When the government refuses to issue the foreign musicians with work permits, they contemplate arriving as tourists and playing anyway вЂ“ before the 2013 election ushers in the more moderate Hassan Rouhani as president and the visas are suddenly issued. Still, Sara keeps at it, navigating her way through endless pettifogging about how many women can sing on stage, at what volume, and whether they can move their bodies while singing. вЂњDoes anything have a clear answer in this country?вЂќ demands a government official during one of SaraвЂ™s meetings at the ministry. It depicts a society not just fearful of the authorities (a street-seller repeatedly insists he has no CDs by the Iranian singer Googoosh until heвЂ™s certain Sara isnвЂ™t in the secret police), but also struggling against Kafka-esque bureacracy. Turn up late to the rehearsals, shout вЂAllahu Akbar!вЂ™ and let off an explosionвЂќ). The film is often drily funny: SaraвЂ™s mordant expression as she listens to an Islamic scholar explain why a group of women singing together canвЂ™t inflame menвЂ™s desires, but a solo female singer can, via an extended metaphor involving cheese the exasperation of the Iranian musicians when their French counterparts appear to be scared off from coming to Tehran by the worsening situation in Syria (вЂњLetвЂ™s scare them more when they arrive. What happened over the ensuing months is captured in No LandвЂ™s Song, a film that weaves a history of female singers in pre-revolutionary Iran (including the exceptionally ballsy Qamar-ol-Moluk Vaziri, who in 1924 became the first woman in Iran to perform without a hijab in front of men) around SaraвЂ™s struggle to get her gig off the ground. For the first time, we could use the headscarf in a positive way.вЂќ вЂњThatвЂ™s a good thing about a hijab,вЂќ he says. During SaraвЂ™s many visits to the Iranian Ministry of Culture, he couldnвЂ™t shoot at all вЂ“ instead, while pleading her case, his sister wore a wire to record conversations. He was forced to shoot covertly, using a small camera. Based in Germany, he says he вЂњwasnвЂ™t that welcomeвЂќ in Iran, as a result of his 2008 documentary Football Under Cover, about an attempt to stage the first female soccer match in Iranian history. SaraвЂ™s brother, the film-maker Ayat Najafi, offered to help organise the show and make a documentary about it, but his presence proved a mixed blessing.

Irani songs 2015