Persepolis

Persian culture boasts a glorious history that stretches back three thousand years, but the last thirty years have not been kind. This award-winning animated film is partly a historical review of the political revolution that overthrew the secular-minded Shah in 1978-1979, the eight-year war with neighboring Iraq that followed about a year later and slaughtered a million people (1980-1988), and the religious extremism that filled the power vacuum along the way. In particular, the film follows the plight of a precocious and independent-minded little girl named Marjane and her extended family, and how all this upheaval impacted them. At this level Persepolis is a powerful story about personal identity, cultural consciousness, difficult choices, and historical fate. The film was written and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, and based on the two best-selling graphic novels by Satrapi. In French with English subtitles.

Outstanding statement of a young woman's view of the political turmoil in Iran, and contrasting struggles as an expatriate in Europe. Animated feature is true to the graphic novel, which presents a rare direct voice of an intelligent perceptive woman who lived the events she depicts.

A wonderful movie about Iran narrated trough the eyes of this amazing women. I have few Iranian friends and I always feel odd asking them about what was it like before they escaped, the movie shows it, with a lot of grace and humor. I watched it twice, once in english and once in French with subtitles and it was great both times

One of the finest animated movies I've ever seen. Full of spunk and fun and poignancy, making excellent use of the medium, well-crafted and meaningful. An aid to cultural understanding even as it presents a case for defiant individualism. Smart, sassy, entertaining, and mandatory viewing for girls from 10 on up, as a view of female self-empowerment in the midst of formidable obstacles.

Hand-drawn animation, especially simple black-and-white drawings, is so rare to see on the big screen that one has to appreciate the emotional nakedness that Marjane Satrapi and her fellow cartoonist Vincent Paronnaud bring to this 2007 fictionalized memoir of Satrapi's formative years as the free-spirited daughter in a liberal Iranian family. The 95-minute film follows the same abstract style found in her best-selling autobiographical graphic novel, adding color for the present-day scenes and using a shadow theater approach to the historical sequences. The cumulative effect works well within the context of the story's volatile emotional changes as it alternates in quicksilver fashion between poignant, funny and harrowing. The film reminds me a bit of Mark Forster's adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, which also has a protagonist forced to live in exile due to the advent of war and tyranny. The difference is that Satrapi's family stayed in Tehran throughout the turmoil brought on by the Shah's overthrow, the oppressive fundamentalist regime that followed, and the Iran-Iraq war. Some of this comes across as a bit muddled, but the propulsive narrative drive and empathetic voice characterizations compensate greatly.

The plot flashes back to Marjane's childhood in Iran during the 1970's as she gradually begins to understand how her family has been mistreated and imprisoned due to their Communist leanings under the Shah. Once the Islamic Revolution deposes of the Shah in 1979, the family faces even more persecution by the new government. Forced to wear a burqa, Marjane has an escalating desire to express her individuality through listening to heavy rock music and questioning authority at every turn. During the 1980's, Marjane's parents decide to send their daughter to Austria to continue her education since Iran was becoming a political hotbed with the oncoming Iran-Iraq war promising even greater horrors. In he meantime, Marjane never fits into Viennese student life, and her situation worsens with a series of bad romantic relationships. She ends up on the streets, and her desperation becomes such that she returns home to Iran. Falling into a crevasse between Western and Eastern cultures, Marjane falls into a depression until she faces up to her true fate. What Satrapi and Paronnaud do especially well is make the animated Marjane's journey a universal one that gives personalized insights into the current challenges facing the Middle East.

The 2008 DVD offers both the original French and English-dubbed versions of the feature. The filmmakers recruited quite a cast of voices to inhabit the characters, including Chiara Mastroianni as Marjane, her mother Catherine Deneuve as Marjane's mother, and another legend, Danielle Darrieux as Marjane's feisty grandmother. Deneuve and Darrieux played mother-and-daughter in Jacques Demy's candy-coated musical, The Young Girls of Rochefort over four decades earlier. On the English version, Mastroianni and Deneuve repeat their roles, but Gena Rowlands takes over for Darrieux. There are several other extras on the DVD, the chief one being a half-hour documentary in French, "The Hidden Side of Persepolis", which gives a highly detailed look at the production process. Satrapi and Paronnaud are interviewed extensively, as are several crew members and both the 91-year-old Darrieux and Mastroianni (a dead ringer for her father Marcello). There are two other pieces - a brief short, "Behind-the-Scenes of Persepolis", which focuses primarily on the English dubbing process with Rowlands and Iggy Pop, and a half-hour press conference held at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival with Satrapi, Paronnaud, the film's producers, as well as Mastroianni and Deneuve. There is no full-length directors' commentary track, but three scenes have individual subtitled commentary - Satrapi on the opening scene in color, Mastroianni on the amusing "Eye of the Tiger" scene, and Paronnaud on the establishing shots of Vienna. Particularly interesting are five other scenes where we are shown the storyboards versus the final animation.