AFI FEST Los Angeles International Film Festival 2009

Bahman Ghobadi’s infectiously lively and youthfully exuberant film follows two intelligent and determined Persian teens as they jump through hoops doing what in many other countries is relatively simple: forming a rock band. As they comb Tehran’s basements, recording studios, and even cattle ranches (!) for other fellow indie rockers, they begin to understand the difficulty of attaining artistic freedom in a highly restrictive society. Expensive visas, requirements of English-language songs, and the pressures from the ever-looming, sterilizing pop music industry are only some of the obstacles that the budding musicians encounter (more incendiary political issues, of course, subtly lurk at the film’s borders). Yet, as the raucously refreshing montage sequences suggest, an untamed love of music drives NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS. Ghobadi keeps the unapologetic desire for creative expression alive and pulsing, and reveals the Iranian underground indie music scene in all of its frenetic, hidden glory.

–Beth Hanna