Movie Night | Football Under Cover
🎬 Directed by: Ayat Najafi, David Assmann
📍 Screening: July 31 at 8:00 PM – Zameen Art House
🎤 Followed by a 45-minute Q&A session with director Ayat Najafi
Festivals & Awards
World Premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival 2008, Perspective German Cinema section
Teddy Award 2008 – Best Documentary, Volkswagen Audience Award
Friedensfilmpreis 2008 – Audience Award
Tehran in April 2006: The first official friendly takes place between the Iranian women’s football team and a local Berlin girl’s team, in front of more than 1000 cheering female fans. The entire stadium is electric, charged with a high voltage of girl power. A couple of men hang around in front of the gates, trying to sneak a peek over the fence. They are barred from entering today.
It has taken a year’s hard work on the parts of both teams of young women to make this happen. But now, after overcoming numerous obstacles, they are really playing. And these 90 minutes are about more than just a football game. Both the desire for self-determination and equality are being expressed here and it is clear: change is possible.
About the Directors
Ayat Najafi was born in Teheran in 1976 and lives in Iran. He studied Stage and Set Design in Teheran, where he participated in a number of different theatrical productions as director, author, actor, and set designer. After completing his studies in 2001, he made several short films and took part in the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2005. FOOTBALL UNDER COVER is his first full-length film.
David Assmann was born in 1978 as the second of five children and went to school in Berlin, Heidelberg, Jerusalem, Santa Monica, and Konstanz. Since 2001, he has studied script writing for the media at the University of Mainz, a course combining theoretical and practical elements from film and theatre studies. Throughout his studies, he also worked as an editor, DJ, and presenter on the monthly “Kinoscop” programme on Radio Rüsselheim. FOOTBALL UNDER COVER is his first full-length film.