'No One Knows About Persian Cats': A pair of Iranian rebels just want to rock

There's a lot of music in "No One Knows About Persian Cats," and all of it is illegal. The catchall "indie rock" that's rehearsed or performed in barns, fields, basements, abandoned buildings or rooftop shacks by ragtag bands of shaggy hipsters isn't inherently offensive or subversive. But because this is Tehran, the simple fact that it exists as a vestige of decadent Western culture makes it treasonous to the core.

Constructed on the fly with lightweight digital cameras and extreme guerrilla tactics, "Cats" is half documentary and half wispy narrative about a pair of musicians eager to express themselves through the music they love. Director Bahman Ghobadi follows the musical duo Negar (Negar Shaghaghi) and Ashkan (Ashkan Koshanejad) — recently released from prison for practicing their art — to capture the thriving pop, rock, emo, rap, folk and metal scene that flouts the law on the gritty streets of urban Iran.

Negar and Ashkan need a backup band and forge documents so they can follow their dream of traveling abroad and start gigging for real. Ghobadi discovered the pair of real-life musicians as they were looking for fake passports just after their release from prison, so his movie really is an imitation of life.

Their mission takes them on a freewheeling tour with stops to hear a clutch of energetic bands that just want to rock and couldn't care less about politics. The fact that Ghobadi ignores his country's political situation makes it all the more dangerous in the context of his subject matter and insurrectionist style.

Aiding Negar and Ashkan is a motormouth huckster named Nader (Hamed Behdad), who has connections all over the city. He is the guide who shows them and us the bustling energy of rock music as it actually exists in Tehran. He's also the primary character to give the movie its semblance of narrative structure.

The dynamic sequences of musical performances are interspersed with vignettes that come off tense or comic as the trio moves through back alleys and the underground in an urgent, life-and-death quest for freedom and rock 'n' roll.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com