Interview with Persian Cats

Not only is Cinémoi dedicated to bringing you the best from French cinema, but also we are also eager to support exciting international features, many of which are funded and championed in France.

Cinémoi is excited to present an interview with Negar Shaghaghi and Ashkan Koshanejad, who play fictionalised versions of themselves in Bahman Ghobadi’s 'No One Knows About Persian Cats'. Joining a band with your friends to make good music in the western world is seen as teenage right of passage, however, in Iran this form of creativity comes with a higher price.

In his fifth (and clandestinely shot) feature, Bahman Ghobadi ('A Time for Drunken Horses', 'Turtles Can Fly') captures the vibrant music scene in the capital Tehran, home to 2000 underground bands, doomed to remain under the radar due to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's ban on 'Western and decadent music'. Ergo the film’s title - pet cats, like rock musicians, are outlawed in Iran.

Ghobadi's film, which blurs the lines between film and documentary, follows a pair of musicians, Negar and Ashkan, who, after being released from jail, decide to take their rock band to Europe with the help of a smooth talking bootlegger Nader (Hamed Behdad, the film’s only professional actor).

Beyond shedding light on this oppressed music scene and the political resistance movement in Iran, Ghobadi continues to engender cinematic acclaim, winning the Special Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival. Moreover, the two dynamic leads, Negar and Ashkan, reveal they are just as talented on set as they are on stage with their real-life band ‘Take it Easy Hospital’ and provide valuable insight into the obstacles faced by artists trying to thrive under an oppressive regime.

With Special thanks to John Paul Pryor