Alin Zerya

ALÎN ZERYA DIRECTOR / WRITER

Alîn Zerya is a Kurdish-German director and writer, born in 1993 and based in Berlin. After working for seven years in veterinary medicine with a focus on reptiles and amphibians, she went on to study photography and has worked as a freelance photographer for nearly a decade. In 2022, she transitioned into filmmaking and produced their shortfilm debut, Blueberry Yam-Yam, which was sponsored by Deutsche DepressionsLiga e.V. Their photography has been featured in magazines such as Perjus, Sabat, and Kaltblut.

Education

Studying Photography at International Academy of Photography Berlin
Focus on: Handcolorization, Editorial Work and Curating

Veterinary Practice & Vocational Training
at Exomed - Institute for Veterinary Care of Lower Vertebrates and Exotic Animals & Practice Dr. vet. med. Frank Mutschmann

Directors Work

Looking For My C(AT)
Shortfilm Trilogy
Writer & Director
(In Development)
2026

No Walls Between Us (AT)
Episode Drama, 300min
Writer & Director
(In Development)
2027/2028

The Exhibition
Fiction Shortfilm, 26min
Writer, Director & Producer
(In Development)
2026

Ji Çavan Heya Dil (AT)
Documentary, 30-45min
(In Post-Production)
Writer & Dramaturgical Advicer
2025

Ji Çavan Heya Dil (AT)
Documentary, Teaser
Writer, Director, Producer
2024

Blueberry Yam-Yam
Fiction Shortfilm Debut
(In Post-Production)
Writer, Director & Producer
2022

Musicvideos

Dunkelheit
by Damian
Concept, Director & Producer
2025

Everything I’ve Ever Wanted
by Sonny Smiles
Concept, Director & Producer
2023

Clients

Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen & Jugend

Deutscher Hebammenverband

Warner Chapell Music

WAIA Agency (LA, California)

Atelier Ellepe (Berlin, GER)

Atelier Kesa (Tokyo, Japan)

Sony Music Entertainment Germany

Nuyike Fragrance (Osaka, Japan)

Last Updated 01.07.2025

DIRECTING

Blueberry Yam-Yam
2022 (DE,kurmançi, french)

Two individuals living with depression. They engage in a meditative mindfulness practice known as euthymic therapy. Through this shared moment, they reconnect with their here and now.

Blueberry Yam-Yam is a film about depression. The emotional state is not fixed, it moves. It comes in waves, it lingers, it hides behind the smallest gestures. I wanted to explore what it means to live with it. To observe. Gently, from the inside.

At the center of the film is a therapeutic exercise called euthymic therapy.
It’s a sensory ritual with food used in some therapeutic practices to bring awareness back to the body. In the film, this takes the form of eating blueberries. Slowly. Quietly. Alone.

Both characters engage in the same act. Separately, but in parallel. It’s not about healing, not even about understanding. It’s about presence. Two bodies, two inner worlds, moving through the same small ritual. A moment shared without words.

I work with improvised performance, body movement, and texture. Blueberry Yam-Yam combines physical expression, dance elements, and experimental sound into a contemporary visual language that leaves room for emotion. I let the body speak where language becomes too narrow.

This is a film about noticing. About holding space.
For yourself and for someone else.

WRITING

★ ABOUT ME

For me directing a film is somewhere between showing people your inner world
and cleaning up after a hundred small disasters you caused by doing so.

My name is Alîn Zerya and I’m a Kurdish-German director and writer born and based in Berlin, with a background in photography and visual storytelling. My work often moves along the edge, between humor and critique, between the visible and the subconscious. I’m interested in tension, in ambiguity, in the moments where things slip out of definition.

Before I came to filmmaking, I spent almost a decade working as a freelance photographer and completed a degree in photography with a focus on the history of photography, hand-colorization, and curatorial practice. That time shaped my way of seeing. It formed my sense of framing, rhythm, and visual atmosphere.

I often begin with an image, a dream, or something intuitive.
THE EXHIBITION, one of my recent scripts, grew out of a dream I couldn’t shake and evolved into a surreal, satirical reflection on the absurdities of the contemporary art world and the strange power games around originality, ownership and identity.

My Kurdish heritage, my queer experience, and my position as both insider and observer in artistic spaces influence the stories I tell. I’m drawn to contradictions and to characters who don’t fit easily into one category. I believe in the political potential of the personal and in using humor to reveal what we often shy away from.

I write in German, and direct in both English and German. I’m currently developing several projects in fiction and hybrid formats, always trying to create spaces where discomfort, unnoticed beauty in details and transformation can coexist.

Der verzweifelte Mann - Gustave Courbet, 1843-1845
Öl auf Leinwand

The Exhibition
Kurzfilm, 26min
(Förderantragsphase)

Bei einer Ausstellung in einer bedeutenden Galerie verwandelt eine unbekannte Besucherin ein minimalistisches Gemälde in ein chaotisches Meisterwerk. Der Eingriff entfacht einen Skandal, der die selbstgefällige Kunstszene in einen absurden Zirkus aus Empörung und Euphorie verwandelt.

Looking for my C(AT)
Kurzfilm Trilogie, 90min
(Pilot “Das offene Fenster”
in Stoffentwicklung)

Was als Suche nach ihrer Katze beginnt, wird für Mariko zur Reise durch surreale Räume, verlorene Zeit und die Frage, ob man sich selbst lieben kann, wenn man von der eigenen Mutter nie wirklich gesehen wurde.

No Walls Between Us (AT)
Episoden Drama, 300min
(In Stoffentwicklung)
2027

Berlin 1991. In einer schwierigen Übergangszeit zwischen zwei politischen Systemen begegnen sich zwei Jugendliche aus radikal unterschiedlichen Welten: eine rebellische Ostberlinerin, und ein kurdischer Jugendlicher mit Fluchterfahrung. Zwischen den Trümmern der Vergangenheit, pulsierender Subkultur und einer sich neu formierenden Stadt verlieben sie sich und versuchen gemeinsam, ihren Platz in der Welt zu finden.

Ji Çavan Heya Dil (AT)
Teaser für Dokumentarfilm, 30min
2024
(Dokufilm in Postproduktion)

Teaser für einen folgenden 30-minütigen Dokumentarfilm, der die transformative Kraft der Analogfotografie für Kinder in den Konfliktregionen Kurdistans beleuchtet. Der Film dreht sich um das Projekt Fotohane Darkroom, einem Fotografie-Workshop nahe der Grenze von Bakur (Nordkurdistan) und Rojava, und begleitet den kurdischen Fotografen Serbest Salih, wie er Kinder lehrt, ihre Welt mit einfachen Point-and-Shoot-Kameras einzufangen und ihre Bilder in einer Dunkelkammer zu entwickeln.