Persepolis

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Persepolis

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Persepolis

Amethyste Frezignac, Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Danielle Darrieux, François Jerosme

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.

Id: 10888169

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Persepolis Recent Reviews
  • AgentLexi2132
    December 26, 2009
    AgentLexi2132
    ''In this life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's their own stupidity that makes them act that way. That will keep you from responding to their meanness. There's nothing worse in this world than bitterness and revenge. Hold your head up and s...( read more)tay true to yourself.''


    Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.

    Chiara Mastroianni: Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi, as a teenager and a woman (voice)

    Gabrielle Lopes: Marjane as a child (voice)

    Persepolis is not only just an animated film or indeed a comic but one that captures one girl growing up. In the same vein as Grave of the Fireflies this film is not for children like it's cartoony looks would suggest.


    What we get from Persepolis is Marjana Satrapi's vision of a life consisting of struggle, control and the freedom for women to do anything scarily non existent. Captivating that the 80s and 90s are depicted in Iran in such a way of death, of war and of propaganda and ideology that I felt that this world was so backward. Marjane's way of life felt like it was stuck in a bygone era like the early 1920s to 1940s. Her imagination and creativity are brought to life and cleverly Persepolis uses black and white to convey the immense desperation, the depressed state of society in Iran and the lack of free rights of suppressed, controlled women.

    Animation has the advantage of permitting a pace that allows a lot to be included into a simply and honestly told story, particularly in early childhood and adolescence. Very thought inducing in seeing how atrocities and cruelties are perceived through little childrens eyes, particularly little kids growing up in an environment where these acts are a normal way of life.

    As a teenager looking for punk music in the black market, Marjane walks through a throng of peddlers trying to sell her an assortment of trendy videos, including disguising Micheal Jackson as Jichael Mackson is genius.

    Communism is crushed, propaganda cast away and bloody fighting and martyrs frequently being produced. Marjane's life growing up as Persepolis shows us is a hard one full of strife. Yet for all its seriousness there is humour there also.
    Throughout the movie a sense of humour that is at times very sarcastic, yet very amusing.
    Be it sequences where she talks to God in his cloud or as a girl pestering her Uncle about his ideals and Communist past and life. Be it her making the transition from girl to woman in a very amusing sequence that shows all the joys of getting older. Sarcasm of my own there in case you failed to notice.

    Persepolis ends with a beautiful rendition of her grandmother and her smelling of luscious flowers put into her bra area. This for me really does show a sense of how great life can be whatever trouble there is, good is always lurking somewhere, waiting to break free.
    Whether it be Marjane's ill fated relationships or defiance of a teacher, or even men telling the women to cover up more and Marjane standing up to them, there are so many sides to this story Persepolis has to offer.
    Thus becoming in my eyes a definite masterpiece of emotion, feeling and capturing the plight and suffering not just of one woman but also of a whole nation.

    Simply breathtaking, Persepolis is nothing short of greatness and told in a medium bordering on simplicity yet emerging as genius.
  • middleeasternfilms
    October 30, 2009
    middleeasternfilms
    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.
  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    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!!
  • organgrinder136
    September 22, 2009
    organgrinder136
    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!
  • RossCollinsUK
    August 29, 2009
    RossCollinsUK
    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.
  • hawkledge
    December 27, 2009
    hawkledge
    Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical, graphic novel animated adaptation with Vincent Paronnaud, bleak, heavy, and difficult meditation on the psycho-social impacts of extremist political and religious oppression and ethnic, cultural identity. Mesmerizing visual invention and self-r...( read more)eflexive, sociological insight.
  • filmfanatic1982
    December 19, 2009
    filmfanatic1982
    An engaging story with a very distinctive animated style.
  • alexbasketball
    December 8, 2009
    alexbasketball
    yeah i liked it, but if im honest the main character i found uninteresting. i was far more interested in her fathers and uncles stories. the animation was decent, i liked the simple fit they went with, though i would of liked to see more colour... that could of been too cliche' o...( read more)n the part of flash back/present.
  • rpederson1
    December 7, 2009
    rpederson1
    Brilliant animation.
  • UsernameMissing
    November 24, 2009
    UsernameMissing
    I was really surprised how great this movie was,it comes to that that the 'perfection' of the animation doesn't really matter what really counts is the story and how it is presented.
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