No One Knows About Persian Cats/Kasi Az Gorbehaye Irani Khabar Nadareh

Directed by Bahman Ghobadi. Starring Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad, Hamed Seyyed Javadi Club, IFI/Light House, Dublin, 107 min

WHEN BAHMAN Ghobadi, director of such recent Iranian gems as A Time for Drunken Horsesand Turtles Can Fly, set out to make a film focused on Tehran's underground rock scene, he might, quite reasonably, have expected to stir up some controversy. But it must have come as a shock to be publicly denounced by his friend and colleague Abbas Kiarostami.

It seems the great director felt the film too outward-looking and too concerned with contemporary trends. Ghobadi – who has, after all, done his time in the neorealist salt mines – responded by suggesting that Abbas was losing touch with the zeitgeist.

At any rate, international audiences will savour the film's fresh insights into Iranian youth. No One Knows About Persian Catsfollows a young band ("indie rock", they proudly declaim) as, rubbed raw by state censorship, they attempt to secure passports and exit visas for a proposed jaunt to London. During their travels, they encounter a heavy metal band, an older classic rock outfit and various less easily classifiable performers.

In truth, the story, though neatly structured, feels a bit thin. The characters too often serve their purpose and then vanish. But, as a survey of current Tehran pop culture, the film proves to be every bit as enjoyable as Fatih Akin's not dissimilar Crossing the Bridge. Like that study of Istanbul's happening beats, Persian Catscannily sets the ways in which all youth are the same (unintentionally hilarious mope lyrics) against the way they differ (the plucky female lead is prohibited from singing solo).

For the most part, western audiences will identify with the heroes' concerns, but, from time to time, their cultural isolation does raise the odd snigger. At one point, the band excitedly falls upon a recent edition of the NME.The NME? Wasn't there a copy of Trad Jazz Weeklyto hand?