A film Nobody Knows About Persian Cats, are you asking this question? I would change the title a bit to ask “no one who knows the Persian people”. Nobody Knows About Persian Cats takes us into the Iranian underground music scene. Many in the Western world and especially in the United States might be astonished when talking about an underground music scene in Iran. I believe director Bahman Ghobadi's film about the underground music scene not only exposes the current Iranian government's crackdown on freedom of expression, but also shows a side of Iranian culture that many would never have thought existed. I believe this film upholds many truths about democracy and free speech, but also exposes the demagoguery of many in the West who portray Iran as a united front of political Islam. Finally, it also shows the fallacy of Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations. The film No One Knows about Persian Cat centers on two musicians recently released from prison for performing music without permission. Negar and Ashkan are two musicians together with their promoter Nader trying to put together a band to play in Europe since they are unable to play in Iran. The film has all the synergy of a Cold War spy novel with our protagonist stealthily walking through basements and padded rooms throughout Tehran. Along the way they meet a large and diverse group of people, surprisingly most of these people don't sing songs about anger against the West. They are very similar to American independent groups who direct their music towards issues in their lives. I think part of the film tends to dispel the idea that all the people of the Middle East and Western Asia are determined to destroy Western civilization. In Samu... in the center of the sheet... as well as in many others (December 2007). Instead of always facing conflict and war, I believe the United States would be better off supporting various independent groups such as musicians, artists, and scholars. I believe that this, in the long term, would lead to a better world for those living in Iran today, as well as for relations between the two countries and those in the Middle East. Works Cited by Bahman Ghobadi, (2009). Nobody Knows About Persian Cats [DVD] Bahman Ghobadi, (2004). Turtles Can Fly [DVD] Green December, LL (2007). Comparative Politics of the Third World. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc. Khalidi, R. (2009). Sowing crisis. Boston: Beacon Press. Globalization Reader Frank J. Lechner John Boli, Blackwell Publishing Samuel P. Hunington “The Clash of Civilizations” Foreighn Affairs 72.3 Summer 1993 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc