Written and directed by: Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi
Release date: October 2007

Persepolis is the story of an Iranian girl who lived through the overthrow of the Shah’s rule and the subsequent fundamentalist dictatorship of the Ayatollah Khomeini. It’s a faithful rendering of an autobiographical underground French graphic-novel by Marjane Satrapi. Oh yes….and it’s in black and white 2-D animation. Now doesn’t that sound exotic? Believe me. It’s not. And therein lies the secret to this movie’s success. Five minutes into the movie and you will begin to laugh and cry with Marjane, her parents, her grandma…

The movie opens in 1978. Protest rallies demanding the ouster of the Shah throng the streets. There are communists and nationalists, quite a few of them students, facing the bullets of the cops. Little Marjane swept in the fervor, ties a bandana around her head and goes marching around her living room. And with her gang of friends targets the bespectacled son of a man reputed to be in the secret police. The Shah goes. The euphoria of freedom sweeps across the country. Marjane’s uncle Anouche is released from prison. As he narrates the stories of his adventures as a communist, Marjane’s eyes turn wide with wonder. She can see him trekking across snow-clad mountains and swimming across turbulent rivers. And we see the freedom imparted by the medium of animation.

The Ayatollah Khomeini wins in the elections with “99.9%” of the votes. And soon, the people find themselves living in a nightmare worse than the one they had just escaped from. Religion and revolution, the twin pied pipers which have led men to the massacre in millions during centuries past come together in Iran. Unspeakable crimes are committed. The communists disappear into the dark of the night. Anouche is among them. After her last visit with Anouche in the prison, Marjane terminates her personal conversations with God.

The tyranny permeates the daily lives of the Iranians. The Shah was a despot but he was a secular despot. Now, women are pushed behind the veil. Taking off your headscarf on the road iturns into an act of defiance. And the slightest sign of ‘indecency’ could earn them the epithet of a whore from the moral police and probably a few generous lashings. All to save their souls…

In the midst of all this, Marjane somehow grows up to be a normal, rebellious teenager. She gives mouth to her teachers in school. She thinks ABBA and the Bee Gees are lame and sneaks off to the black market to buy the latest Iron Maiden album. On the back of her burkha, she stencils “Punk is not ded”. And when caught, manages to talk her way out smoothly.

Soon, Iraq attacks Iran. Further miseries are piled on. And Marjane is packed off to Austria by her parents. She tries hard to blend in. Head-banging as hard as the next guy at death metal concerts. Smoking pot. She falls in love. Or least thinks she has. And has her heart broken.

She keeps making mistakes. Each time she gathers herself up and moves on. Sometimes it just takes more time and suffering. But her life goes on.

This movie tries to cover a lot of ground. It doesn’t succeed entirely. Especially the last fifteen minutes prior to the climax appear to drag. But I won’t call it an ambitious movie which falters because it spread itself too thin. Because it’s merely her life. Marjane is narrating the story of her ordinary life, lived under extraordinary circumstances. And her struggle for the right to that ‘ordinary’ life.

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