''No One Knows About Persian Cats'' ( fa, کسی از گربه های ایرانی خبر نداره, Kasi az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh) is a

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Iranian film directed by

Bahman Ghobadi Bahman Ghobadi ( fa, بهمن قبادی; ; born 1 February 1969 in Baneh, Kurdistan province, Iran) is an Iranian Kurdish film director, producer and writer. He belongs to the " new wave" of Iranian cinema. Biography He was born in Baneh, a K ...

produced by

Wild Bunch The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...

. The film offers the perspective of Iran as it explores its underground rock scene. It won the Special Jury Prize Ex-aequo in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section at the

2009 Cannes Film Festival The 62nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 13 May to 24 May 2009. French actress Isabelle Huppert was the President of the Jury. Twenty films from thirteen countries were selected to compete for the Palme d'Or. The awards were announced on 23 M ...

Plot

The film follows two young musicians (Ashkan and Negar) as they form a band and prepare to leave Iran shortly after being released from prison. The pair befriends a man named Nader ( Hamed Behdad), an underground music enthusiast and producer who helps them travel around

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and its surrounding areas in order to meet other underground musicians possibly interested in forming a band and later leaving the country.

Cast

* Hamed Behdad *

Ashkan Kooshanejad Ashkan Kooshanejad (Persian: اشکان کوشانژاد; born 13 August 1985), also known as Ash Koosha, is a British-Iranian technology entrepreneur, multidisciplinary artist, futurist and innovator. He is known to use computer software such a ...

* Negar Shaghaghi

Bands and musicians

* Take It Easy Hospital * Rana Farhan *

Hichkas Soroush Lashkari ( fa, سروش لشکری; born 9 May 1985), known professionally as Hichkas ( fa, هیچ‌کس), is an Iranian rapper, singer, and songwriter. Credited with popularizing Persian hip hop to the Iranian people and other Persian-sp ...

Meysam Eddie Meysam, Maitham or Maytham ( ar, ميثم, az, Meysəm, tr, Meysem, fa, میثم) is an internationally used male name given name originating from the Semitic languages. The name comes from the Arabic root w-th-m and means ''crushing'' as in ...

The Yellow Dogs The Yellow Dogs were an Iranian-American rock band, formed in 2006. The band was formed in Tehran, and is now based in Brooklyn, New York. Two of the band's founding members were brothers, Soroush (guitarist) and Arash (drummer) Farazmand; the ...

* Shervin Najafian * Ash Koosha *

Mirza (band) Mirza may refer to: * Mirza (name), a name derived from a historical noble title * Mirza (lemur), ''Mirza'' (lemur), a genus of giant mouse lemurs * "Mirza", a 1965 French-language song by Nino Ferrer * Mirza, Kamrup, a town in Assam, India * Mirz ...

* The Free Keys *

Mahdyar Aghajani Mahdyar Aghajani ( fa, مهدیار آقاجانی; born 22 January 1989) is a musician, record producer and composer born and raised in Tehran, Iran. He raised the standard of Iranian underground music, using Persian traditional instruments (s ...

* Darkoob * Hamed Seyed Javadi * Nik Aein Band

International cinema release dates

* 23 December 2009: France * 3 February 2010: Belgium * 26 March 2010: U.K. Limited release: Curzon Soho and key cities * 16 April 2010: U.S. (New York City only)
* 16 April 2010: Italy * 15 July 2010: Israel

Reception

Awards and nominations

Its first official screening was at the

where it won the Special Jury Prize Ex-aequo in the

section. *

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

: ** Special Jury Prize Ex-aequo in the

section (won)

Accusations

Shortly after the release of the movie, Iranian director Torang Abedian accused Ghobadi of having used many ideas for his movie from her documentary ''Not an Illusion'', made from 2003 to 2008 and released in the same year. According to Abedian, her camera operator got a call from Ghobadi and left her afterwards to make the movie about the same topic with Ghobadi in a few days.http://oe1.orf.at/artikel/245863 - Austrian radio station

Ö1 Österreich 1 (Ö1) is an Austrian radio station: one of the four national channels operated by Austria's public broadcaster ORF. It focuses on classical music and opera, jazz, documentaries and features, news, radio plays and dramas, ''Kabarett' ...

References

External links

Underground Musicians Fight The Man In Tehran

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

movie review by Mark Jenkins, 2010-04-15, accessed 2010-05-07. *
In-depth review of the film and its soundtrack

No One Knows About Persian Cats Soundtrack

This is music from a brave and extraordinary musical movement
BBC review {{François Chalais Prize 2009 drama films 2009 films Films directed by Bahman Ghobadi Iranian drama films 2000s Persian-language films Rock music films