Audio transcription

In his latest film, Ghobadi films not in Kurdistan but in Tehran – specifically, in the apartments, squats and basements of Tehran’s underground musicians. Nevertheless, he still films in the same way: mixing fiction and documentary, based on the actual lives of his actors. His subjects here are two young musicians looking either to get a permit to play their indie rock or else to get a visa in order to leave the country. Ghobadi’s agile camera follows the two down alleyways and in and out of impromptu jam sessions and illicit concerts. In between the scenes of the musicians as they search for a way to leave the country, legally or illegally, are sequences of various kinds of musicians active in Tehran’s lively music scene. – DP