No One Knows About Persian Cats

Theatrical Release Date: 2010 04 16 (USA - Limited)

UPC: 030306976693

Studio: IFC

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:null

Summary: Iran is a nation where most forms of pop music have been strictly banned by the government, but that doesn't stop plenty of people from playing the music they love in secret, and a pair of underground musicians in Tehran struggle to be heard without going to jail in this independent comedy drama from director Bahman Ghobadi. Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad) are two friends who front an indie rock band, though their inability to play in public has been something of a drawback. Negar and Ashkan have been able to arrange a gig in London, and are searching for like-minded musicians to accompany them when they meet Nader (Hamed Behdad), a fast-talking black-market businessman who deals in bootlegged music and movies, fake passports, and underground practice spaces (both literally and figuratively) for local rock musicians. Nader offers to help Negar and Ashkan find fellow musicians and a place to rehearse, but this process isn't nearly as simple or safe as Nader makes it out to be. Kasi Az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh (aka No One Knows About Persian Cats) was an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened as part of the "Un Certain Regard" program. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Awards: Film Presented – London Film Festival Film Presented – Cannes Film Festival Film Presented – San Sebastián International Film Festival Film Presented – AFI Fest Film Presented – Rotterdam International Film Festival Film Presented – SXSW

Features: "Making of"
Trailer

No One Knows About Persian Cats

Format: DVD

Release Date: 03/15/2011

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Cinemascope

Audio: DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 107 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- No One Knows About Persian Cats
1. Opening Credits [6:28]
2. Underground Music [6:55]
3. Number One Studio [5:57]
4. Everyone's Leaving [5:39]
5. Passports Are Ready [5:51]
6. Got Your Papers [5:36]
7. The Group [6:34]
8. Waiting to Rehearse [8:52]
9. I Had to Beg [5:54]
10. This Guy's Amazing [4:43]
11. Play It Again [7:01]
12. Roll It Down [5:52]
13. Meet My Friends [6:06]
14. Finish Shooting [4:52]
15. How About You? [4:18]
16. Bigger Problems [5:58]
17. We've Gotta Go [5:05]
18. Ending Credits [5:13]

Nathan Southern

A fascinating story lurks at the heart of Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi's contemporary comedy drama No One Knows About Persian Cats, and if films existed only on a literary plane -- if they could be evaluated solely based on the strength of their stories and dialogue -- it might qualify as a satisfying effort. But, unfortunately, the film represents a miscalculation from the gifted creator of A Time for Drunken Horses and Turtles Can Fly. This is the tale of Nader (Hamed Behdad) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad), two young citizens of Tehran who get released from prison and embark on a music career, but mutually chafe under the oppressive weight of limited Iranian artistic expression and brutal government oppression. The friends harbor a shared dream of a farewell Iranian show, followed by a string of concerts across Europe, but a number of key obstacles stand in the way of their expatriation -- not least of which is the need to purchase passports and visas from a questionable black-market dealer at almost prohibitively expensive prices. This is a country, Ghobadi reminds us, so dictatorial that it refuses to let its citizens even wear ties in passport photos, and so invasive that cops regularly pull over drivers to seize (and put to sleep) their sweet little puppy dogs -- actions apparently borne out of sanitary concern. It shouldn't come as a surprise that an "underground" music culture would flourish and thrive in this anti-cultural prison, and part of the movie's fascination in its early stages blossoms from its ability to pull us into that realm with great ease. For a time, the film indeed coasts along on the strength of its unusual premise and Ghobadi's funky deadpan humor. He has quirky instincts, and many of the individual details (such as a supporting character who names his pet bird Monica Bellucci, or a metal band who play in a barn and upset the cows with their music) elicit their fair share of genuine laughs, while the central narrative conceit carries a sad poignancy; we begin to grow emotionally invested in Ashkan and Nader and hope for positive outcomes in their lives. Nevertheless, this emotional investment is temporary. Ghobadi's curious style starts to work against the material as the film progresses. He establishes the reality of his central characters in two aesthetic extremes: cinematographer Turaj Aslani shoots the day-to-day of Nader, Ashkan, and those they encounter in a kind of flat, unforgiving realism, frequently saturated with muddy browns and shot in low-level light, at enough of a distance that it's often excruciatingly difficult to determine the identity of every character onscreen, and their relationships to one another. For the music sequences, on the other hand, the director utilizes a kind of hyper-charged post-MTV aesthetic that cuts away from the band to a series of montages and presents us with a blizzard of images taken from urban Iranian life. On a conceptual level, this very deliberate approach sounds like it could be stunning -- contrasting the dull reality of oppressed Iranians with the razzmatazz generated by Western music -- but it has the odd effect of undercutting the cohesiveness of the material. As if it weren't difficult enough to distinguish between the major characters and avoid confusing them (especially given the strong resemblance between two of the male leads), the montages carry us even further away from the two central characters and their various acquaintances. Aside from one inspired sequence when Ghobadi ingeniously overlays the wailing song of an Iranian musician over images of dire poverty, many of the sights glimpsed in the cutaways seem random and haphazardly chosen. But the most fundamental problem with this approach is a very straightforward one: the montages themselves lack the beauty and joy that one associates with real social and cultural liberation. They feel forced, heavy, imposing -- even full of dread. Ghobadi's ideas and observations throughout the film are certainly valid, but his visuals work against the material by muddling up the clarity of its basic exposition and aesthetically suggesting that he lacks the conviction necessary to give the central themes lift. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Babak Mirkhani  Actor 
Bahman Ghobadi  Director 
Bahman Ghobadi  Producer 
Bahman Ghobadi  Screenwriter 
Roxana Saberi  Executive Producer 
Roxana Saberi  Screenwriter 
Hossein M. Abkenar  Executive Producer 
Hossein M. Abkenar  Screenwriter 
Behroz Ghobadi  Executive Producer 
Hamed Behdad  Actor 
Ashkan Koshanejad  Actor 
Negar Shaghaghi  Actor 

Country: Iran