Bahman Ghobadi

Bahman Ghobadi vowed last fall he would never come to the United States again. He even went so far as to return a prize he received in October at the Chicago Film Festival for his latest movie, "Marooned in Iraq," after U.S. authorities refused to grant Iran's most prominent Kurdish director a visa to pick up the honor. "I waited five months for a visa but wasn't granted one," says the 35-year-old director through an interpreter. "I had already been to the U.S. three times.

Rock's beginning was all about youth and rebellion and risk, a bit of history that tends to get lost in an "American Idol" world. So "No One Knows About Persian Cats," a heart-pounding descent into the illegal underground music scene of Tehran comes at you like the scream of an electric guitar. Director Bahman Ghobadi shot it on the run in just 17 days and without a government permit, a choice that landed the crew in jail twice during the production. The camera, also not allowed unless it's rented from the state, could have been confiscated at any time.

In the opening scene of Iranian Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi's "Turtles Can Fly," a cluster of Kurdistani children in Northern Iraq stands in a field holding up TV antennas like kites. ("Sexy channels" are prohibited by Saddam Hussein; news channels are not.) The antennas are for gathering information on the upcoming war, which might as well be Christmas for the excitement it's generated among villagers and refugees.

The state of Iranian film, circa 2010, is like Iran in miniature: anxious, uncertain and riven by dissension. And interviewing an Iranian filmmaker, like "No One Knows About Persian Cats" director Bahman Ghobadi, is an experience in stereophonic sound: the director and his translator spend as much time arguing over his responses as he spends actually answering questions. Ghobadi is frustrated, and rightly so.

The state of Iranian film, circa 2010, is like Iran in miniature: anxious, uncertain and riven by dissension. And interviewing an Iranian filmmaker, like "No One Knows About Persian Cats" director Bahman Ghobadi, is an experience in stereophonic sound: the director and his translator spend as much time arguing over his responses as he spends actually answering questions. Ghobadi is frustrated, and rightly so.

Rock's beginning was all about youth and rebellion and risk, a bit of history that tends to get lost in an "American Idol" world. So "No One Knows About Persian Cats," a heart-pounding descent into the illegal underground music scene of Tehran comes at you like the scream of an electric guitar. Director Bahman Ghobadi shot it on the run in just 17 days and without a government permit, a choice that landed the crew in jail twice during the production. The camera, also not allowed unless it's rented from the state, could have been confiscated at any time.

His girlfriend is in jail for espionage and acclaimed Kurdish Iranian film director Bahman Ghobadi is thinking about packing up his scripts and editing equipment and heading to Europe. He is tired, he says, of censors and Islamic politics intruding upon his life and art. But Ghobadi, director of spare, poetic films such as "A Time for Drunken Horses," doesn't want to go anywhere until his girlfriend, Roxana Saberi, is freed on appeal.

UCLA Film & Television Archive's Celebration of Iranian Cinema showcases the work of such contemporary directors as Bahman Ghobadi ("Rhino Season"), Mani Haghighi ("Modest Reception") and Mohammad Shirvani ("Fat Shaker"), as well as paying homage to the country's veteran filmmakers. "A couple of years back, we decided one of the ways we wanted to grow the series for the long term was to look forward and back," said Shannon Kelley, head of public programs for the archive. So the festival kicks off Saturday at the Billy Wilder Theater on a classic note with Bahram Beyzaie's" Downpour," an acclaimed 1972 drama about a Tehranian schoolteacher.

Iranian cinema: An article in Friday's Calendar section about the "20th Annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema" at the Billy Wilder Theatre in Westwood misspelled the last name of filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi as Gohbadi. In addition, the article described the plot of the film "About Elly" as a drama about a woman who disappears while on a pleasure cruise. The woman is on a pleasure trip, not a cruise. If you believe that we have made an error, or you have questions about The Times' journalistic standards and practices, you may contact Deirdre Edgar, readers' representative, by e-mail at readers.

The Malaysian censorship board has banned the local release of "Marooned in Iraq," a film by acclaimed Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi, which details the effect of Saddam Hussein's chemical attacks on the Iraqi Kurds in 1988, according to the British trade publication Screen International. Censorship Film Malaysia described "Marooned in Iraq" as a weapon of U.S. propaganda that could "dangerously jeopardize relations between Malaysia and Iraq."

His girlfriend is in jail for espionage and acclaimed Kurdish Iranian film director Bahman Ghobadi is thinking about packing up his scripts and editing equipment and heading to Europe. He is tired, he says, of censors and Islamic politics intruding upon his life and art. But Ghobadi, director of spare, poetic films such as "A Time for Drunken Horses," doesn't want to go anywhere until his girlfriend, Roxana Saberi, is freed on appeal.

In the opening scene of Iranian Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi's "Turtles Can Fly," a cluster of Kurdistani children in Northern Iraq stands in a field holding up TV antennas like kites. ("Sexy channels" are prohibited by Saddam Hussein; news channels are not.) The antennas are for gathering information on the upcoming war, which might as well be Christmas for the excitement it's generated among villagers and refugees.

Bahman Ghobadi vowed last fall he would never come to the United States again. He even went so far as to return a prize he received in October at the Chicago Film Festival for his latest movie, "Marooned in Iraq," after U.S. authorities refused to grant Iran's most prominent Kurdish director a visa to pick up the honor. "I waited five months for a visa but wasn't granted one," says the 35-year-old director through an interpreter. "I had already been to the U.S. three times.

"A Time for Drunken Horses," the fifth film in this fall's Shooting Gallery Film Series, moves today from the Loews Beverly Center Cinemas to Landmark's Westside Pavilion Cinemas, 10800 W. Pico Blvd. between Westwood Boulevard and Overland Avenue. The series, which began in 1999, has spawned such independent successes as "Croupier" and "Judy Berlin."

The intriguing title of Kurdish Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi's "A Time for Drunken Horses" comes from a practice of Kurds along the rugged Iran-Iraq border. They get their dray animals, mainly mules, inebriated in order to be able to drive them back and forth across the border in severe winter weather as they transport smuggled goods into Iraq. Ghobadi describes his beautiful, heart-rending film, a co-winner of the Camera d'Or at Cannes 2000, as "a humble tribute to my cultural heritage."