"No Good Men', committed cinema opens the Berlinale

Set in the Afghanistan of 2021, shortly before the return of the Taliban to power, 'No Good Men' stars Naru, the only woman working as a camera operator at Kabul's main TV station and played by director Shahrbanoo Sadat herself.

While waiting to be officially divorced from her husband and struggling to retain custody of their four-year-old son, Naru is convinced that there are no good men in Afghanistan.

Her certainties may be shattered when she gets to know Qodrat, a prominent journalist, who offers her a significant career boost, offering to film the evolving political situation within their country.

It basically unites two different souls, 'No Good Men', a film that recounts on the one hand a very tragic moment in the history of Afghanistan and on the other a possible relationship that is being born, giving hope to a woman who had stopped believing in love.

The basis of the film is undoubtedly important, especially for its ability to effectively mix Naru's individual story with something much broader that he has to deal with.

As Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle pointed out during the announcement in which she explained why this choice was made as an opening, Shahrbanoo Sadat took great risks to make 'No Good Men' and thus continue her fundamental work in giving visibility to the lives of Afghan women: this makes the film certainly valuable and interesting, although it must unfortunately be emphasised that the film suffers from a truly excessive didacticism, explaining too many times the (admittedly important) contents it wants to bring forward.

The idea of shaping a romantic narrative with a few touches of humour within a highly political context is an incisive cue, but several passages are less punchy and some dialogues appear too forced and melodramatic.

Finally, it is worth mentioning that 'No Good Men' (an international co-production between Germany, France, Norway, Denmark and Afghanistan) has been included in the Berlinale Special section, where the new works by Gore Verbinski ('Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die') and Ulrike Ottinger ('The Blood Countess'), among others, will also be shown.