Film Review: Persepolis on DVD

Persepolis An animated drama. Voices of Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Danielle Darrieux. Written and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud. (Note: Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop provide voices in the English language soundtrack).

Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969, in an Iran much different than one feared by the Western world today. Though ruled by a dictator known as the Shah, the first 10 years of her life were happy times. She grew up in a loving family and encouraged by them to be a free, independent spirit.

It all changed in 1979, when the Shah was overthrown. Ironically, many in Iran thought that the overthrow of the dictator would lead to a more progressive regime. What they got was the Ayatollah Khomeini. The world and homeland Marjane loved had no place for a free spirit like her-particularly a female free spirit. The music, sneakers and jackets she loved were now off limits. She, her mother and independent grandmother now had to shroud their heads from view of men. A brutal war with Iraq and Saddam was soon to follow.

However, Marjane’s feisty, independent streak can’t always be concealed. When she dares to wear a “Punk is Not Dead” jacket on the street, she comes frighteningly close to being arrested. In a sad, chilling scene, her sobbing, enraged mother informs her of what happens to girls like her in prison. Rather than risk seeing their daughter’s will broken, her parents decide it is best to send Marjane to live with friends in Vienna.

Austria does offer her freedoms she no longer had in her homeland, but she soon finds she does not fit in there, either. She feels she is straying too far from the values she is raised with and that she is losing her identity. She returns home to Iran, only to find the oppression has only worsened. The land she truly longs for and feels she fits in best simply no longer exists.

I realize that the above summary of the plot might make this film seem awfully depressing. While there are some cold, hard truths in the story, there are also moments of exhilaration. For one thing, Marjane is a character that is worth following and caring for. Though tragic events often leave her feeling defeated, she never gives up. Secondly, she is encouraged on by the true heroine of the story, her wise and perhaps surprisingly feminist grandmother, who never lets her granddaughter lose her dignity, even in a society that clearly treats women as second class citizens.

Marjane and her family are also rather startling to Western audiences. The real Iran is closed off from the Western world and the prevalent image of the people, fair or not, is of God fearing zealots who follow their mullahs like sheep. How revealing and refreshing to see an Iranian family that loves each other, that likes to have fun and encourages their child to be a free spirit. It is also a family that is not happy with the repression of the regime and wants the freedom to live their lives as they see fit (though not often reported, it is believed that many current Iranians do feel this way; they do not like being ruled under the iron thumb of the mullahs and want their country to be more open to the West).

The film follows the two-dimensional black and white stencil drawing of Satrapi’s widely acclaimed graphic novels. The style at first might seem rather amateurish in the time of Pixar, but it fits this film perfectly. As Satrapi herself eloquently explains in the making of featurette, a cast with Persian actors would be limited to a story about “those people.” The animation is a brilliant choice, for it adds universality and a connection to the audience that would simply not exist with real actors. The animation adds also adds an extra dose of humor (the film is often quite funny) and power to key moments in the film.

Persepolis works on many levels. It is a moving coming of age tale in a time of great turmoil. It is also an eye opening history lesson on a land many of us know little about and yet fear.

I would highly recommend this film to anyone, but especially parents of adolescents, particularly adolescent girls. Marjane is a free-spirited, fully dimensional character trying to find her place in the world. Almost any girl could see a part of themselves in her. Marjane is not an idealist, but is heartbreakingly human. She makes terrible mistakes, but she never gives up. And she never loses her dignity.

Extras:

• An informative and entertaining 30-minute animation featurette “The Hidden Side of Persepolis,” in which Satrapi herself guides the viewer through the painstaking process of animating and creating the film.
• A shorter making-of featurette (“Behind the Scenes of Persepolis”) that primarily focuses on filming the English language track of the film, with focus given to stars Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop.
• Specific audio commentary for key scenes with directors Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, and Chiara Mastroianni, the voice of Marjane.
• A press conference from the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
• Selected animated scene comparisons moderated by Satrapi.
• Audio track in French or English, with choice of subtitles (note: the English subtitles do not exactly match the English track).

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