• Shahrbanoo Sadat and Valencian producer Marina Perales will take part in a roundtable discussion on female creativity and the dismantling of stereotypes in conflict zones.
• The Official Series Section presents Sense filtres, a portrait of new forms of teenage relationships in the digital environment.

Cinema Jove, the international film festival of the Valencian Community organized by the Department of Education, Culture and Universities and promoted by the Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC), premieres tomorrow, June 20, an Afghan romantic comedy that uses the codes of the genre to portray a reality that the film industry often confines to war drama: No Good Men.

Originally presented as the opening film at the last Berlinale, this international co-production between Germany, France, Norway, Denmark, and Afghanistan is directed by filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat.

“Some potential funders were almost offended by the film’s genre. But am I, an Afghan filmmaker, not allowed to make a romantic comedy? Why are characters from my country expected to be one-dimensional rather than as complex human beings as anyone else? Does being Afghan mean being sad or worried 24/7? Isn’t there, in a way, a dehumanizing effect in not allowing us to make a film about people whose everyday lives also contain humor and lightness?”, the director critically asks.

The story is set in Kabul before the return of the Taliban in 2021, during the withdrawal of US troops. Sadat, who also co-stars in the film, seeks to reclaim an alternative form of masculinity within a hostile environment.

“I want to value all the good men in Afghanistan, those who do not take advantage of the privileges offered by a patriarchal society. It is extremely difficult to be a good man in such a society. They suffer harassment, mockery, and their masculinity is constantly questioned,” says the exiled filmmaker, who will take part in a roundtable alongside the Valencian producer behind No Good Men, Marina Perales Marhuenda.

Together, they will lead the discussion Filming Against the Current: Women, Cinema and Resistance, where they will reflect on female filmmaking in contexts of structural inequality and resistance. The event will also serve to challenge reductive portrayals of Afghanistan’s recent past.

“Since the return of the Taliban, many have begun to idealize the previous era, claiming that women had all their rights before 2021. I don’t think that is true. Sexism and patriarchal attitudes were deeply rooted long before,” Sadat states.

Teenage sexting and a lovestruck accountant in the Official Series Section

The day also marks the start of the Official Series Section, featuring the Spanish production Sense FILTRES, directed by Ainhoa Bolaños alongside Goya-nominated filmmakers Sandra Reina and Jiajie Yu Yan.

Structured as a first season of three “sexting” stories, the series explores new forms of teenage relationships in the digital age. The episode screening focuses on Alícia, a teenager who loves composing trap music and suffers abuse from a famous singer. When the song they compose together becomes a hit, her challenge is to reconcile her public voice with a truth her body is not yet able to express.

The presentation at Cinema Jove will be attended by actresses Luana Rocha and Rita Roca, along with Nazareth Rodríguez from the production team of Vértigo Films.

On the international front, French director Arthur Fanget presents Respire Fort, created specifically for the “microshort” format. With a retro-futuristic aesthetic and a dose of dark humor with science-fiction elements, the series follows a clerk planning his own suicide until he meets his neighbor.

Very young Greta Gerwig

Tomorrow also marks the start at the Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporània of a cycle dedicated to “The Young Greta Gerwig,” paying tribute to one of the key filmmakers in the contemporary redefinition of women’s roles in Hollywood.

The retrospective focuses on her acclaimed early career as an actress and muse of the American independent film movement known as “mumblecore.”

The opening session will screen the modern black-and-white classic Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012), about a dancer trying to build a career in New York. Gerwig not only stars in the film but also co-writes the screenplay, revealing an emerging voice that would go beyond acting.