Paris (France) (AFP) - In her play "4211 Kilometers", director Ayla Navidi narrates the life of an Iranian family in exile in France. She bears witness to the difficulties faced by those who chose to emigrate from their country, but she is also determined to "convey the voice" of the Iranian people who are struggling today to "live free."

Published on: 02/09/2026 - 13:39

After the play won two Moliard Awards in 2024, the awards that crown the best theatrical works in France, it will be shown again in Paris until March 28, with a second team of actors touring throughout France.

The play tells the story of Yalda, who was born in France in 1981, shortly after her parents Fereydoun and Mina Farhadi arrived in this country as political refugees who resisted the Shah’s regime in Iran and then fled the country with the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

The work is like an autobiography of the French-Iranian writer who wrote the play and performs it alongside five other actors.

The play, in which the present intersects with “flashback” moments from the past and is interspersed with historical evocations, talks about the difficulties of estrangement, and addresses issues of uprooting, identity, and the longing to return.

It derives its title from the distance between Tehran and Paris.

“Since its inception in 2021, the play has always been an echo of events in Iran,” said the 41-year-old writer, who was interviewed by Agence France-Presse.

The situation in the country was depicted when the “Woman Lives Freedom” movement was established, which was launched in 2022 following the death of the young woman, Mahsa Amini, while she was arrested by the morality police for not adhering to the strict dress code of the Islamic Republic.

The writer believes that she bears "more than ever...a cultural and political responsibility" after the "massacre" that Iran has witnessed in recent weeks.

"shock"

The latest protests began at the end of December against the backdrop of deteriorating living conditions, and quickly turned into a movement raising slogans against the Islamic Republic.

The authorities responded with a bloody repression campaign that left thousands dead, according to human rights organizations confirming that the authorities wanted, by completely cutting off the Internet, to hide the extent of the repression.

Ayla Nawidi tells the audience at the end of the performance, “Presenting this play today is an act of cultural resistance in the face of what is happening in Iran.”

She stresses the need to “convey the voices of Iranian women and men” who are “struggling to live free,” before showing a short video clip in which the names of those executed by the authorities appear, whether in 2022 or in recent weeks.

Through this work, Navidi hopes to “leave a mark” and “a testimony for history” because “the truth about dictatorships is that they erase writings.”

Therefore, “it is important to document and narrate the paths of those who left in 1980, 1981, and 1982,” those who stayed and were “imprisoned or executed,” and finally those who “also later went into exile.”

She still has relatives in Iran about whom she feels “extreme anxiety” and “shock.” She says that she longs to "return" to Iran, which she has never been able to visit, but only "to a free Iran."

© 2026 AFP

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