No One Knows About Persian Cats

After serving jail time for his involvement in an illegal rock concert, the young musician Ashkan wants to form a new band with his partner Negar and leave Iran. With the help of the likeable but shady Nader, the pair has fake travel documents drawn up while simultaneously scouring Tehran’s underground scene to recruit additional band members.

This fictionalised documentary, in which almost all participants play themselves, achieves what current news coverage fails to do: offer authentic insights into everyday life in Tehran. With great energy but no false sentimentality, director Bahman Ghobadi, who currently lives in exile, depicts a generation of young people whose passion for music is greater than their fear of the authoritarian regime. A courageous film, in which the very notion of making music itself becomes an act of subversion.