The musicians are having trouble finding a drummer and a good rehearsal space. But that's the least of their challenges in No One Knows About Persian Cats. Negar and ashcan are alternative rock musicians in Teheran, a city where the guest list isn't a nuisance but a necessity. The gigs are invitation only and no one wants to invite the police.
The award-winning Persian Cats (out on DVD) was co-written by Roxana Saberi, the Iranian-American journalist imprisoned for running afoul of the regime, and directed by Bahman Ghobadi (A Time for Drunken Horses), who filmed it on location and on the fly. It's an exuberant fiction with the ring of reality as Negar and Ashkan desperately try to recruit a band and obtain visas for London, a music capital looming like the Promised Land. They're actually pretty good songwriters and performers, but have few opportunities in a country where underground rock is really underground. Rehearsal spaces are heavily soundproofed (and not just for noise ordinances), musicians are sometimes arrested and gigs require permits seldom granted.
The clock is ticking in Persian Cats as Negar and Ashkan try to organize their affairs in time for a planned show in London. There is much racing on motorbikes through the teeming streets of Teheran, a sprawling metropolis where ancient and modern jostle each other in a claustrophobic embrace. Befriended by a wheeler-dealer who will help them for a price, they visit a heavy metal band forced to rehearse in a concrete cow barn and a rap group shooting a video on top of a high rise. Negar wears the mandatory headscarf while a bandmate sports a CBGB t-shirt. Some of the music heard along the way draws from Persian tradition, some is sung in Farsi and some in English, the lingua franca of rock. Persian Cats shows a youth culture in opposition to the fundamentalist Islamic regime, distilling influences from all over into music of surprising power.
