Also screens Thursday, October 23 | 1:45 PM | BB
Sara Shahverdi is a badass. In her remote Iranian village, she sticks out like a sore thumb in her signature leather jacket and blue jeans. She lives on her own, which is enough to raise eyebrows in the deeply conservative community, and she loves riding her motorcycle through town. As the first elected councilwoman of her village, Sara is a force of nature who aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions, end child marriages, and empower teenage girls to make their own choices in life (while teaching them to ride). Co-directors Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni tell Sara’s saga cleverly: The first half seems to take place in an idyllic alternate reality where a fearless trailblazer assumes office in a landslide victory and has the mandate to make sweeping changes while spreading compassion, self-determination, and rah-rah feminism, laying waste to the pathetic men in her way. All the while, you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. Many powerful cinematic stories, both fiction and nonfiction, have shown the appalling status of women in Iran, but Cutting Through Rocks is unique and hopeful: The documentary doesn’t focus on a rebel fighting against oppression from the outside; incredibly, it depicts an indomitable woman actually seizing power within a system designed to keep her down. ~OO
