Berlin Film Festival to Open With Afghan Director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s Romantic Comedy ‘No Good Men’

Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat’s romantic comedy “No Good Men” has been set as Berlin Film Festival opener.

The German-backed film set inside a Kabul newsroom during the democratic era, before the Taliban returned to power in 2021, will open the festival on Feb. 12 at the Berlinale Palast as a Berlinale Special Gala.

Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle commented: “Shahrbanoo Sadat is one of the most exciting voices in world cinema and ‘No Good Men’ really delivers on the promise of her first two features.”

Tuttle added: “Sadat continues her vital work spotlighting Afghan women’s lives, here bringing romance and touches of humour to a rousingly political story.” “That it is based on real events, and the director risked so much to get this film made makes ‘No Good Men’ even more meaningful as our opening gala of the 76th Berlinale,” the Berlin fest chief went on to note.

“No Good Men” tells the story of a young camerawoman in Kabul who falls for a married TV reporter twice her age after discovering her husband has been cheating on her. While forbidden love simmers inside the newsroom, the film also portrays the often-dangerous work of reporters in Kabul along with the absurdities of daily life in the city at that time.

Sadat was forced to flee the Afghan capital with her family in 2021 after Taliban forces overran the city.

“Growing up in Afghanistan’s deeply patriarchal society, I believed there were no good men – until I found out another reality exists, and I hope this film offers young women hope and young men an example,” the director said in a Berlinale statement.

“No Good Men” was produced as an international co-production between Germany, France, Norway, Denmark and Afghanistan. Production companies are Adomeit Film, La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma, Motlys, Amerikafilm and Wolf Pictures.

Sadat’s directorial debut “Wolf and Sheep” which blends realism with folkloric magic and follows shepherd children in a remote Afghan mountain village, won the top prize in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section in 2016. It was followed by “The Orphanage,” in which a boy is forced to live in a Soviet-run orphanage during the 1981 occupation, that played at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2019.

The upcoming 76th Berlin Film Festival will run Feb. 12-22.