{"id":251758,"date":"2026-01-18T22:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251758\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T22:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:34:08","slug":"berlinale-opening-film-no-good-men-boarded-by-lucky-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/251758\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlinale Opening Film ‘No Good Men’ Boarded by Lucky Number"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAfghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat<\/a>\u2018s \u201cNo Good Men<\/a>,\u201d which is set to open the upcoming Berlin Film Festival<\/a>, has been boarded by French sales company Lucky Number. <\/p>\n

The Paris-based company will launch sales at next month\u2019s European Film Market, where it will also unveil exclusive first-look images. \u201cNo Good Men\u201d follows Sadat\u2019s previous two movies, \u201cWolf and Sheep\u201d and \u201cThe Orphanage,\u201d which premiered at Cannes Directors\u2019 Fortnight in 2016 and 2019, respectively.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe project also marks the third installment in a planned five-film cycle inspired by the autobiographical writings of author and actor Anwar Hashimi, who stars in the film alongside Sadat herself, who takes on the lead role.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Good Men\u201d is Sadat\u2019s first Berlinale opening slot and continues her strong track record on the international festival circuit where she has quickly established herself as one of the most singular voices to emerge from Afghan cinema in recent years.<\/p>\n

Set in Kabul in 2021, just before the Taliban\u2019s return to power, the film centers on Naru, the only camerawoman at Afghanistan\u2019s main television station. Struggling to retain custody of her three-year-old son after leaving her unfaithful husband, Naru is convinced that no good men exist in her country \u2014 until a career opportunity offered by Qodrat, the station\u2019s most influential journalist, forces her to reconsider. As the two crisscross the city covering what will become Afghanistan\u2019s final days of freedom, a tentative romance emerges, pushing Naru to question her assumptions in a society stacked against her.<\/p>\n

\n\tBlending comedy, romance and political urgency, \u201cNo Good Men\u201d explores the fragile pockets of freedom that women carve out for themselves within a patriarchal society. The film is believed to feature the first onscreen kiss ever depicted in an Afghan feature \u2014 a milestone that also underscores the project\u2019s risks. For political reasons and due to the current context, it had to be shot entirely outside of Afghanistan, in Germany. However the entire cast is Afghan. <\/p>\n

\u201d \u2018No Good Men\u2019 addresses what I believe is the deepest and most enduring problem of Afghan society, and beyond: patriarchy,\u201d Sadat said. \u201cThrough Naru, an independent woman living in Kabul during the \u2018democracy\u2019 era, the film reveals how deeply rooted oppression existed long before 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that the film seeks to challenge the simplified narratives often applied to Afghanistan\u2019s recent history, insisting that the Taliban represents not only a political force but a long-standing social mindset \u2014 while also acknowledging Afghan men who resist and reject that system.<\/p>\n

The film is produced by Germany and Denmark\u2019s Adomeit Film (\u201cThe Square\u201d), in co-production with France\u2019s La Fabrica Nocturna Cin\u00e9ma, Norway\u2019s Motlys, Germany\u2019s Amerikafilm, Afghanistan\u2019s Wolf Pictures, and Sweden\u2019s Film i V\u00e4st. German public funding came from MOIN Filmf\u00f6rderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the German-French Mini-Treaty, the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, nordmedia, and MV Filmf\u00f6rderung Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.<\/p>\n

Distributors are already on board in several key territories, including Denmark (Camera Film), Norway (Norsk Filmdistribusjon), France (Condor Films) and Germany (Eksystent).<\/p>\n

Lucky Number\u2019s co-founders, Olivier Barbier, Ola Byszuk and Lenny Porte, described the film as \u201caudacious and groundbreaking in countless ways,\u201d praising Sadat\u2019s resilience in bringing the project to completion \u201cagainst all odds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucky Number\u2019s lineup includes Felipe Barbosa\u2019s \u201cLeila et La Nuit\u201d (working title), starring Roschdy Zem and Marina Fo\u00efs, and Christophe Reveille\u2019s documentary \u201cChe Guevera: The Last Companions,\u201d in time to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Che\u2019s death. Both titles are on the company\u2019s Unifrance Rendez-Vous With French Cinema slate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat\u2018s \u201cNo Good Men,\u201d which is set to open the upcoming Berlin Film Festival, has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28158,93,61,60,270,125968,125969,125970],"class_list":["post-251758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-berlin-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-no-good-men","tag-shahrbanoo-sadat","tag-unifrance-rendez-vous-in-paris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}