“No one knows about Persian Cats”
Today Iran has become an important topic in the news. Iranian politics, Iranian mullahs, an Iranian nuclear bomb, Iranian veiling of women; also Iranian architecture, mosques, etc, but few people concern themselves with the issues of young people in Iran who make up the majority of Iranian society. When we talk about young people in Iran, we are talking about another Iran; about a different Iran which we can hardly perceive of the reports in international media. It is an “illegal Iran” which exists on an invisible level in Iranian cities; an invisible city of the majority of the country. It constitutes the only possibility to keep hopes alive. I call this level of existence in Iran the “underground level” which stands in stark contrast to the visible level which I refer to as the “aboveground level”.
The most intense scene in the underground level in Iran is that of art. There are many different cellar forums for photographers, journalists, musicians, painters, etc. They work hard and produce much, organizing exhibitions, concerts, plays, or writing articles, publishing short stories and poems, etc. on the internet. They sell their products in the cellar-journals that are recognized by inhabitants of the underground in the cities. Sometimes there are even festivals and prizes for the best writers, photographers, actors, bands, etc., which are again recognized only on this level in the city. They write, paint, sing, and take pictures related to politics, power, poverty, class differences, hopes and disappointments; also about love, freedom, pride; about Iran and their spirit of resistance.1
No one kws about Persian Cats is a film about the underground music scene in the city of Tehran. Since the Islamic revolution of 1978, Iran has been living under strict Islamic rules. Many things are forbidden In Iran — such is the case in Iranian cinema. This movie is about a taboo subject in Iran: western music. Islamic laws of sharia ban the public performance of any kind of western music and female solo singing. Despite threats of imprisonment, whipping and other punishments, Tehran youth defy the ban and continue to create music in the underground studios. Usually when we hear people in other countries talking about “underground music” they are speaking metaphorically, but in No one knows about Persian Cats, the term takes on an all-too-literal meaning. Ghobadi’s movie, a fiction film with documentary elements, explores Tehran’s underground music scene which harbors indie-rock, hip-hop, heavy metal, Latin jazz and other styles.