NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS (Iran/Germany)

Over the course of four award-winning feature films, Bahman Ghobadi (Turtles Can Fly) has dramatized the plight of the Iranian Kurd minority to which he belongs. His previous film, Half Moon (2006), concerns the struggle of an ailing, legendary musician who aspires to travel to Iraqi Kurdistan to give a final concert. Half Moon refers to the arduous process of obtaining a visa in Iran and decries the government’s prohibition against women performing in public. The Ahmadinejad administration banned the film from exhibition in Iran. Half Moon's magical-realist and comedic elements provide respite and imply a degree of hopefulness. On the other hand, No One Knows about Persian Cats is a cri de coeur from a filmmaker who had already decided to immigrate prior to the shoot, after concluding that it is untenable to be an artist in Iran under the current regime. The film was shot clandestinely in Tehran, the first time Ghobadi sets a film in the capital city and the first film by Ghobadi spoken entirely in Farsi.

No One Knows About Persian Cats is structured as a fictional narrative about Negar and Ashkan, young marrieds who have been invited to play a gig in London and who intend to give a concert for the locals prior to their departure. However, the fact that the couple and practically everyone else are playing themselves and the on-the-fly shooting style render a film perched daringly on the tenuous border between fiction and documentary. Ghobadi follows the earnest, sympathetic couple as they attempt to recruit backing musicians and obtain the documents necessary to travel. No One Knows About Persian Cats incorporates a number of arresting musical performances in barns, condemned buildings, and dingy basements which evince the vibrancy and resilience of the underground music scene in Tehran. Ghobadi effectively provides a rare opportunity for these musicians to showcase their talent. As the film progresses, the repression of artistic expression and the abuse of human rights by the authorities is dramatized to wrenching emotional effect. No One Knows About Persian Cats is a testament of fearless, political defiance on the part of Ghobadi, who is unlikely to film in his native land for the foreseeable future.