Persepolis, released on DVD June 24, 2008, is an animated movie, but its intended audience is adults. In French with English subtitles, Persepolis was the winner of the 2007 Cannes Jury prize and was nominated for an Academy Award. Co-directed by Marjane Satrapi, who also wrote the graphic novel on which the film is based, the story is autobiographical—the main character’s name is also Marjane Satrapi. The plot follows Marjane, an independent, rebellious girl, as she grows up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the years after.
Politics
Persepolis begins in the late 1970s with the young Marjane watching the Islamic Revolution take place around her. Her family’s feeling of idealism during the regime change is short-lived; they quickly realize the new regime is just as bad, if not worse, than the old. As Marjane goes through her childhood, she is also confronted with the Iran-Iraq conflict, and hears stories of neighbors’ sons being sent off to war.
As Marjane grows into an adolescent, Iran becomes even more of a police state, and women are required to cover their bodies in public. The “morality police” have also banned alcohol and popular music. In one funny and poignant scene, Marjane walks down a street lined with men in trench coats trying to sell her black-market goods—tape recordings by Western musicians such as Iron Maiden and Michael Jackson (whom the seller refers to as “Jichael Mackson”).
Family
The political aspects of this film become humanized by events in Marjane’s family. Marjane’s favorite Uncle is arrested and killed by the new regime, and Marjane is devastated. This, along with the general political turmoil, forces her parents to send her abroad to Vienna, where Marjane faces new problems. As Marjane matures into a woman, she struggles to find herself in a foreign culture, and during this time she makes and breaks friendships, and falls in and out of love like any teenager. After one particularly bad break-up, she even ends up homeless.
Marjane then returns to Iran and to her family, but she encounters more struggles as the code of behavior enforced by the police becomes even more repressive. Not allowed to hold hands with her boyfriend in public, she decides to marry him, a decision which turns out to be a bad one. In the end Marjane must leave her husband, and the family she loves so much, in order to seek her freedom elsewhere. The final scene is bittersweet: Marjane sits in a taxi driving away from her homeland, a place both loved and loathed.
Animation
Persepolis is animated in mostly black-and-white. The characters are not realistically rendered, yet their faces are very expressive of emotion. Indeed, the film’s stark animation is reminiscent of German Expressionist films. However, the whole movie is not in black-and-white; it begins in color, in present time, with the older Marjane looking back on her childhood, and the film ends in color, when Marjane leaves Iran for the last time.
The fact that colorful animation bookends the film makes the black-and-white animation that much more meaningful. The black-and-white animation signifies that the bulk of the film is reminiscence, and it also reflects the mood and the political atmosphere of the film. In these days of CGI, old-school animation like that of Persepolis can seem like a unique, humanistic art.
Directors: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Run Time: 95 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Special Features:
- The Hidden Side of Persepolis
- Behind the Scenes of Persepolis
- 2007 Cannes Film Festival Press Conference
- Animated scene comparisons with commentary by Marjane Satrapi
- Commentary on select scenes
Jacqueline Vogtman - Jacqueline Vogtman is freelance writer, editor, and proofreader who has lived in New Jersey most of her life. She graduated from The ...
