Shahrbanoo Sadat's feature films "Wolf and Sheep" (2016) and "The Orphanage" (2019) have already celebrated successes at the Cannes Film Festival. The director is now continuing her international success story with the opening film of the Berlinale. MOIN Film Fund has been supporting Sadat's filmmaking since her 2014 debut "Not at Home", and "No Good Men" also received 354,000 euros in production funding.
Shahrbanoo Sadat has been living and working in Hamburg since her evacuation from Afghanistan in August 2021. She was a participant in the INTRO programme of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media until 2025. The programme supports refugee professional artists in Hamburg who are no longer able to work in their countries of origin.
Dr Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media: "What great news! The fact that this year's Berlinale will open with a film by Shahrbanoo Sadat guarantees the festival a great start. Shahrbanoo Sadat's artistic work is characterised by courage, creativity and passion. She uses the power of art to tell moving stories from Afghanistan at first hand. The Berlinale's decision also shows that fleeing does not have to mean the end of an artistic career: Shahrbanoo Sadat was a participant in the INTRO programme until 2025, which helps refugee artists to build new networks in Hamburg and continue working professionally. Obviously successful."
Helge Albers, CEO of MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein: "The Berlinale could hardly get off to a better start: With 'No Good Men', the festival opens under the Directorship of an impressive filmmaker. Shahrbanoo Sadat has already shown with her earlier works how impressively she tells stories - and the fact that she has chosen Hamburg as an anchor point for her creative work is a special highlight for us."
About "No Good Men"
For her new film "No Good Men", Shahrbanoo Sadat also shot in Hamburg and transformed the districts of Wilhelmsburg and Rothenburgsort into the Afghan capital - realised by Hamburg set designer Marie-Luise Balzer. Sadat wrote the script together with Anwar Hashimi, with whom she has worked on previous projects. Both also play the leading roles in "No Good Men". The film was produced by the Lübeck-based production company Adomeit Film.
Alongside "Wolf and Sheep" and "Kabul Children's Home", Sadat's new film is part of a planned five-part series inspired by Hashimi's unpublished autobiographical book and Sadat's own life experiences;
Set in Kabul shortly before the return of the Taliban, this romantic comedy tells the story of Director of Photography Naru. Betrayed by her ex-husband and fighting for custody of her child, she has lost faith in good men. But when she meets the reporter Qodrat, she begins to question her convictions: Maybe there is a good man out there after all?
About the INTRO programme of the City of Hamburg
Since 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Media has been supporting international artists who are no longer able to work in their home countries with the INTRO programme. The programme brings artists and Hamburg cultural institutions together for a one-year collaboration. During this year, the artists have time to realise their own projects, but also to get to know the working methods of cultural institutions. They will also be accompanied by a comprehensive training programme. Every year, Hamburg cultural institutions or independent groups from all disciplines can apply for the programme together with an artist, and an expert jury decides on the awarding of the funding;
Further information can be found at https://www.hamburg.de/go/107188
