Iran Music Documentry Film: No One Knows About Persian Cats

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

About the film

Release date: 2010
Genre: drama
Cast: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Writer: Bahman Ghobadi, Hossein Mortezaeiyan
Studio: IFC Films

The acclaimed fifth feature film from Bahman Ghobadi , the director of Half Moon and Turtles Can Fly opened the Certain Regard strand of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. The fictionalized documentary was co-written by Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist who had been imprisoned for months in Tehran on a bizarre espionage charge.

The plot

Shot in secret the film  features extraordinary performances by real underground bands such as  TAKE IT EASY HOSPITAL. The narration is done very edgy and expressive. Know One Knows About Persian Cats follows a pair of young musicians Negar (Negar Shaghagi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad, who was imprisoned in Iran for 21 days for performing in a rock concert), recently released from prison, on a mission to take their rock band to Europe. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan their escape abroad with a fast-talking music promoter. Vowing to play one last show before leaving Tehran, their dangerous mission takes them on a crazy journey through Tehran’s music underground scene, home to an estimated 2,000 illegal independent bands.

NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS  features music from a wide range of genres including Iranian rap, Jazz and electric Blues, singing in English and Farsi.

The goal

For over 30 years the Iranian government has banned all types types of American pop and Jazz music forcing many fans of Iranian alternative indie music to go underground.  This film is a statement for the cultural repression in Iran’s  underground music scene. It is a powerful cinematic foreshadowing of current protest movements, and a celebration of an entire generation of Iranians fighting for personal and creative freedom.

This film is available on DVD.

Director’s interviews

Bahman Ghobadi interview

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx