"Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the laws of the State always change with them," Plato wrote a very long time ago. Many repressive regimes subscribe to this view, including Iranian authorities who have for the past 30 years banned Western rock and females singing solo. Their attitudes bring to mind the savage response of parents to Elvis Presley's hip gyrations in the United States during the 1950s and the revulsion displayed by Christian fundamentalists for rap music in the 1990s.

Music that takes over the body and runs wild in the streets is dangerous because there is no way to control it. The best policy for governments and institutions that want to maintain power over people is to forbid it and hope it dies out. But, of course, in these times it is impossible to do that, as demonstrated by this engrossing film about Tehran's underground indie-rock scene directed by Bahman Ghobadi's (Turtles Can Fly, A Time for Drunken Horses).

Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad) are gifted musicians who have just gotten out of prison and are trying to find a back-up band for their upcoming trip to London. In addition, they want to play a concert in Iran and need help getting passports out of the country. A recording studio engineer introduces them to Nadar (Hamed Behdad), a gregarious music promoter and wheeler-dealer who seems to know every underground musician in the city. He carts Negar and Ashkan to various hideaways where groups are practicing. One has built a little shed on a roof, and another plays in a cowshed on a farm. They have to soundproof these spaces so that neighbors and strangers don't hear them and report them to the authorities. Negar and Ashkan put themselves in the hands of Nadar who takes them to a shady fellow who makes a fortune forging documents. The music promoter suffers a run-in with the law and must plead with a stern judge not to lock him up and throw away the key.

No One Knows About Persian Cats is Bahman Ghobadi's fifth film, and he again demonstrates that he has a special place in his heart for the yearning of Iranians to be free to express themselves and their creativity without interference from the state. The drama was co-written by imprisoned Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi and was winner of the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

It is estimated that there are 2,000 illegal bands in Tehran alone. Ghobadi puts faces on these rebellious youth who face many dangers just to play their eclectic music. The director intercuts their quest with probing images of Tehran's citizens as they go about their daily activities.


Special features on the DVD include "Making of" ; and the trailer.