Persepolis

I had not seen a real good animated movie in a long time. This fit the bill even in its black an white form. This story of a Muslim woman living through a revolution and culture shock would be of great interest to a progressive open minded woman. It has many laughs as well. A perfect movie for the times. I don't think religious traditionalists would approve but a piece of work worth the scrutiny and dollar.

For its trimmed-down storytelling and visually-appealing animation style, the sub-titled Persepolis is a smart, interesting, creative movie that I enjoyed right up to its last twenty minutes, when alas it fizzled. If it had had a better ending, or even a more definite ending, it'd be five-stars all the way. I have seen Persepolis several times since buying it last month and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes an imaginative story or who wants to learn more about the Iranian Revolution, the Iran-Iraq War, or the struggle for the stifled soul to breathe free inside a fundamentalist Islamic Republic. Persepolis does a grand job of putting faces onto Iranians of the extraordinary and mundane stripe, from a charming old grandmother, to a kindly uncle tragically murdered by revolutionaries, to everyday kids lethally persecuted for trying to have party. Above all Persepolis cracks many stereotypes and shows the uniqueness and goodness in everyone, even as it stares down those who would seek to crush the human spirit in the name of their God. It also irrefutably condemns the evils of Islamism, which is merely another guise for totalitarian of an all-too familiar order. Personally I enjoyed the segments of the movie set in Iran more than I did the forays into Europe, but those too served as nice contrasts, and overall this is a film that stands above most of what's out there lusting after your ever-dwindling entertainment dollar.

How about I call Persepolis four and a half stars and tell you you should see it?

plot: Marjane Satrapi grows up during the rise of the fundamentalist regime in Iran.

animation: Lovely deco art style, it reminded me of Edward Gorey in some ways, and propaganda posters in other ways.

languages: french and english.

This film has a wonderful sense of reverence for family history, and at the same time a wonderful sense of irreverence for the local political ideologies which grip Iranian culture today. If you don't know what happened to women's rights when the Fundamentalist's rose to power in Iran, this film explains these things with simple, tough charm. It's important that this film even exists, imo. I think everyone should see it, whether they like it or not- it will give you alot to think about and hopefully, talk about.

*spoiler*

If I have one problem with this film, it's that as the main character grows older and more disenchanted (while trying even harder to fit in) with the intolerance towards women in her society, the story turns to several pointless romances. After an hour and a half of feeling like a witness (thru Marjane's recollections) to an avalanche of personal tragedy and the humor that comes with surviving it, we jarringly go into a weird romantic interlude, where Marjane has a string of crappy relationships, gets married, gets divorced, leaves Iran yet again (and presumably for good) at which point the film ends.

Kindof like someone pulling the needle across the vinyl before a good song ends, and I understand she's making a political statement about how she feels; that there's nothing she has left but the memories of her family, uncle and grandmother... its just that the romantic interlude cheapened the power of it.

For this viewer.

Still a damn important cultural document, though. See it.

Iran is still to these days in the focus of world wide attention. After Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appearance in Clumbia University last year, it seems that nothing has been changed since the Islamic revolution that took place in 1978. Iran is a fundamentalist country oppressing freedom of speech not to mention the thousands who were brutally emprisoned and executed since the fled of the Shah. Persepolis - the name of the ancient capital of Persia during the Achaemenid Empire in 550-330 BC.
Alluding to ancient Persia is of no coincidence; it meant to bring to the open the tragedy of the people of Iran whose freedom is constantly denied by treaturous leaders. The comic book, or to be exact - the graphic novel written by Marjane Satrapi focuses on her expirience as a child grown up in between two eras - the Shah and Komeini, and the means the new regime took to indoctrinate its fundemental islamic ideology. The film is based on Satrapi's book, carefully adheres to its style by using straightforward simple images mostly in black and white telling the story of Satrapi's life in Iran as a child and in Vienna after she fled from her country. Being an animated film, it is not an entertaining film suitable for children. It is a poignant film which takes us through the harsh times Satrapi and her family went through the dark days of 1978 telling the story of the Iranian nation at large.

Ben Baruch Blich, ph.d.
History and Theory dept.
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design
Jerusalem

With all do respect regarding all the work that went into making this wonderful film, I have one major critique. Since when do Iranians speak French? and why are they speaking French?
The French language is simply distracting, especially in the first half of the film. I constantly had to remind my self that this story is based in Iran and not in France, and only when I would hear an Iranian name!

There are many wonderful animations made in various languages and they seem to work majority of the time except for this particular story line, and for many reasons.
The animation is minimal/monochromatic, and cultural references are kept to a minimum even though the cultural identity of the film, and the cultural identity of the main character are very much the center pieces of the story. More importantly the writing is based on historical political events, and not just a simple satire.

As a result, looking at characters dressed in modern western clothes, calling out Iranian names in French accents makes one think that the characters are based in a home in Paris during the turmoils of Iranian revolution. With everyone in black and white, and a story based on such a major historical event just deserves some damn authenticity, and not characters who can barely pronounce their own names correctly.

I have one suggestion to the French speaking creators of Persepolis,lets make an animation film about the French revolution in Arabic only!! lets see how distracting that will be, or even better in Algerian..