Shahrbanoo Sadat counters sad narratives about Afghanistan with Berlin opening film

BERLIN: Director and actor Shahrbanoo Sadat says premiering her romantic comedy “No Good Men” in Berlin, where it will open this year’s film festival, is a chance to redress the overwhelmingly grim narratives about Afghanistan in global filmmaking.

“When international filmmakers make films about Afghanistan, these films are often very sad,” Sadat told Reuters on Thursday ahead of the Berlin Film Festival’s opening ceremony.

But everyday life is not so one-dimensional for Afghans, she said. “They are also human, like everyone else, and they just live in a different geography,” with both sadness and joy.

Sadat said she and other directors, many working abroad, are now trying to figure out what stories to tell in fledgling Afghan cinema.

Good step for Afghan cinema

Being selected is a “very, very good step” for Afghan cinema, said Sadat, who has been based in Germany since the fall of Kabul in 2021, adding she was “freaking out” but excited.

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Sadat directed “No Good Men” and also stars as Naru, a female TV journalist working in the Afghan capital shortly before the U.S. pullout, who finds herself falling in love with her male coworker in part for his upstanding character.

Despite the pending takeover by the Taliban, there is a lightness to the film, for example when one of Naru’s female colleagues brings her a dildo as a gift from the United States.

Sadat decided to go in front of the camera after the original actor pulled out and she could not find a replacement.

The experience helped the 35-year-old come to terms with her upbringing as an Afghan refugee in Iran.

“I grew up thinking I’m broken and something is wrong with me,” she said. Being able to see herself as Naru, from a director’s point of view, helped her confront the racism that she had faced and understand there was nothing wrong with her.

“I literally met myself for the first time,” she said.

“For me this film was a therapy.”

Film will reach Afghans

The film, which was shot entirely in Germany, is the third in a planned five-part film series inspired by the unpublished autobiographical manuscript written by her co-star Anwar Hashmi about his life in Afghanistan.

Sadat said she was sure that people in Afghanistan would see the movie even though filmmaking has been declared illegal, likely by turning to pirate versions of the film leaked online.