Ayat Najafi is a film and theater director, author, and multi-media artist, born in Tehran, who now lives and works in Berlin. The focus of his work is on interdisciplinary and multimedia theater and experimental and documentary film. His art, film and theatre projects are strongly based on research and address gender equality, human rights, intercultural dialogue, ecological and everyday issues. These themes form an interactive thread running through truth, performativity, and possible reality. Najafi has worked on numerous theater pieces, including at HAU Hebbel Am Ufer, Ballhaus Ost in Berlin and the Iranian Artists’ Forum in Tehran. His two feature documentaries Football Under Cover (2008) and No Land’s Song (2014) have been shown at more than a hundred international film festivals and won numerous awards.
 
Ayat Najafi was a resident at Tarabya Cultural Academy from November 2014 to May 2015 and from April to June 2018.