No One Knows About Persian Cats (Les Chats Persans) (2010)
87%RT Audience Score: 76%
Awards & Nominations: 7 wins & 5 nominations
Bringing a dose of humor and a fresh perspective to a very serious subject, No One Knows About Persian Cats is an exhilarating, quietly powerful tribute to the courage of Iran’s underground musicians
No One Knows About Persian Cats” is a film that takes you on a wild ride through the underground music scene in Tehran. The movie follows a group of young musicians who are trying to form a band and play their music without getting caught by the authorities. The film is shot in a semi-improvised style, which gives it a raw and authentic feel. The music is fantastic, and the shots of the city are stunning. The movie ends on a tragic note, but it’s still a bracing and vibrant film that’s teeming with life and the overwhelming, sustaining power of artistic expression. If you’re a fan of music and indie films, then this is definitely a movie you don’t want to miss!
Production Company(ies)
Columbia Pictures, Huayi Brothers Media, National Geographic World Films,
Distributor
IFC Films
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Tehran, Iran
MPAA / Certificate
Year of Release
2009
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:1h 46m
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Language(s):Persian
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Country of origin:Iran
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Apr 16, 2010 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 15, 2011
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad, directed by Bahman Ghobadi, written by Bahman Ghobadi, Hossein Mortezaeiyan, Roxana Saberi, drama, Persian language, box office gross $79.8K, IFC Films, reviewed by Nicolas Rapold, Cliff Doerksen, Rene Rodriguez, Ann Hornaday, Ty Burr, Michael Phillips, Stuart McGurk, Richard Propes, Mattie Lucas, John Powers, Jason Best, Mark Dujsik, others, produced by Bahman Ghobadi
Worldwide gross: $901,037
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $1,245,333
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,547
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 135,805
US/Canada gross: $81,768
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $113,012
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,649
US/Canada opening weekend: $8,843
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $12,222
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,663
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Ashkan Koshanejad – Ashkan
Hamed Behdad – Nader
Bahman Ghobadi – Director, Screenwriter
Hossein Mortezaeiyan – Screenwriter
Director(s)
Bahman Ghobadi
Writer(s)
Bahman Ghobadi, Hossein Mortezaeiyan, Roxana Saberi
Producer(s)
Bahman Ghobadi
Film Festivals
Cannes
Awards & Nominations
7 wins & 5 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (62) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (59) | Rotten (3)
What really distinguishes the film-banned in Iran, it goes without saying-is the enormous risks these musicians take, which Ghobadi ultimately drives home with legitimate dramatic license.
July 1, 2013
Nicolas Rapold
Film Comment Magazine
TOP CRITIC
An appealing cast of aspiring young musicians ostensibly play themselves in this naive, shapeless, but often fascinating 2009 drama.
December 30, 2010
Cliff Doerksen
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
No One Knows About Persian Cats ends on a sudden note of tragedy that almost ruins the exuberant spirit of everything that has preceded it.
May 19, 2010 | Rating: 2.5/4
Rene Rodriguez
Miami Herald
TOP CRITIC
Ghobadi has emerged as a filmmaker whose gift for poetic realism was only equaled by an unerring sense of precisely when and how to break the viewer’s heart.
May 14, 2010 | Rating: 3.5/4
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
TOP CRITIC
Over and over, the movie stops in its tracks to listen to musicians play, offering witness to their travails and ingenuity.
May 13, 2010 | Rating: 3.5/4
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
TOP CRITIC
The underground music scene in Tehran comes to life in all these different sort of clandestine studio scenes.
May 10, 2010
Michael Phillips
At the Movies
TOP CRITIC
A rambling but powerful docu-style drama about underground Iranian indie…
May 19, 2021 | Rating: 3.5/5
Stuart McGurk
NME
The film is loosely structured, mostly out of necessity given the constraints of filming under constant threat, but this gives the film a sense of unpredictability.
September 18, 2020 | Rating: 3.5/4.0
Richard Propes
TheIndependentCritic.com
A bracing and vibrant film, one teeming with life and the overwhelming, sustaining power of artistic expression.
August 5, 2019 | Rating: 3.5/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
As we listen to the various bands, Ghobadi offers us video montages of that city – shades of early-’80s MTV. The shots give us a feel for the texture of a sprawling metropolis defined by wealth and poverty, exuberance and repression.
May 17, 2018
John Powers
NPR’s Fresh Air
Semi-improvised and shot on the run, No One Knows About Persian Cats is undeniably rough around the edges, but its raw immediacy is exhilarating.
August 2, 2012
Jason Best
Movie Talk
Moves forward with a carefree appreciation for music and the people who make it, and all the while, bitter reality is waiting in the background, waiting to take over.
December 29, 2010 | Rating: 3/4
Mark Dujsik
Mark Reviews Movies…
Plot
Negar and Ashkan, two young Iranian songwriters, decide to set up an underground band and look for other musicians to join them, but the authorities keep putting a spanner in the works. Fed up with being hindered from expressing themselves, the two young people try to get documents to leave the country for Europe.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The film features real-life Iranian musicians playing fictionalized versions of themselves.
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