Urania Film Club: There are no good men in this country

Shahrbanoo Sadat, one of the most important contemporary Afghan women, opened the last edition of the IFF in Berlin. “There are no good men in this country” wittily and courageously breaks stereotypes by portraying Afghan women not as victims but as strong, acting individuals.

Kabul, just before the historic turnaround in 2021. Naru (played by director Shahrbanoo Sadat) is a 30-year-old freelance cameraman at the city's most important television station. She struggles with pressure from a patriarchal society, trapped in an unhappy marriage from which she cannot leave for fear of losing custody of her son.

Her life credo is simple: “There are no good men in Afghanistan.”

Everything changes when Naru is transferred to the newsroom and starts working with Qodrat, an experienced married reporter who is twice her age. Their professional relationship, full of tension and understatement, slowly develops into something much deeper, forcing Naru to verify her previous beliefs about the male world.