Join Reel Causes at the Vancouver International Film Festival and watch our partner film: Cutting Through Rocks.

Midwife by trade, motorcyclist by rebellion, and politician by defiance, Sara Shahverdi is a force unlike any her village has seen. In a remote part of northwestern Iran, Sara is the first woman elected to her local council, but it’s after the ballots have been counted that her true revolution begins. Fighting for women’s freedoms, she sparks a fire that stirs admiration, but also doubt — and opposition.

Winner of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Visions du Réel, Cutting Through Rocks is a vérité feat by directors Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, filmed over seven years with patient, razor-sharp clarity. The camera walks beside Shahverdi — not to frame her as a martyr, but to illuminate the quiet, daily acts of resistance that define her. What emerges is a landscape where tradition and transformation collide, solidarity can flicker and fade, and the cost of progress is exacted in shadows. This is not just a portrait — it’s a reckoning with the risks of dreaming aloud.

VIFF runs from October 2nd to 12th. Cutting Through Rocks screens:

• October 3rd at 11am at International Village 8
• October 4th at 9:30pm at International Village 9
• October 8th at 3:45pm at International Village 9