Review of No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009) by Jasminka G — 22 Apr 2010

Ghobadi's films aren't as rigorously controlled or formalised as those of his countrymen Kiarostami or Makhmalbaf, but they have great spirit: here is a director who genuinely likes people, and not even during his most ostensibly political work, 2004's "Turtles Can Fly", did he feel compelled to wag his finger at his audience.

.. It's a shame he plumps for what we might call the festival ending - the conclusion most likely to play to the ingrained pessimism of critics - even as it asserts his own independence in the face of the Iranian authorities' demands for easily exportable cultural cheerfulness.

For most of its duration, this is Ghobadi's most youthful-seeming picture to date: a funny, sunny, unusual teen movie that will probably play just as well to Iranian cinema buffs as it will to kids raised on "Glee" - the music, diverse and surprising, isn't half bad, either.