Ayat Najafi

film and theatre director, a multimedia artist

Ayat Najafi is a film and theatre director, a multimedia artist, and a member of the European Film Academy. Originally from Iran, he now lives and works in Berlin. He focuses on interdisciplinary and multimedia theatre as well as experimental and documentary film. A key motif for him is the relationship between truth and performativity. He has repeatedly dealt with the theme of censorship and self-censorship, particularly in the context of Iranian society, and he explores how state repression and cultural taboos influence artistic freedom and personal expression. In the fall of 2022 he led a series of underground theatre workshops during the women’s uprising in Tehran. This work gave rise to a troupe that has been developing its activities in collaboration with international artists in Berlin since 2023. Najafi’s latest theatrical work is the play Women of Revolution Avenue (2025), which is about the resistance of women in Tehran in the face of long-term oppression. His other works include the feature-length documentaries Football Under Cover (2008) and No Land’s Song (2014), which have been screened at more than a hundred international festivals and won numerous awards. His latest film, The Sun Will Rise (2023), premiered at the Venice Film Festival as the opening feature of the Venice Days section. He collaborates with the Berlin theatres Hebbel am Ufer and Ballhaus Ost.