No One Knows About Persian Cats (Kasi az gorbehaye irani khabar nadareh) Review
By David Kempler
These Are Cool Persian Cats
Sometimes, but very rarely, a film can combine stark and dismal reality with unmitigated joy. Bahman Ghobadi's "No One Knows About Persian Cats" pulls off this very difficult task.
Ghobadi is from Baneh, a city in northwest Kurdistan, a province of Iran. Previously, he had spent two years preparing for a different project. Iran's government denied authorization and the project was scuttled. Not wanting to have to endure a fate like this again, he purchased an S12K digital camera so that he would not be dependent on the government.
The problem is that making a film with it was against the law. Filming ran the risk of all involved being jailed. As a result, the entire shoot lasted an absurdly scant 17 days. That he was able to put this together and come up with an exciting result is a testament to the talents and bravery of all concerned.
Iranian musicians Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad) are in search of band members to play at a London concert. Everything in the film follows their travails in forming the band. We meet some very talented musicians during their search and it's somewhat startling to find out how much of outside culture has penetrated into their "protected" world. 50 Cent, Pacino, Brando, Cage, Bill Bruford, the drummer of Yes and, of course, the Beatles, are all known there. One girl is seen reading Kafka.
Nader (Hahmed Behdad) is their fast-talking manager and the dealmaker for everything. He is the driving force and he does an outstanding job of singlehandedly turning this into a believable story. Watching his character maneuver, knowing all the while that all of the actors are maneuvering at two levels is thrilling. Their burden is to create a world for us to believe is real while at the same time living with the fear that they may end up in jail for their efforts.
The most striking aspect of "No One Knows About Persian Cats" is that it provides hope that this generation might be able to alter the country's course towards freedom. Perhaps I'm being a bit too optimistic but I could not help but compare it to Costa Gavras' "Z", which told of Greece trying to break into a world of freedom. Maybe it can happen in Iran, too.
