Amethyste Frezignac, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni

Marjane is precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl who was nine years old during the Islamic Revolution when the fundamentalists first take power--forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousan...( read more  read more... )ds. She cleverly outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden, while living with the terror of government persecution and the Iran/Iraq war. Then Marjane's journey moves on to Austria where, as a teenager, her parents send her to school in fear for her safety and, she has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Marjane eventually gains acceptance in Europe, but finds herself alone and horribly homesick, and returns to Iran to be with her family, although it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.

Flixster Users

93% liked it

21,135 ratings

Critics

96% liked it

128 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 35 min.

Directed by: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi

Release Date: December 25, 2007

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DVD Release Date: June 24, 2008

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Flixster Reviews (7,696)


  • October 30, 2009
    Oddly amusing animated film about a girl who grows up in the disjointed, violent middle east then moves to France to begin a new life. The movie is strangely intiguing and slick to a point, but points off for it being in French. I don't speak the language, so having to try and re...( read more)ad the subtitles while catching everything onscreen really took the fun out of the movie. Very enjoyable anyway.
  • October 1, 2009
    Simple but beautiful animation telling a truly original and heart wrenching story of one girls struggle. A Fantastic and important film, please go see it!!
  • September 22, 2009
    felt a bit too in your face and educational, all a tad sanitised. the history element to it was interesting but the story itself was uninvolving. the animation was simplistic. if i'm being honest i fell asleep for the last 20 minutes but i know it is something i shall never want ...( read more)to watch again. best to steer clear!
  • August 29, 2009
    A sad biography of a woman from an intellectual, liberal family who grew up through the Iranian revolution. Filmed as an almost Peanuts style cartoon animation, the story tries to also be a documentary that at times can make it a bit too dry and prosaic, which the ending only ser...( read more)ves to emphasise.
  • August 27, 2009
    Totally unique, a film portraying a message that would benenfit many people to watch. Animated in sillouette style, this very serious subject matter is tackled controversially, yet in an educational way.

    This film isn?t just about Culture, Religion, Polictics, battle of the se...( read more)xes or Coming of age ? it?s a combination of all.

    Refreshingly unique
  • November 8, 2009
    As an autobiography it does not extrictly has a climax or an end but works more as a journey that gives us some lessons or guidelines. The animation is simple but does not need more to create a superb movie. The girl navigates through all kinds of personal problems and lives hi...( read more)storical changes and the movie shows all her daily life reactions to this changes. There is never a triumph, some things are just saidjust as there are, sarcasm is used if neccesary. I finally had the feeling that she was not born in the right place or moment, or that she was stuck in reality that will never overpass, even though she clearly said that life had a propose.
  • November 3, 2009
    La joya más reciente de la animación francesa ha llegado y se llama Persépolis, una película biográfica sobre una niña iraní que ve como la guerra transforma su mundo y la hace entrar en contacto con el exterior y con la búsqueda del sentido de la vida.

    Esta coproducción ...( read more)franco-iraní está basada en una novela gráfica homónima y es dirigida en conjunto por la autora, Marjane Satrapi, y por Vincent Paronnaud. Además de ser una película biográfica (biopic) Persépolis puede ser englobada perfectamente en el drama político debido a la crítica abierta de la protagonista hacia el régimen fundamentalista de su país, a pesar de esto, la película se aleja de ser un vil panfleto y se centra en mostrar la vida de la protagonista.

    Marjane es una niña iraní con fuerte contacto con las ideas revolucionarias y de izquierda que inundaron el mundo en los años 70's, por lo que tanto ella como su familia festejan la caída del dictador (Sah), sin saber que el nuevo régimen implementaría políticas ultra-conservadoras tomando al Corán como mayor ley. Es por esto que, al no poder adaptarse a su nuevo entorno, los padres de Marjane deciden protejerla enviándola a estudiar a Europa.

    En este nuevo medio, la ahora joven entra en contacto con una cultura completamente distinta a la suya y con todo tipo de ideas y corrientes de pensamiento, particularmente el nihilismo, que la llevan a perder su identidad y a renegar de su origen con tal de ser parte de algo por una vez en su vida.

    Es esta misma necesidad que la lleva a relaciones fallidas y a buscar en su familia la pertenencia a algo, es por esto que regresa a Irán, sin embargo, al darse cuenta de que tampoco podía ser parte de eso, entra en contacto con las drogas y termina buscando la felicidad al casarse. Como era de esperarse, Marjane termina dejando su vida marital para encontrar su pertenencia a algún lado; dándose cuenta solo al final que su identidad era lo que la hacía parte de algo y que, aunque Irán no era el lugar para ella en se momento, ella era Marjane Satrapi, una iraní y orgullosa de serlo.

    Este filme, sin duda, está cargado de crítica social y mezcla en él una gran cantidad de temas y mensajes que, a pesar de que comparten un tono feminista, son tan diversos como los que hay en la vida de cualquier persona.
    Lo más evidente en la película es la crítica hacia la guerra y hacia la política autoritaria e intervencionista de los países de la época, pero además incluye mensajes sobre diversidad, tolerancia, liberación femenina, anarquía, socialismo y libertad.

    Claramente una película de contenido, un trabajo fuerte también y uno muy distinto a todo lo visto con anterioridad; lo más notorio de la película es la familiaridad con lo que la protagonista va narrando, con un humor muy fino, las anécdotas que conforman su vida. También es remarcable la animación, original pero efectiva, tan hermosa como simple y fácil de asimilar en conjunto con la trama.

    El problema con esta película es la evidente ausencia de la dirección en el trabajo final, así como el poco tiempo que se toma para analizar cada etapa de la vida de Marjane, lo que contribuye a la dificultad que existe para relacionar al espectador con la protagonista; pese a todo, Persépolis es un filme sumamente frescoo y creativo, un regalo de la animación europea y una de las mejores películas políticas de la década.

    ****
  • October 29, 2009
    Marjane is precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl who was nine years old during the Islamic Revolution when the fundamentalists first take power. She cleverly outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden, while living with the terror of governmen...( read more)t persecution and the Iran/Iraq war. Then Marjane's journey moves on to Austria where, as a teenager, her parents send her to school in fear for her safety and, she has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Marjane eventually gains acceptance in Europe, but finds herself alone and horribly homesick, and returns to Iran to be with her family, although it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.. (*taken from FLIXSTER review)... STRONG in STORY TALE... an EXCELENT movie...
  • October 22, 2009
    The history element to it was interesting, but the story itself was uninvolving. The animation was simplistic.
  • October 18, 2009
    "I remember I led a peaceful, uneventful life as a little girl. I loved fries with ketchup, Bruce Lee was my hero, I wore Adidas sneakers and had two obsessions: Shaving my legs one day and being the last prophet of the galaxy."

    PERSEPOLIS (2007)
    ...( read more)

    Director: Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi
    Country: France / United States of America
    Genre: Animation / Biography / Drama / War
    Length: 96 minutes

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    Any person claiming Persepolis to be one of the best animated films of the new century is completely correct. Persepolis is a revolutionary, provocative and poignant animated masterpiece abundant in style and creativity throughout. To make such an enchanting and wonderful biopic in an unusual way is a direct demonstration of vision and talent. Aimed at several masses regardless of their specific political ideologies, Persepolis is a multiphacetic tale with a specific moral message for every viewer, making a direct invitation to personal reflection and not deviating from a powerful, cathartic moment.

    This gorgeous piece of animation is set during the days prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and its aftermath, a shattering and catastrophic landmark event seen through the eyes of Marjane Statrapi, an Iranian girl who witnesses the resuting fundamentalist regime of her country devastated by the Shah. Events are recalled from her mind while we explore the vast and mixed beliefs of her idealistic family and the hardships that bring sadness and disappointment throughout her life. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year, losing against the masterful, yet inferior film Ratatouille (2007). However, it won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated fo a Golden Palm which lost against Cristian Mungiu's 4 Luni, 3 Saptamâni si 2 Zile (2007) after a very strong competition.

    The animation itself is a spellbinding achievement, like if the audience were witnessing a comic book gaining cinematic life with an unstoppable rhythm. Once again, the language is not a distracting characteristic. It adds a poetical tone to the film with enough sympathy to be kept entertained. Adapting several political ideologies, the Iranian Revolution is ultimately used as the principal environmental motive to develop a character that is so complete and so submissve towards the influence of a surrounding society that it instantly becomes an interesting icon. Thanks to the talent of a brilliant French dubbing, the overall efectiveness is as striking as a lightning.

    Persepolis interprets the act of revolution as a necessary transitional period for the successful reign of the proletariat and a benign outcome of nationalism. Capitalism is reported as a complete destroyer and the film does not deviate from the typical concept of the refusal of the society's ideologies, so totalitarian control is still a present factor in Eastern cinema. With an extraordinary use of animation that nostalgically homages the black and the white of the legendary film-noir genre so the overall emotions present in each frame can be dramatically enlightened, Persepolis falls in love with expressionistic art forms, such as the German Expressionism, for adding the biggest amount of visual magic possible, making so much transitions that the brilliance is overabundant.

    The concepts of the hatred towards national heroes, ripping their faces from text books, and that of decaying anarchy are essential and relevant terms that mold the personality of Marjane, thus limiting the freedom of speech and expression. However, the plot is told and narrated with such joy and hyperactivity that the final result is a unique experience of its kind, referencing pop culture that have defined the last three decades. It also uses a brilliant mix of the hardships that human relationships imply with an intelligent sense of humor, including the usual stupidity of unfaithful men and the vanity and intuition of a woman.

    "Inventiveness", "revolution", "humor" and "creativity" are arguably the key terms for describing this film. Its vision has surpassed those of the biggest and most successful animation studios regarding most of their films. It decided to resort to a classic style of animation and allowed the story to unfold at an undeterminate rhythm and acquire a genius style of its own. The film provides a moving and heartwarming sensation when the credits start to roll, but this coming-of-age manifesto has declared war to the lack of quality of modern cinema, including the fully-CGI animated mainstream gargabe that govern the big screens nowadays. Persepolis is a complete masterpiece.

    98/100

Critic Reviews


January 25, 2008
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

A film as personal and eccentric as Satrapi's original book, a black-and-white, hand-drawn memoir of growing up and away from Iran. full review

January 18, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

It might seem that her story is too large for one 98-minute film, but Persepolis tells it carefully, lovingly and with great style. It is infinitely more interesting than the witless coming-of-age Wes... full review

January 17, 2008
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

This French-speaking Iranian cartoon clan is one of the most relatable families I've seen onscreen in ages. full review

December 26, 2007
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Persepolis austere as it may look, is full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.

December 26, 2007
Claudia Puig, USA Today

With its powerful fusion of the whimsical, satirical and emotional, Persepolis may well be the most original, inventive and moving film of the year. full review

December 17, 2007
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

An exhilarating reminder of what animation can do that other media can't. full review

December 17, 2007
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

There is no denying the boldness of Persepolis, both in design and in moral complaint, but there must surely be moments, in Marjane's life as in ours, that cry out for cross-hatching and the grown-up ... full review

November 16, 2007
Marcy Dermansky, About.com

Extraordinarily moving and wildly informative. full review

October 11, 2007
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

This is a sturdily poetic movie, rendering in black-and-white a world where nothing ever is. full review

View more Persepolis reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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