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 In cinemas Thursday [M]
Directors: Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud
Runtime: 95mins
Yes, we’ve all seen The Dark Knight, but is it really the best comic book film of the year? Unless you’ve seen Persepolis, the excellent black & white animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic memoir, that’s up for debate.
Derived from Satrapi’s experiences as a child in Iran during the final years of the Shah’s reign and the turmoil of the following Islamic revolution, the story touches upon family, politics, idealism and its defeat, young womanhood, independence, racism, hope and so much more. With it’s spare black & white animation, the film tells a story as rich as any technicolour epic, tracking Satrapi’s progress to Vienna and then back to Iran, introducing many wonderful characters along the way.
As a child, ‘Marji’ lives with her left-wing middle class parents (voiced by Simon Akbariand and Catherine Deneuve) as they protest the Shah’s corrupt reign. Her grandmother (Danielle Darrieux) imbues the young girl with a sense of self-worth and encourages her precocious curiosity about the world. The fall of the Shah leads to Marjane meeting former political prisoners – intellectuals and radicals who visit the family home bringing promises of a new Iran. Unfortunately the cultural revolution that follows sees the creation of a repressive religious regime, one that forces Marjane’s parents to send her to Vienna for her own safety when she questions the new establishment’s rules once too often.
In Vienna Marjane becomes the exotic outsider, never quite fitting in, and coming of age in an alien environment proves difficult (especially when romance is involved). She returns to Iran, but years of fundamentalist rule and war with Iraq sees the country much changed, and the rapidly maturing and independent Marjane finds that she no longer fits in the country of her birth. So what’s a girl to do?
I’ve seen Persepolis twice now, and the misgivings I had when first viewing it (the sometimes radical restructuring of story elements from the graphic novel to fit the animated format) have transformed into an appreciation of Satrapi and Parannoud’s achievement in maintaining the heart and humanity of the story. Satrapi’s relationship with her straight-talking and often incisive grandmother is delineated with care, making her an engaging emotional centre even more so than Marjane’s parents, with their subversive tension-relieving booze parties and determination not to be cowed by successive regimes. Visually it’s beautiful, Satrapi’s simple facial illustrations given an impressive depth of expressiveness, and the backgrounds for each third of the narrative featuring distinctive textures. The array of supporting characters fly by as the film powers through the story, but each makes an impression, Marjane acting as both the eyes of the audience and a force unto herself. The soon to be infamous ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ sequence, in which Marjane throws off the depression of being back in Iran with hilarious self-determination and appalling singing, is so perfectly wonky, it’s wonderful.
Laced with humour, despite the grim circumstances often faced, the film is a superb paean to people’s ability to cope when the world changes around them at frightening speed. It contains worthy lessons, it entertains, and it opens up your heart and mind. A triumph.
*****
TOPHER HEALY
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