# No One Knows About Persian Cats (کسی از گربههای ایرانی خبر نداره)

**No One Knows About Persian Cats** (Persian: کسی از گربه‌های ایرانی خبر نداره, romanized: Kasi az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh) is a 2009 Iranian docudrama directed by Bahman Ghobadi that follows two young Tehran musicians trying to assemble a band and obtain passports so they can perform abroad, while touring the city's illegal underground music scene.<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)</sup> Shot without a permit and banned at home, it opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and won that section's Special Jury Prize.<sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2009/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-opens-certain-regard/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.screendaily.com/un-certain-regard/top-un-certain-regard-prize-goes-to-dogtooth/5001767.article)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Bahman Ghobadi, who also produced; screenplay co-written with Hossein Mortezaeiyan and Roxana Saberi<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)</sup> |
| Production | Iran, 2009; Farsi language; 106 minutes; 35mm; produced by Mij Film Co., world sales by Wild Bunch<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)</sup> |
| Principal cast | Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, and Hamed Behdad<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt3538319/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B3%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%DA%AF%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF-1388)</sup> |
| Filming conditions | Shot illegally in Tehran in 17 to 18 days with a small crew; the crew was arrested twice during filming<sup>[5](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/13510)</sup> |
| Cannes 2009 | Opened Un Certain Regard on 14 May 2009; won the section's Special Jury Prize<sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2009/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-opens-certain-regard/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.screendaily.com/un-certain-regard/top-un-certain-regard-prize-goes-to-dogtooth/5001767.article)</sup> |
| Status in Iran | Seized during production and never shown in Iranian cinemas<sup>[6](https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/persian/arts/2013/03/130328_aparat_week_13)</sup> |
| Aftermath for cast | Leads Ashkan Koshanejad and Negar Shaghaghi applied for asylum in the United Kingdom after the 2009 Iranian presidential election<sup>[7](https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f35_Kushanejad_No_one_knows_about_Persian_cats/1798702.html)</sup> |

## Spoilers

### Story and approach

The film's protagonists, Negar and Ashkan, are young indie rock musicians who have just been released from prison, where they were held for playing rock music. They travel through Tehran looking for bandmates to complete their line-up for a promised concert in London, and they need passports to leave the country; a third character tries to arrange forged passports and to organize a secret concert for them before they go.<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt3538319/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B3%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%DA%AF%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF-1388)</sup>

The narrative frame is thin by design. Ghobadi uses it as a tour of real underground acts, rappers, metal bands, and indie rockers playing music banned under Iranian law in cellars, rooftops, cow farms, and makeshift rehearsal spaces.<sup>[5](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/13510)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://www.pghcitypaper.com/arts-entertainment-2/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-1343933/)</sup> Most performers are real musicians rather than professional actors, telling their own stories inside the fictional storyline.<sup>[9](https://www.northcoastjournal.com/arts-scene/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-2131968/)</sup> Ghobadi said he interviewed musicians for two or three weeks and tried to reenact their real lives, keeping their actual conversations and real locations; nothing, he said, was invented.<sup>[10](https://www.avclub.com/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-filmmakers-bahman-ghoba-1798224676)</sup> The film intercuts musical numbers with street footage of Tehran, and reviewers noted its MTV-like montages of a city presented as chic, cosmopolitan, repressed, and impoverished at once.<sup>[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2010/04/25/bahman-ghobadi-raising-up-the-underground/2c741d09-603f-4576-8ecd-ab4464c992a4/)</sup> The IFFR synopsis explains the title as a reference to an Iranian law that bans dogs and cats from going outside.<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)</sup>

## How the film came about

**Origin.** Ghobadi, an Iranian-Kurdish director previously known for *A Time for Drunken Horses*, *Turtles Can Fly*, and *Half Moon*, had spent two to three years trying to obtain a permit for a project called "60 Seconds About Us" (or "60 Seconds About Me" in some accounts) and was rejected repeatedly. A music-producer friend took him to a recording studio, where he met Tehran's underground musicians and decided to make a film about them without permission.<sup>[10](https://www.avclub.com/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-filmmakers-bahman-ghoba-1798224676)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2010/04/25/bahman-ghobadi-raising-up-the-underground/2c741d09-603f-4576-8ecd-ab4464c992a4/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[12](https://www.blogowitz.com/2010/04/stifled-by-the-state-bahman-ghobadi/)</sup> He described the 18-day shoot as a form of music therapy after the permit battles.<sup>[10](https://www.avclub.com/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-filmmakers-bahman-ghoba-1798224676)</sup>

**The co-writers.** The screenplay was written with Hossein Mortezaeiyan, a noted Iranian writer, and Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist who was Ghobadi's partner at the time and also co-produced.<sup>[1](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[11](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2010/04/25/bahman-ghobadi-raising-up-the-underground/2c741d09-603f-4576-8ecd-ab4464c992a4/)</sup> Saberi was arrested on 31 January 2009, charged with espionage, and became an international cause célèbre before her release in May; she had seen an initial cut of the film before her imprisonment.<sup>[10](https://www.avclub.com/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-filmmakers-bahman-ghoba-1798224676)</sup>

**Guerrilla methods.** The production used borrowed permits from friends' unrelated film projects; in one scene, real police officers who believed they were working on a drug film performed an arrest that appears in the finished movie. Ghobadi reported only one direct police questioning during the shoot, in the Tajrish district of Tehran, which he defused by showing the officers DVDs of his earlier films.<sup>[13](https://filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/spring2010/persian-cats.php)</sup> The Melbourne festival notes the crew was arrested twice during filming.<sup>[5](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/13510)</sup>

## Censorship and consequences

The film was made without a production or exhibition permit and was seized in Iran; it never received a cinema release there, although it circulated on DVD and later on the Iranian video platform [Aparat](https://www.edgepedia.org/aparat).<sup>[6](https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/persian/arts/2013/03/130328_aparat_week_13)</sup> Ghobadi said he sent high-quality DVDs into Iran with a message inviting people to copy them freely, and that the film reached more viewers inside the country this way than any of his previous works.<sup>[10](https://www.avclub.com/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-filmmakers-bahman-ghoba-1798224676)</sup> At Cannes he said the country's censorship and restrictions meant he might not go back; he subsequently went into exile.<sup>[14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYw0amU-JC8)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[15](https://hafteh.ca/uploads/mag/nr85-web.pdf)</sup>

The consequences reached the cast. After the film's Cannes screening, Iranian news agencies reported that its makers faced problems and that the film was banned and illegally made. Ashkan Koshanejad and Negar Shaghaghi, who were in the UK on visas for a concert and [film promotion](https://www.edgepedia.org/film-promotion), applied for asylum to the British government after the June 2009 presidential election, citing the arrest of a musician colleague and the risks of returning; actor Hamed Behdad returned to Iran without reported problems.<sup>[7](https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f35_Kushanejad_No_one_knows_about_Persian_cats/1798702.html)</sup> A Glasgow PhD thesis on Iranian cinema records that Ghobadi himself was subjected to repeated arrests and intimidation, and that assistant director Mehdi Pourmoussa was among those arrested in the wider crackdown on filmmakers.<sup>[16](https://theses.gla.ac.uk/3494/1/2011lovattphd.pdf)</sup>

## Release and reception

After its 14 May 2009 premiere opening the Un Certain Regard section, the jury led by [Paolo Sorrentino](https://www.edgepedia.org/paolo-sorrentino) awarded the film a Special Jury Prize, shared with Mia Hansen-Løve's *Father of My Children*; the section's main award went to [Yorgos Lanthimos](https://www.edgepedia.org/yorgos-lanthimos)'s *Dogtooth*.<sup>[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2009/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-opens-certain-regard/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.screendaily.com/un-certain-regard/top-un-certain-regard-prize-goes-to-dogtooth/5001767.article)</sup> The film later won three awards at the 13th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.<sup>[17](https://persianweekly.co.uk/Issues/2009/126/No126.pdf)</sup>

Distribution followed the festival run. Network Releasing acquired the film for the United Kingdom,<sup>[18](https://news.gooya.com/society/archives/096839.php)</sup> and in France, where Mars Films handled release, the distributor expanded from 85 to 110 prints within three weeks of the French opening.<sup>[19](https://ir.voanews.com/a/cats-2010-1-18-82033502/149449.html)</sup> Critics described it as a fast, funny celebration of one of Iran's marginalized minorities, rock musicians, and as a quasi-documentary panorama of the city's music underground.<sup>[5](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/13510)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[20](https://www.villagevoice.com/peering-into-iran-with-no-one-knows-about-persian-cats/)</sup> The film claims more than 300 musicians perform Western-style music in Iran, most of them literally underground in soundproofed basements and apartments.<sup>[21](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/one-knows-persian-cats-60147/)</sup>

## Place in Ghobadi's career

The film marked a turn in Ghobadi's work from the poetic, rural Kurdish films that made his reputation toward social realism in a big city, his first feature shot in Tehran rather than [Kurdistan](https://www.edgepedia.org/kurdistan).<sup>[22](https://www.iranintl.com/202609180448)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[23](https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2009/12/22/en-iran-il-faut-creuser-pour-decouvrir-la-verite)</sup> It also introduced international audiences to figures of Iranian underground music, including the rapper Hichkas, whose videos were edited into the film by Fred Khoshtinat.<sup>[24](https://cheshmmultimedia.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/bahman-ghobadi-eludes-the-censors/)</sup> Persian-language commentary has credited the film with introducing Iran's underground music culture to world audiences.<sup>[6](https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/persian/arts/2013/03/130328_aparat_week_13)</sup>

## References

1. [No One Knows About Persian Cats, International Film Festival Rotterdam archive](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2010/films/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats)
2. ["No One Knows About Persian Cats" opens Certain Regard, Festival de Cannes (14 May 2009)](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2009/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-opens-certain-regard/)
3. [Top Un Certain Regard prize goes to Dogtooth, Screen Daily (25 May 2009)](https://www.screendaily.com/un-certain-regard/top-un-certain-regard-prize-goes-to-dogtooth/5001767.article)
4. [کسی از گربه‌های ایرانی خبر ندارد، منظوم](https://www.manzoom.ir/title/tt3538319/%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%D9%85-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%DB%8C-%DA%A9%D8%B3%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%DA%AF%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%87%E2%80%8C%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%AE%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF-1388)
5. [No One Knows About Persian Cats, Melbourne International Film Festival archive](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/13510)
6. ['کسی از گربه های ایرانی خبر نداره' در آپارات, BBC News Persian](https://bbcbreakingnews.pages.dev/persian/arts/2013/03/130328_aparat_week_13)
7. [همه از گربه‌های ایرانی باخبر شدند, Radio Farda](https://www.radiofarda.com/a/f35_Kushanejad_No_one_knows_about_Persian_cats/1798702.html)
8. [No One Knows About Persian Cats, Pittsburgh City Paper (24 June 2010)](https://www.pghcitypaper.com/arts-entertainment-2/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-1343933/)
9. [No One Knows About Persian Cats, North Coast Journal](https://www.northcoastjournal.com/arts-scene/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-2131968/)
10. [No One Knows About Persian Cats filmmakers Bahman Ghobadi and Roxana Saberi, The A.V. Club (18 March 2011)](https://www.avclub.com/no-one-knows-about-persian-cats-filmmakers-bahman-ghoba-1798224676)
11. [Bahman Ghobadi: Raising up the underground, The Washington Post (25 April 2010)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/2010/04/25/bahman-ghobadi-raising-up-the-underground/2c741d09-603f-4576-8ecd-ab4464c992a4/)
12. [Stifled by the State: Bahman Ghobadi, interview (2010)](https://www.blogowitz.com/2010/04/stifled-by-the-state-bahman-ghobadi/)
13. [Bahman Ghobadi's 'No One Knows About Persian Cats', Filmmaker Magazine, Spring 2010](https://filmmakermagazine.com/archives/issues/spring2010/persian-cats.php)
14. [Cannes Interview: "No one knows about Persian cats", AFP (15 May 2009)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYw0amU-JC8)
15. [آتوسا اخوان، هفته‌نامه پرشین](https://hafteh.ca/uploads/mag/nr85-web.pdf)
16. [Lovatt, PhD thesis on Iranian cinema, University of Glasgow (2011)](https://theses.gla.ac.uk/3494/1/2011lovattphd.pdf)
17. [هفته‌نامه پرشین، شماره ۱۲۶](https://persianweekly.co.uk/Issues/2009/126/No126.pdf)
18. [اکران «کسی از گربه‌های ایرانی خبر ندارد» در انگلیس، ایسنا via Gooya News](https://news.gooya.com/society/archives/096839.php)
19. [موسیقی متن فیلم «کسی از گربه های ایرانی خبرندارد»، صدای آمریکا](https://ir.voanews.com/a/cats-2010-1-18-82033502/149449.html)
20. [Peering into Iran with No One Knows About Persian Cats, The Village Voice](https://www.villagevoice.com/peering-into-iran-with-no-one-knows-about-persian-cats/)
21. [No One Knows About Persian Cats, Backstage Magazine](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/one-knows-persian-cats-60147/)
22. [«درخت‌ها نظاره‌گرند»؛ بهمن قبادی، Iran International](https://www.iranintl.com/202609180448)
23. [CINÉMA. "En Iran, il faut creuser pour découvrir la vérité", Courrier International (22 December 2009)](https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/2009/12/22/en-iran-il-faut-creuser-pour-decouvrir-la-verite)
24. [Bahman Ghobadi Eludes the Censors, Cheshm Multimedia (31 March 2011)](https://cheshmmultimedia.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/bahman-ghobadi-eludes-the-censors/)

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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Musical and music films (individual works) › Musical films of the 1990s and 2000s*

*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*

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