Persepolis

The black-and-white animation, highly stylized and two dimensions which doesn't attempt to render the usual cartoon 3-D, summarizes in quick, intelligent flashes, often impressionistic, growing up in Teheran and Vienna from a highly personal point of view. The narrative is as original as the art. The narrator, Marjane Satrapi, only daughter of an educated Teheran couple, first sketches in briefly how the Shah first came to power,only to lose it and have it replaced by the fanatical religious regime of today. Educated in a French school, she and her family are rapidly alienated from the so-called revolution; she is sent to Vienna to continue her education, falls in with a group of punks and eventually returns both depressed and disillusioned to Teheran where, with other university students, she must submit to the rule of extreme Islamists.

The story covers a great deal of ground from the point of view of a young pro-Western culture radical, and is told with humor and intelligence. She laughs at herself as much as at the semi-lunatic Guards of the Revolution.

Satrapi's hold on reality is much strengthened under the influence of her highly honest grandmother who teaches her not co compromise, not to betray and not to give in.

This is no fairy tale with flying horses and beautiful princesses, but a serious, unsentimental and sometimes brutally honest film covering, among other events, the story of the millions of Iranians and Iraqis who died in a now forgotten seven year war around the Persian Gulf.

Adapting "Persepolis" in my opinion was a very important project. Especially (but not only) during times of fear and extreme distrust regarding other ethnicities it's necessary to communicate better understanding for these cultures. Films are capable reach millions of people all around the world. Therefore this medium is a very effective way to do this (unfortunately it can also get misused in the opposite direction).

Seen from this cultural perspective "Persepolis" is an entertaining feature which also meets a certain social responsibility. To me it is the right picture at the right time. In a individually visualized way this animation picture shows Marjane Satrapis personal biography and gives you an idea about the historical background of the Iran and the way of living in this part of the world. Besides several tragic moments "Persepolis" never loses it's humour.

In a short: "Persepolis" is a very true and affectionate adaption of the original comic also drawn by Satrapi who directed the film. An important issue and not only for this reason I truly recommend it !

I came out of this movie feeling as if I knew Marjane Satrapi. The way in which the story is told is fantastic - it really is as if you're reading her journal. As she grows up from being a young girl to an adult, at each age the story is told with a corresponding maturity, and highlighting things which seem like very personal memories. As a young girl, the stories she is told are very black and white, and as she gets older the complexity increases, which is exactly what you would expect. Although there is lots of political activity, she makes fun of herself and highlights her own shortcomings as much as she highlights the repressive elements in her homeland. By telling of her own experiences it really is extremely easy to see how so much of it is common to a whole generation of Iranians. Her love of her family and her country came across very strongly, and you really felt as if she had laid herself bare. A moving and entertaining movie as much as it is educational about post-1979 Iran.

It's quite unusual for a writer to adapt its own book to the screen, especially when it's a comic-book (well, Frank Miller's done it, but that's another story), and especially when it's an autobiographical comic book. That's the originality of this movie, which is the adaptation of a autobiographical graphic novel by its very author. "Persepolis" deals with the life, and especially the youth of Marjane Satrapi, in Iran, during the reign of the Shah and the Islamic revolution. But if the memories could be easily told alone in front of a blank paper, isn't it harder to be true and sincere when you are surrounded by a all animation crew ?

That's the great achievement of the movie : to be true to the comics and therefor, to the life of Marjane. The best parts of it are all about her personal relations, with her grandmother or her uncle. You really have the feeling that she relates all this events to praise their memories and who they were. On the other side, the political scenes and historical point of view that supposedly are the goal of the movie seem to me a little less good than the family or personal souvenirs. It may be true but it seems a little bit simple and even cliché sometimes (see for instance the history of the Shah for all audiences). The personal view on the repercussion of the Islamic repression is way better than this kind of big exposes. The death of a young man trying to escape the police after a party or the attitude of a man insulting her mother in a parking tells us more about the regime in Iran than the speech the movie sometimes (but not so often) gives us.

So, paradoxically, the more personal the movie gets, the truer it is. The all rapport the difficulties to left your country and to adapt to another world seems for instance very honest and touching. The childhood period, told in a comic strip style is both funny and melancholic. In the end, this movie is far from being a movie about Iran, but only tells an individual life, crying for freedom in a country were a woman can't reach it, but transfigured by personal memories and a strong animated point of view, that uses all the techniques and styles a comic-book adaptation could offer.

Marjane Satrapi's venture to present the chronicle of the Iranian Islamic revolution filtered through the eyes of a lively and cheeky, French-educated young girl is bold and ambitious. To do so by the help of strong-silhouetted, axe-carved, triangle-nosed cartoon figures is even more peculiar. Her powerful heroine – Marjane, named by no coincidence after the creator – however, spectacularly succeeds in replacing and emulating any possible real flesh characters. She is intellectual, witty, utterly impudent and very funny; the essential Euro-kid of the wild and untamed 1970s and early 1980s.

This brilliant movie serves as a study proving that animation is more powerful and potent than ever before no matter how unsophisticated and basic the visual elements are. And although the technique used in Persepolis has long been present it can be said that perfection has just been achieved.

Satrapi's work is so very French: wantonly intellectual, acrimoniously witty, utterly sarcastic and outrageously funny. However, even this masterpiece could not escape common places and is not without disturbing occurrences of generalization of characters and situations. Still, you will have a wide and genuine smile on your face coming out of the theater. Persepolis is per se unique and compelling with the ability to make you smile at the right moments - when tension has built up too much.