Tehran Blues, on OVID.tv

Anyone singing in Iran, necessarily sings the blues. Music is strictly forbidden for women and highly discouraged for men. For obvious reasons, busking is a tough business for a poet and musician like Erfan Shafei, but he and his street musician friends carry on as best they can in Spanish filmmaker Javier Tolentino’s documentary, Tehran Blues, which premieres this Thursday on OVID.tv.

Shafei’s get-together with other regional Iranian folk musicians feels more like a support group meeting than a workshop or a jam session. That does not suggest a great cultural state of affairs. Nevertheless, many of them discuss and perform music with tremendous passion, especially Golmehr Alami, whose vocal feature spot is absolutely hypnotic.

You might consider Shafei’s friends and colleagues the Persian or Iranian equivalent of Roots or Americana music. Many of them explore the neglected folk music traditions of their home regions. Often, you can blues-like undertones to their music. In fact, some of the instrumental solos even have a jazz vibe reminiscent of the Eastern-influenced drone-like recordings of artists like Coltrane and Lateef.

Toletino also follows Shafei on an unstructured, slackery tour Iran, in search of authentic regional music. It provides a fascinating reality check, revealing the genuine attitudes and opinions of working-class Iranians. A rugged fisherman completely upends expectations, expressing his intention to defy his country’s misogynistic two-parts-for-men and one-part-for-women inheritance tradition, because all his sons are idiots, while all his daughters have their act together. Indeed, he sounds quite progressive, albeit somewhat cautiously so.

This is definitely a loosely constructed, unhurried film. The casualness is all part of the charm, but it inevitably contributes to some rather aimless moments, as when we listen to Shafei’s parents nag him to settle down, while he talks to their parrot.

Regardless, much of the music is very grabby rhythmically—and at its best it is truly arresting. The title is arguably quite apt, certainly metaphorically, but also literally and musically, in a very broad sense. It also periodically provides a very personal, unvarnished look at the Iranian everyman psyche. Enthusiastically recommended, Tehran Blues starts streaming tomorrow (5/15) on OVID.tv.