Film Co-Scripted By Saberi Screened In Cannes

A film co-scripted by Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi and directed by her fiance, Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi, was screened in the "Un Certain Regard" section of the Cannes Film Festival today.

Saberi was released from Tehran’s Evin prison on May 11 after her eight-year prison sentence on charges of espionage was reduced to a two-year suspended prison term. She shares screenwriting credits with Ghobadi and Hossein M. Abkenar.

The film “No One Knows About Persian Cats” explores Iran's underground music scene and centers on the attempts of a man and a woman who after their release from prison decide to form a band.

Ghobadi, who has won several international awards for his other movies including "A Time for Drunken Horses" and "Half Moon," issued an emotional letter last month when Saberi was still in jail, where he said she was his fiancee.

Saberi's father, who refused to comment on the letter, had suggested that Ghobadi was trying to take advantage of his daughter in order to publicize his new movie.

Ghobadi, whose movies have been censored or banned in Iran, has said that Saberi had encouraged him "to make a film about the situation in which I found myself."

-- Golnaz Esfandiari