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Ashkan and his girlfriend Negar dream of forming an indie rock band and travelling the world.

Pretty normal ambitions, you’d think. But not in the ayatollahs’ Iran, where playing the wrong sort of music can land you in jail.

Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi paints a vivid picture of the Tehran music scene – literally underground, since only in sound-proofed cellars can Iranian kids safely get in the groove.

The mid-section drags slightly, but the cumulative effect is powerful, revealing what it’s like to live in a society where even well-behaved kids can be crushed by the dictates of arbitrary, heavy-handed authority