Cannes. "No One Knows About the Persian Cats"

By David Hudson on 05/14/2009

[Updated through 5/15]

"Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi's returns to the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes this year with the splendid, though unfortunately titled 'No One Knows About the Persian Cats,'" writes David Bourgeois for Movieline. "His last showing at the festival was in 2002 with 'Half Moon,' and judging by the positive reception, it's clear he's gaining traction among critics and festival-goers. This reception certainly wasn't hindered by the news that unfolded last week about Roxana Saberi, the Iranian journalist who was recently released from an Iranian prison. Aside from her journalistic duties, she also was a co-writer of the script." At any rate: "Although it's early in the festival, it's one of the best films so far."

"Fueled by frustration with the myriad prohibitions governing life in Iran, 'No One Knows About Persian Cats' strings an improvised tale around Tehran's underground indie-rock scene," writes Alissa Simon in Variety. "For the past 30 years, Iranian authorities have banned certain types of music (in particular Western rock and females singing solo), forcing them underground. Amir Hamz and Mark Lazarz's 2006 feature docu 'Sounds of Silence' and several shorts by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb previously explored this phenomenon, estimated by a character in 'Cats' to encompass more than 312 indie groups and 2,000 pop combos."

"Hinged to two young musicians trying to obtain passports and visas, the movie is fundamentally a vision of a parallel world, one whose inhabitants don't just read Kafka, they also comprehend it on a level unknown to many of his readers." Manohla Dargis in the New York Times: "Despite their frequent references to the authorities, and with posters for British rock groups like the Arctic Monkeys hanging on their wall, these musicians could be strumming and drumming in Anywhere, USA, which is just one reason that this modest and finally very touching movie deserves to break out of the festival circuit."

Updates, 5/15: "Anyone who considers the Iranian Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi solely a practitioner of long-take chronicles about rural Kurdish life needs to reconsider," writes Howard Feinstein in Screen. "Here he ventures brilliantly into new territory, the urban jungle, highlighting Tehran's underground community of rock and heavy metal musicians who borrow melodies from the West but sing their own politicised lyrics. In the film, a love/hate letter to Tehran itself, he blends the genres of concert film, social drama, comedy, and thriller into a cohesive faux-documentary, adjusting his style to insure a snug fit."

"This bold piece of docu-fiction, an open protest against censorship and the repression of individual liberties, will no doubt make waves in Iran, where its only hope for release is on black market DVD," predicts Deborah Young in the Hollywood Reporter. "Significantly, none of the film's likeable young protags challenges religion or the current political caste."

Coverage of the coverage: Cannes 2009.

[Photo: "No One Knows About the Persian Cats," Mijfilm, 2009]

Tags: Bahman Ghobadi, Cannes 2009, Iranian Cinema