Persepolis
Rated M
WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING
ABC - At the Movies
Margaret: four stars, David:four stars
Persepolis
A coming-of-age story of a young, outspoken Iranian girl...
Review by David Stratton
PERSEPOLIS is based on four autobiographical graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi, who also co-directed the film version with Vincent Paronnaud.
It begins in Tehran in 1978 when Marjane was a stroppy kid with a vivid imagination whose hero was Bruce Lee.
At a time of political unrest, her father was in favour of the overthrow of the Shah, who was seen as an American puppet. Marjane loves her wise grandmother and her uncle, an avowed Leftist.
As a teenager, Marjane fearlessly sets out to outsmart the social guardians the fundamentalist regime imposes - she discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden.
The Iran-Iraq war is a disaster, and, at the age of 14, Marjane's parents send her to study in Vienna.
This wonderful, very open autobiography tells Marjane's story frankly and fearlessly. The film's mainly black and white animation follows the style of her original graphic novels and is very effective, with interesting voices used for the characters: CHIARA MASTROIANNI for Marjane, CATHERINE DENEUVE for her mother, DANIELLE DARRIEUX for her grandmother.
Marjane's awful experiences in Austria, where she slept on the street for a while, and her homecoming to a very restrictive world in Iran are depicted with clarity and suppressed anger, but always with a sly, cheeky sense of humour, and the characters are all beautifully drawn.
In the end this is a hymn to the human spirit, to a young woman who refused to let fundamentalism destroy her love of life.
Further comments
DAVID: Margaret?
MARGARET: I found it really interesting having the insight from inside.
DAVID: Yes.
MARGARET: You know this experience of growing up and hearing the family stories and the different politics within the family.
DAVID: Yeah.
MARGARET: And the impact of these various regime changes on this child as she's growing up, you know. I think she's sort of like honest about herself, too, which is...
DAVID: Yeah.
MARGARET: Which is nice. You know and not uncritical of herself.
DAVID: That's true and I think that makes the film as good as it is, in fact. Yep.
MARGARET: Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it - and I liked the style of the animation. It's somehow - it's a very simple and straightforward style.
DAVID: It's quite stark and - yeah.
MARGARET: And it really suits the material and the way it's written. So I think this really is quite an achievement and I'm giving it four stars.
DAVID: Yeah, me too. Four stars.
Brilliantly honest coming-of-age story
Nellie Connors MovieFix
4 star rating
Funny, tragic, sweet and haunting - "Persepolis" is an animated feature that is anything but two-dimensional. Based on the graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi and co-directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, "Persepolis" is essentially Satrapi's memoir.
The traumatic events that befall Marjane's homeland, Iran, are seen through her eyes as a child, adolescent and young woman rough. The milestones of her life are intrinsically linked to her country's fate.
We first meet Marjane as an Adidas-wearing, Bruce Lee-worshipping, cheeky child in Tehran. The wide-eyed poverty of Marjane's childhood during the Islamic Revolution solidifies into an adolescent boldness. Her loving parents decide that boldness makes life too perilous for their daughter in Iran, and Marjane is sent to school in Austria. Her misadventures there with friends, boys, love and punk rock are common enough adolescent ordeals, but being in exile puts her confusion and search for identity into sharper relief.
Using a restrained palette of mostly blues, black, grey and white, the animation is stunning. When bolder colours such as red do appear, they pack a punch. The witty, self-depreciating insights of Marjane make her central character a delight, and her urbane, dignified and irreverent grandmother is another wonderful presence in the film.
"Persepolis" is a brilliantly honest coming-of-age story framed by one young woman's thoughtful examination of the complicated relationship she has with her country, while the use of animation to tell Marjane's story makes the two threads flow seamlessly together.
