Tehran, October 2022. An underground theatre group is rehearsing a staging of Lysistrata while outside a protest following Mahsa Amini’s death is growing in strength. Ayat Najafi’s camera is present. His artistic documentary film The Sun Will Rise (Aftab Mishavad) defies all Iranian censorship rules regarding how a woman’s body can be depicted, while wrestling with questions about the effectiveness of art as an act of defiance or the motives of “outsiders” when creating art about the plight of Iran’s women. After the screening, Iranian director, writer, and producer Ayat Najafi will speak with Bill Shipsey, director of Art for Human Rights.

The Sun Will Rise
Drama, documentary
France/Iran, 2023, 85 min.
The film will be screened in Persian with English and Czech subtitles.

In partnership with Art for Human Rights.

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.

Bill Shipsey is an Irish human rights activist, artist event producer and retired Barrister. He is the founder and executive director of Art for Human Rights (formerly Art for Amnesty). For almost a quarter century he has conceived and executed major international artist lead fundraising and promotional events and projects supporting human rights organisations and human rights around the world. He lives in Paris.