Alan in Belfast: Cutting Through Rocks – an emancipating hustler who tries to push back against the stifling patriarchy (Docs Ireland at Queen’s Film Theatre)

The village councillor elected with the most votes traditionally holds the official stamp to notarise paperwork. That’s the rule in this rural region of Iran. But when a women stands for election for the first time, and tops the poll, the men suddenly insist that the oldest elected councillor – a man – should wield the stamp, not the most popular. Nonsense says Sara Shahverdi.

She’s the sixth child – the sixth daughter – in her family, and her father treated her like the son he longed for. She was taught to ride a motorbike, how to use tools, and to dress as it suited her. Sara was 16 when her father died: her older sisters were already married, and she became the breadwinner for her mother and her three younger brothers.

Cutting Through Rocks is a documentary by directors Mohammadreza Eyni and Sara Khaki that offers a rare glimpse of life in rural Iran. The narrative arc quickly establishes that women almost unthinkingly acquiesce to even the flimsiest suggestions of the men around them. Sara stands up to her younger brothers when they try to rob her sisters of their inheritance. She’s a divorced midwife who pleads with girls in the local school to pledge to get an education and achieve their dreams of being doctors and teachers rather than being forced to get married so young.

Fereshteh was one of the 400 or more babies Sara delivered. When she hears that Fereshteh, who was married at 12, is now seeking a divorce, but if successful faces her parents marrying her off for a second time, Sara mediates and gets the parents’ permission for the teenager to live with her. But as the film has already shown in a much more minor matter, parental choice won’t stop other relatives knowing best and violently intervening.

“When you’re ready, release the gas without fear,” Sara tells Fereshteh as she teaches her to ride on wasteland.

While Sara appears to be as strongminded as she is unorthodox – wearing trousers, a hat and scarf to cover herself up and still be able to ride a motorbike – the film shows that the vindictive behaviour of men takes a heavy toll. Overruling her plans for a circular playpark and (re)marking out the land in a square is petty. Rather than attack how she uses her power as a councillor, they instead crudely complain to a judge about her very identity and sexuality. The emancipating hustler who can convince ordinary people to veer from tradition to vote for her, to sign half their property over to their wives, to allow their children to go for a bike ride in public … has limits.

Like so many judicial and quasi-judicial processes at home and abroad, there’s no comeback or jeopardy for those making vexatious complaints and false allegations. A judge suggests that single Sara needs to “get married soon” and “stop helping women as much”.

“To do something unconventional, you have to expect consequences” she muses when a girl is slapped by her uncle for daring to be out on a motorbike. Several times during the 95-minute documentary, Sara allows older men to win arguments over the actions of younger girls. It’s as if even Sara can’t stand up to that tradition.

In the end, facing exhaustion from round after round of push back and attack, her Dad’s empowering influence and hard-learned patience may help Sara accept baby steps over the huge leaps she wants to see in her community.

Cutting Through Rocks is a powerful documentary shown as part of Docs Ireland. Hopefully it will return to the Queen’s Film Theatre in the coming months.