EXCLUSIVE: In the award-winning documentary Cutting Through Rocks , tears come to the eyes of Sara Shahverdi as she reflects on intense pressure she has faced for flouting convention.

“They want me to be somebody I am not,” she says. “They want to change me.”

Shahverdi is a maverick in conservative Iran — a divorced, motorcycle-riding former midwife and the first woman ever elected to a local council in her country. The documentary about this extraordinary woman, directed by Iranian American filmmakers Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni , has won awards around the globe beginning at Sundance, where it earned the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. It was just named to the DOC NYC shortlist of the year’s best documentaries.

Cutting Through Rocks , from Gandom Films Pr

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