by Scott Rice - SGN Contributing Writer

No One Knows About Persian Cats
Opening April 30

Music is a universal language that often touches young people in powerful ways. Ah, youth, those headstrong searchers of truth, those romantics, filling rooms with poetry, raging hormones, and wanderlust while searching for the answers to the previous generation's failures.

It doesn't matter where they come from, either. Young folks from Berlin to San Francisco, from Moscow to Buenos Aires, from Tokyo to Tehran, express their angst, frustration, passion, and hope through music. No One Knows About Persian Cats is about two young musicians from Tehran and their passionate desire to express themselves through music in the shadow of an oppressive government that draws its authority from religious tradition.

Negar and Ashkan have just been released from prison and their first order of business is to form a band, get some cash, and obtain forged passports so they can fulfill their dream of making music and traveling across Europe. No One Knows About Persian Cats follows the couple though the underground culture of contemporary Tehran, a city in which certain types of music have been banned since the Islamic revolution 30 years ago.

Curiously, Negar and Ashkan could be a couple of kids from Kirkland lurking around Capitol Hill looking for other kids to jam with. The main difference for the Iranian duo is that they could be in big trouble for singing the wrong lyrics, striking the wrong chord, or even listening to the wrong song.

The owner of an underground recording studio puts them in contact with a purveyor of forged documents. They go to his office and make a deal to buy the fake passport Ashkan needs to get out of the country.

The young couple seems to truly believe they can make it out, even if I didn't. The heavy-handed message about political oppression is annoying, and I longed to simply watch the fascinating journey of two people in a world I'd never be allowed to visit. Instead, the writer/director Bahman Ghobadi tortures the political message that would have been more poignant had he trusted his narrative structure and allowed the oppressive nature of contemporary Iranian culture to bubble up through the scenes depicting the subterranean world of Tehran's music scene.

The best parts of No One Knows About Persian Cats are the sequences in which the kids meet up with various bands and musicians to find members for their own band. They go from one underground location to another, listening to a distinct style of music at every turn. The music runs the gamut from traditional Persian poetry set to traditional Persian music to an awesome Iranian version of heavy metal that must be seen to be believed.

No One Knows About Persian Cats is now playing at Landmark's Varsity Theatre. The story's interesting - even if the message is a bit overwrought - but the real reason to see this terrific film is the amazing music.

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