Shahrbanoo Sadat Finds German Backing for ‘No Good Men’

Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat has secured German financing for “No Good Men,” with Berlin-based Amerikafilm joining the director’s long-gestating romantic comedy set inside a Kabul newsroom during the democratic era, before the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

Sadat will be presenting the project, which is produced by Katja Adomeit of Danish-German outfit Adomeit Film along with Paris-based La Fabrica Nocturna and Norway’s Motlys, during the Venice Gap-Financing Market, which runs Aug. 30 – Sep. 1.

The first romcom from an Afghan filmmaker “No Good Men” tells the story of a young camerawoman (played by Ghawgha Taban) who falls for a married TV reporter (Mohammed Anwar Hashimi) 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, who was forced to flee the Afghan capital with her family in 2021 after Taliban forces overran the city, said she hasn’t lost focus on her much-anticipated fourth feature, which she began developing with co-writer Anwar Hashimi before emigrating to Germany.

“The project has not changed, but my intention has changed for making the film,” the director told Variety. “Because now I’m not only making a romantic comedy, but I’m also making a period film about this democratic era that has finished [in Afghanistan] and I was a witness to.”

The third part in a planned pentalogy based on Hashimi’s autobiographical work, “No Good Men” follows on the heels of Sadat’s directorial debut “Wolf and Sheep,” which won the top prize in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section in 2016, and “The Orphanage,” which played at Directors’ Fortnight in 2019.

Sadat described “No Good Men” as a “political romantic comedy” that grapples with the complicated reality of Afghan women during the country’s short-lived experiment with democracy, when despite the promise of the era, women still “had no rights, no freedom,” apart from a “middle class that lived in a bubble.”

“I talk about love, but this is love happening in the context of Afghanistan,” she said. “It’s impossible for me to talk about love and not to address women’s issues. It’s impossible for me to talk about love and not talk about politics in Afghanistan.”

Nevertheless, the director said the film tells a “universal” story “because love is happening everywhere, and sexism and patriarchy is also happening everywhere. I’m just showing you the Afghan version.”

Before the sudden collapse of the Afghan government in August 2021 and the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops, Sadat said she was ready to start a new chapter in her life. She had just turned 30 and moved into a new apartment in Kabul when she began to develop the script for her fourth feature.

“I wanted to make this romantic comedy at the time because I was really fascinated by the everyday life of people, and I really wanted to capture the experience of living in Kabul from [my] perspective,” she said.

The fall of Kabul and her family’s dramatic flight to Europe forced Sadat to rethink her approach — “If I don’t live in Kabul, and then I make film about everyday life in Kabul, it just doesn’t make sense,” she said — but after finding her footing in Germany, she returned to the project with renewed commitment.

“Afghanistan is [not just] the geography. I am Afghanistan myself,” she said. “No matter where I go, I am the country. My films are the country. Now I’m making Kabul in Germany. This is power,” she added. “I got my power back.”

Now based in Hamburg, Sadat is looking to close roughly €400,000 ($446,000) in financing on the €2.9 million ($3.2 million) budgeted film and plans to begin principal photography in late September. Shooting will take place in Berlin, Brandenburg and Hamburg, with production designer Pegah Ghamlambor and her team recreating Kabul in the streets of Germany.

Sadat admitted her frustration with European financiers, many of whom she said have been slow to embrace the premise of the film. “It’s really difficult for people to understand the importance of it,” she said. “If I was making a political film in a more obvious way, and talking about women and talking about politics and Taliban and the evacuation, it would be much easier for people to understand the purpose of the film.

“This is another Taliban for me in Europe,” she continued. “They’re telling me you’re not allowed to make this kind of content, but only this kind of content. I think this is my right. This is my right as an artist coming from Afghanistan to make a romantic comedy, because our people also deserve to laugh.”