Persepolis

Persepolis; animated drama / comedy, France / USA, 2007; D: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud, S: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian


Tehran, '79. Marjane Satrapi is a little free-spirited girl who imagines she will become the last prophet and that she talks with God. When the Islamic fundamentalist revolution starts and the people overthrow Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, their parents optimistically look at the future in their country. Yet the new government swings towards Islamic fundamentalism, forbids everything from the West and forces women to wear head scarfs, something that bothers Marjane. When the Iran-Iraq war starts, her parents send her to a French school in Vienna, but even there she has hard time to fit in with the crowd. She has nihilist friends and breaks up with her boyfriend, returning back to Tehran. As a woman, she goes to live in France.

A rare film depiction and chronicle of transition from a modern-open into Islamist-repressive Iran, "Persepolis" is funny and sad, cheerful and depressing at the same time, seen from the perspective of the author's Marjane Satrapi's memories from that time. This unusual story is filmed in caricature black and white animation, but already some five minutes into the film the viewers will get use to it and easily get absorbed by its gripping content. Satrapi's thoughts and recollections contain some universal intimacy and wisdom, and thus the story is not against Iran or Iranian people—just against oppression in general. Also, it doesn't hesitate to criticize the West, either: the small regression in which it is implied that the US has been supporting the Shah for decades so that he can carry very pro-American policies, which led to such disgust of the people that after they overthrew him they decided to not have anything with the US anymore, and turned to Ayatollah out of spite, simply sums up almost everything what is needed to give insight into why the circumstances in Iran were the way they were. 

Naturally, as it it often the case with the cicyle of revolutions, the new regime turns out even worse than the previous one. Satrapi shows her autobiography which, although exaggerated, contains a lot of truth—for instance, the scene where the art professor is teaching the class about Sandro Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus" ignites laughter because the whole painting is censored for nudity and only the face of the woman is seen, yet when one realizes that this was actually happening in Iran, the whole thing gains a tragicomic context. In a society where the concept of "sin" has become so overstretched and vague that people can get in trouble just for listening to the Bee Gees, wearing lipstick or a t-shirt that states "Punk is not Dead", Satrapi managed to craft a hilarious piece of observation about her free spirit that wants to defy the narrow restrictions, creating a movie that is at times contagiously fun, culminating in the fantastic "Eye of the Tiger" song sequence that should be considered a classic. Balanced and personal at the same time, "Persepolis" is a real treat.

Grade:+++