NEW YORK, NY.- Film Forum will present the US theatrical premiere of Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s Cutting Through Rocks on Friday, November 21.

Patriarchy reigns in the northwestern Iranian village where 37-year-old Sara Shahverdi—divorced, childless, and an avid motorcyclist—became the first woman elected to city council. Wife and husband team Khaki and Eyni followed Shahverdi's journey over eight years, tracking her inspiring, upstream efforts to subvert economic systems and transform local attitudes (of men and women alike) that destine girls to matrimony and dependence. A midwife and one of nine children, Sara is both deeply connected to the everyday lives of her fellow villagers and a radical lone voice advocating—at great personal cost—for education over marriage, home co-ownership, and girls on bikes.

Cutting Through Rocks premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. It was just awarded prizes for Best Documentary and Best Documentary Directing at the Woodstock Film Festival and was recently named on the DOC NYC Short List of the year’s leading documentary awards contenders.

“[An] intimate observational documentary that becomes a marvel of insight... powerful in its portrait of individual resilience and its indictment of authoritarian regimes.” – Barbara Goslawski, POV Magazine

“A deftly shaped work of cinematic nonfiction.” – Lauren Wissot, IndieWire

“A thought-provoking portrait of an extraordinary spirit… Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s dynamic documentary captures the full force of Shahverdi’s formidable personality." – Phuong Le, The Guardian

“Profoundly inspiring… Eyni, on camera, delivers striking images that elevate simple moments to cinematic poetry.” – Christopher Reed, Hammer to Nail

“A reverence for life is at the heart of Cutting Through Rocks, Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s portrait of a lady pushing personal and political boundaries in rural Iran. Needless to say, Shahverdi is a badass.” – Marya Gates, RogerEbert.com

Cutting Through Rocks (2025, 95 min.) Directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni. Producers: Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki. Cinematographer: Mohammadreza Eyni. Editors: Sara Khaki, Mohammadreza Eyni. Iran / Netherlands / USA / Germany / Qatar / Chile / Canada. In Azeri Turkish and Farsi with English subtitles.