Afghan Director Becomes a Global Sensation 0 12

The romantic comedy "No Good Men" by Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat (35) will be the opening film of this year's Berlin Film Festival. The premiere of the film about a news agency's editorial office in Kabul will take place on February 12.

The film tells the story of a news agency's editorial office in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the era of democracy, before the Taliban returned to power in the country in 2021. The plot follows a young female operator from Kabul who falls in love with a married TV reporter, twice her age, after learning of her husband's infidelity.

"Shahrbanoo Sadat is one of the brightest figures in world cinema, and the film No Good Men truly lives up to the expectations placed on her after the release of her first two feature films," said Berlin Film Festival director Trisha Tuttle.

According to her, in the film, Sadat "continues her important work highlighting the lives of Afghan women."

"She brings romance and touches of humor to a gripping political story. The fact that the film is based on real events and that the director risked so much to make this film makes No Good Men even more significant for us as the opening film of the 76th Berlin Film Festival," she added.

In 2021, Sadat was forced to flee Kabul with her family. Among her previous works are the films "Wolf and Sheep" (2016) and "The Orphanage" (2019).