Review: No One Knows About Persian Cats

Staff Writer: Ann Stieglitz

4 out of 5 shovels
No One Knows About Persian Cats was the last film I saw at the BFI London Film Festival, supported by The Times newspaper. It was presented by Colin Firth, who, together with his wife, Livia Giuggioli-Firth, has formed one of the most exciting developments for film on the internet, called Brightwide (www.brightwide.com).

Colin Firth told us about this project, saying that Brightwide is a new website for social and political world cinema, especially those which cannot find a commercial distributor. On the website, he says:

"I’ve never been a fan of political "messages". I don’t like to be lectured and one-sided arguments lead nowhere. Brightwide is the place where we respond – where watching a film no longer has to be a passive experience. The passion, the distaste or the indignation go on long after the credits have rolled.

Where the activists have trouble rousing passion in the rest of us, they can now use the immense potential of film. The poster and the slogan are replaced by the power of storytelling. This is film as incitement to action. Where the film leaves off, we are invited to continue the story ourselves. It’s where we are introduced to some of today’s most compelling voices and invited into the conversation."

Introducing the film, Colin Firth told us that he, as a celebrity, was able to access the media more easily, and he wanted to make this access more widely available. As an individual who has campaigned his whole adult life (I remember him, many, many years ago, together with Joanna Lumley, chaining himself to railings outside parliament in protest at the then government's policy toward asylum seekers), he felt that he didn't want the audience to leave a provocative film and feel frustrated, not knowing where to turn. Brightwide should provide a forum for discussion and follow up action, whether it was meeting in small groups or organising a protest march or any other appropriate event. In the audience, he said, were NGOs and people representing campaign organisations, like Amnesty International, Oxfam, WWF and Save the Children, who, he hoped, would have links on the website. All would be available after the film, when there would be a Q & A session with the director and musicians in the film. I will report on the Q&A after the review of the film.

No One Knows About Persian Cats is, I think, a brilliant film about the underground music scene in Teheran. The director of the film, Bahman Ghobadi, who was there and spoke at the Q&A, filmed it in just 17 days, following one of the main characters on a motorbike through Teheran. It is the story of how two musicians, Ashkan Koshanzad and Negar Sheghahi, are trying to form a band, so they can get passports and visas to go on concert tours in Europe and the US. The film is not fiction, more what we call drama-documentary, because most of the people are real people and so are their situations.


It is a 2009 Persian film (کسی از گربه های ایرانی خبر نداره), produced by Wild Bunch. Originally titled Kesi Az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh, in the film's native language, Persian, this film first took on the name of Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats before finally being titled No One Knows About Persian Cats. The film offers a perspective on Iran as it explores its underground Rock scene. It won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, and also picked up an award at the Middle East International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi this weekend. The Best Actor award went to Hamed Behdad, who is one of the stars in the film and the award was very well deserved. I think, because his performance is funny, lively and poignant. It is a shame then, that this film was not recognized by the BFI awards jury.

The film explores all the different types of music, from traditional and modern Iranian songs, to Indie Rock (our two musicians), to heavy metal and Iranian Rap (which is very powerful) and shows us that it is illegal to play without a permit. The film highlights the plight of women singers, who are not allowed to perform solo. They should always be either accompanied by backing singers, or in small groups, and of course, have to wear the appropriate clothing. We are introduced to the bands and their search for places to play and perform. This ranges from roof-top self-made shacks to playing heavy metal in cow sheds (a very funny part of the film - the cows stop producing milk and you can see their fright as the music starts!) to open fields. The bands are trying to find a space and place to play their music, that is all, but the film shows the bureaucracy involved in trying to get permits to play, how they try to use the internet and the difficulties they have in trying to record their music. The music is fantastic and I wish they would release a CD or enable us to download it online. Perhaps Brightwide might facilitate this?

The film centres around three main characters - actually, two musicians - a kind of 'manager', played by Hamed Behdad, who is a charismatic wheeler-dealer, riding through Teheran on his motorbike, contacting all the people he knows to try and get (fake) passports and visas. He pays thousands to an old man and his forgers, but we have a bad feeling throughout the film that this may not be what it seems. But, it does mean that a thread of hope runs through the film and we all hope for a 'happy ending' - which, of course, only happens in fiction. This man is such a character and one extremely funny part of the film is where he talks himself out of getting 75 lashes and a huge fine for copying DVDs. We don't see the policeman only hear how he gives in under this barrage of self-defence. It was a brilliantly funny sketch, though very real - surreal even - and frightening at the same time, because we really did not know whether he would get himself out of his situation. It was no co-incidence that glimpses of Kafka's Metamorphosis are seen now and then.

There are also other Western references, some funny, some poignant, such as the poster of the glowering, leather-clad Marlon Brando on his motorbike, representing the ideal rebellious hero - the film is, after all, produced by Wild Bunch, named after Brando's famous movie. Bands of the 70s and 80s also feature as role models.

For a western audience, the difficulty in being able to play any kind of music at all is astonishing. We take so much for granted and my heart was bleeding throughout the film.

It was the filming in Teheran, which I found exciting, showing us a city from all vantage points. We followed the motorbike through narrow old streets, onto roof tops, high into unfinished skyscrapers looking down on the inter-twining motorways, hearing the roar of the traffic and the bands trying to play above the roar, to the peace of the countryside, with the mountains in the background, reminding us what a beautiful country Iran is -yet how difficult to live in. For example, the couple have their pet dog in the car and are stopped by the police: dogs are not allowed on the streets, even in a car. To emphasise the desperation of the young people, and echoing to the rhythms of the music, the film is edited quickly, with many images overlapping so swiftly, so that we just get fleeting glimpses of something or other, helping us get a feeling of urgency, maybe even of panic.

Most of all, it is the frustration that brings tension to the film and we see how the young people are so brave in facing threatened imprisonment, even death. We also see how people have set themselves up to be policemen, who are not real policemen, the men in white shirts, who raid parties and take people prisoner. Most of all, it was the music throughout the film, and the editing, which gave us a feeling of excitement, urgency, panic and fear. And fear is the real subject of the film, I think. Don't miss it, see it on Brightwide, or ask your local cinema to show it. Colin Firth told us that once again, no distributor was in place.

No one knows about Persian Cats
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi, Produced by Roxana Saberi, Bahman Ghobadi, Mehmet Aktas
Written by Bahman Ghobadi, Hossein M. Abkenar, Roxana Saberi
Starring Hamed Behdad, Cinematography Turaj Mansuri, Editing by Haydeh Safi-Yari,
Release date(s) May 2009, Running time 106 minutes, Country Iran, Language Persian (with subtitles)

Sources:
http://www.brightwide.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/BrightwideProject

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GZ3U3Mf-ps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KOwQWU4qvA&feature=related