening scene makes that clear. With unyielding resolve, she rattles a stubborn iron gate that refuses to budge. But giving up isn’t in her nature. She wrestles with the heavy structure, maneuvering it with sheer persistence until she finds a way through. Sara is a fighter—determined, resourceful, and unwilling to ask permission to live life on her own terms. She rides her motorcycle through the village streets, parades behind the wheel of her car, and refuses to shrink herself to fit the mold imposed upon her.

Elected as the first woman to serve on her village’s municipal council—securing the most votes, no less—Sara wastes no time in disrupting the status quo. With a fierce and strategic approach, she wields her new position as both weapon and shield in her battle against patriarchy and the erasure of women’s rights. We watch as she deftly compels the men of the village to legally share homeownership with their wives, confronts a construction manager failing to follow her directives, and visits a school to encourage young girls to pursue their education rather than submit to early marriage. But her mission extends beyond holding men accountable—she is equally determined to awaken something in the women themselves. If men are to be knocked down from their pedestal, then women, too, must unlearn their conditioning. She even teaches young girls to ride motorcycles, away from the watchful eyes of their fathers, brothers, or cousins. After all, “this win is yours, it belongs to you,” she had proclaimed to the women of the village after her election.

But not everyone welcomes her defiance, and Cutting Through Rocks does not shy away from the harsh repercussions Sara faces. The film reveals the contempt she endures, from sneering individuals to judicial institutions that go so far as to question her very identity, debating whether she should be legally forced to undergo a sex change—because how could a woman be this bold, this relentless, this unwilling to yield? The injustice is staggering. And yet, Sara remains a force of nature, her courage seared into every frame of the film.

From behind the camera, filmmakers Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni craft a remarkable work of cinéma direct—striking a delicate balance between observation and immersion. Keeping a respectful distance from their subject, they capture moments of staggering tension with raw immediacy, shaping a film that is at once urgent and deeply resonant. Without ever tipping into hagiography, they allow us to glimpse the wellspring of Sara’s strength. Her father, breaking from societal norms, raised her to think differently, to reject the limiting beliefs she was expected to internalize. He let her ride on his motorcycle, dress as she pleased, and, in doing so, planted the spark that would make her not just a free woman, but a liberator for so many others.

The film’s editing, at times abrupt, leaves certain aspects of Sara’s journey underexplored. Her election, a momentous feat, is covered only briefly—one could imagine an entire film dedicated solely to her campaign and the battle she waged to get there. Yet Cutting Through Rocks makes a deliberate choice: rather than linger on how she attained power, it focuses on what she does with it. And in doing so, the documentary delivers a powerful message about how the change driven by the protagonist can be instilled and, ultimately, accepted by a society resistant to it.

The final scene encapsulates this evolution. Sara takes a group of village girls on a motorcycle ride—not unlike the one that had once led to scolding and punishment. But this time, the parents have been invited too. Because change, she understands, cannot thrive in isolation. It must be forged not in defiance of the other, but alongside them.

Ultimately, Cutting Through Rocks is a documentary of outstanding caliber, distinguished by its gripping and skillful use of direct cinema and its powerful meditation on how change can take root within a community—and, by extension, an entire society.

Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2025, the film is poised for a long and well-deserved festival run. And rightly so.

The Film Fest Report team is an accredited media at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Expect substantial coverage from Park City, Utah, as the festival unfolds from January 23 to February 2, 2025.