TEHRAN – The Iranian documentary “Cutting Through Rocks” by Mohammadreza Eyni and Sara Khaki won an award at the 55th edition of the Giffoni Film Festival (GFF), which ran from July 17 to 26 in Salerno, Italy.

Competing in the Gex Doc documentary section, the movie grabbed the Gryphon Award. It was the only winner from among the three Iranian films shown at the festival, ISNA reported.

The documentary tells the story of Sara Shahverdi, the first elected councilwoman of her village, who aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions by training teenage girls to ride motorcycles and stopping child marriages. When accusations arise questioning Sara’s intentions to empower the girls, her identity is put in turmoil.

A joint production of Iran, Germany, the U.S., Qatar, the Netherlands, Chile, and Canada, the 95-minute movie was the winner of the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the World Cinema Documentary Competition of the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

In “Cutting Through Rocks,” Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni deliver a deeply intimate and quietly defiant portrait of resistance and resilience. Their debut feature documentary follows Sara Shahverdi, the first elected councilwoman in a rural Iranian village, as she attempts to dismantle deeply rooted patriarchal structures and empower young women to imagine a future of freedom, education, and autonomy. 

At the heart of the film lies Shahverdi herself—a remarkable, trailblazing figure who drives a car through dusty village roads, teaches teenage girls how to ride motorbikes, and campaigns against the still-prevalent practice of child marriage. The camera, handheld and unvarnished, stays close to her, never interfering but always alert to the emotional and political weight of her daily struggles. It’s this raw, observational approach that lends the film its quiet power and cumulative tension.

Sara’s charisma and sheer willpower drive the narrative forward. As she pushes girls to stay in school, dream of careers in medicine, teaching, or engineering, and take control of their lives, her vision becomes a glimmer of hope in an otherwise suffocating social landscape. Yet her journey is far from smooth. Suspicion and resentment surround her. When allegations surface questioning her intentions with the young girls she mentors, Sara’s own identity is scrutinized and eventually attacked.

The score, used sparingly and with subtlety, enhances rather than overwhelms the emotional arc. The cinematography, rough-edged and organic, resists beautification, echoing the rawness of the terrain and the social tensions that run through it. Cutting Through Rocks begins with quiet observation, but builds into an emotional crescendo, culminating in a series of painful defeats and existential questions.

The film does not offer closure or easy hope, and therein lies its honesty. This is not a tale of triumphant change, but one of necessary resistance in the face of insurmountable odds.

Ultimately, the documentary stands as both a testament to individual courage and a sobering wake-up call. 

The 55th Giffoni Film Festival was the last under the leadership of its founder, Claudio Gubitosi. Involving upwards of 5,000 young jurists hailing from 30 different countries, the event has once again confirmed itself as one of the most significant international gatherings dedicated to cinema for newer generations.

Selected from 2,500+ titles hailing from all corners of the globe, the winning films reflect the central themes of this year’s festival: identity, inclusion, memory, and freedom of expression. They range between fiction films and documentaries, feature films and shorts, tackling frequently thorny topics with a language adapted for younger audiences and inspiring reflection and self-examination.

The Giffoni Film Festival was born in 1971 from Claudio Gubitosi's idea: promoting and developing cinema for young people, elevating it from the marginal position it had back in those days, and leading it where it belongs, a high-quality genre capable of “penetrating” the market. 

SS/SAB