No Good Men

A historic drama with musical Bollywood scenes. Kabul in the early 90s. Soviet values rule the country. Women can wear miniskirts, children can go to school and people can go to the cinema, concerts as well as universities. Life in Afghanistan is similar to life in the Western world. 14 years old Qodrat sells cinema tickets on the black market in the streets of Kabul. After selling a ticket to a secret police officer by mistake, he ends up at the Soviet orphanage, where he fakes his identity at the registration, in hope of getting more power. Everyday life for Qodrat is about friendships, falling in love, doing naughty things and going on adventures – just like it is for children in other parts of the world. However, behind the safe walls of the orphanage the world they once knew is drastically changing as the Mujahideens start the civil war.

In rural Afghanistan, people are storytellers who make up and tell each other tales of mystery and imagination to explain the world in which they live. The shepherd children own the mountains and, although no adults are around, they know the rules; they know that boys and girls are not allowed to be together. The boys practice with their slings to fight wolves. The girls smoke secretly and play at getting married, dreaming of finding a husband soon. They gossip about Sediqa; she’s eleven years old and an outsider. The girls think she is cursed. Qodrat, also eleven years old, becomes the subject of gossip when his mother remarries an old man with two wives. Qodrat roams alone in the most isolated parts of the mountains, where he meets Sediqa and they become friends.

Started in 2018, the project – comprised of 11 segments by filmmakers from all around the world – reflects on the intertwined relationship between human society and nature that is aggravated by climate change on multiple scales, hinting at possible solutions.

In Kabul, a family with 4 girls is about to move to a new house. The father feels he lost the position as the head of the family, since the oldest Girl, Sakina, 22, is working and pays for all the costs. Communication between the family members is difficult. Sharifa, 20, helps in the house and is looking for a job, Kamila, 16, learns English and Zar, 10, takes care of her sick chicken. Everyone is trying in their own way. An 18 year old Girl from Afghanistan is new in an isolation refugee camp in Germany. She feels lonely and is trying her best to adjust and to understand the routine in the camp. One day, a man, 23, stitches his mouth and starts a hunger strike in the canteen. Worried about him and at the same time fascinated by this man who strongly sits there day and night, she starts to look after him.

In a gym in downtown Kabul, a group of housewives gather during the only hour of the day reserved for women. They train at lunchtime behind closed doors, talking about body norms and their daily life.

It is dawn. Rural central Afghanistan, far away in a village. A young wo-man is milking a goat while her little boy is assisting her by holding the horns of the goat. There is a flock of goats and sheep waiting to be milked before the young shepherd takes them to the mountains to graze all day long. She cooks Quruti, one of the most popular meals in the entire Afghanistan but especially central Afghanistan. For some years people have been making less and less Quruti as they struggle to feed their animals because the mountain pastures have dried up. Climate change has affected rain patterns and soil fertility in the whole region.