Ayat Najafi was born in Tehran. He studied stage design in Tehran, where he also founded a theater group at Azad University in 1995. Since 2000 he has been directing his own works, which have been shown at the Fajr Festival in Tehran and abroad. In 2003 he founded ARTA Atelier, focusing on interdisciplinary and multimedia theater as well as experimental, short and documentary films. In 2005 he participated in the Talent Campus of the Berlin International Film Festival. Together in co-direction with David Assmann, he made his first feature-length documentary Football under Cover in 2008. The film won several awards (including the Teddy Award, Berlinale for Best Documentary) and is successfully touring festivals worldwide. German theatrical release was in April 2008.