This year’s opening film deals with a topic that has long been a focus of the festival: since the withdrawal of the Taliban in 2001 and the opening up of living spaces for women, we have been working repeatedly with filmmakers from Afghanistan. That is why we are particularly pleased to be able to honour one of Afghanistan’s most important directors this year: Shahrbanoo Sadat.

In No Good Men, which opened this year’s Berlinale, she not only turns gender roles upside down, but also our perception of Afghan women – and men. With great lightness, humour and dedication, the film tells a love story shortly before the so-called fall of Kabul in the summer of 2021.

Naru (played by Sadat herself) fights for a job as a camerawoman at Kabul’s most important TV station. Disillusioned by her incompetent husband, who cares neither for her nor their son, she has given up on the men of her patriarchal country. She is all the more surprised when her colleague Qodrat publicly praises her professional commitment in a team meeting. After a short time, the two become inseparable – until the Taliban advance.

We are delighted that the director will be presenting the film in person at the festival’s opening ceremony on 22 April at the Cineplex Filmpalast Cologne.