BAHMAN GHOBADI Wants the World to Know About Persian Cats

Filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi has gone to great lengths for his art, so much so that he is now living in exile from his native Iran. His latest film, No One Knows About Persian Cats, has been banned in Iran and the director’s cowriter and fiancée, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, was even imprisoned by the Islamic regime.

According to Ghobadi, whose other credits include A Time for Drunken Horses and Turtles Can Fly, “In the eyes of Islam, music is impure, giving rise as it can to cheerfulness and joy. Hearing a woman singing is considered a sin, because of the emotions it stirs. For the last 30 years in Iran, certain music, and, in particular, western music, has been virtually forbidden by the authorities. It has been forced into hiding underground; it must be played munderground and listened to underground! Even if this music has been hidden, it has not disappeared. In all these years, few have dared acknowledge it. This intrigued me, and the idea for the film was born.”

No One Knows About Persian Cats follows two young musicians recently released from prison who decide to form a band. Together they search the underworld of contemporary Tehran for other players. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan to escape from their clandestine existence to perform in Europe. Shot in documentary fashion, the movie was made guerilla style, without permits and without the ability to ever go to a location twice for fear the cast and crew would be arrested.

“When I made this film,” the director recalls, “I was so afraid, not for myself, I was worried for all the artists in my film. I cry out in this film and I represent all the young people who cry out in Iran for their rights. That’s what is suppressed in Iran. That’s why there’s such a revolt on the streets. We merit better than this. That’s why now they’re in the streets and they won’t go back.”

The film, which also includes an adventurous and wonderful soundtrack, actually breaks down barriers and misconceptions many of us have about life in Iran. Ghobadi’s main characters, the real-life band members of Take It Easy Hospital, come across as normal youths with a dream of starting their own band. You would think this kind of representation would help build cultural bridges but that’s not the case.

“I’m not talking of the fall of the Islamic Republic,” Ghobadi explains, “I’m talking of the need to act and let people talk. We need people to put themselves forward. The youth need to be given the reins to the country. I love music. If I weren’t a filmmaker I would make music. We went to the underground studio to record my music and that’s where I met some of the people in the film.”

Knowing full well this film will never be allowed to screen in Iran, the filmmaker released several bootleg DVDs and encourages people to view the film and pass it along, even if it is against the law, acknowledging how much film meant to him growing up.

“Cinema gave me the courage to make No One Knows About Persian Cats. From the moment I ventured into the heart of Tehran and descended the dark steps into the cellars where this music is played, I discovered a strange world, different and fascinating. It is a hidden world of rebel musicians, unseen and unheard by the majority of the city’s population. And as I witnessed their world, their lives, their artistic concerns, the dangers they face, troubles with their neighbors, arrests by the police, savage beatings and more... When I saw all they go through simply because they sing, play an instrument, love music, I said to myself that this film had to be made.” ▼