Loading ...“Persepolis” by Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi with voices of Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni, Gena Rowlands, Sean Penn and Iggy Pop
| At first, I didn’t like it. The first ten minutes. The black and white graphic style was too simple to hold my attention. Then I got drawn into it and I started to sympathise with the characters. Then I empathised. Then I cried. A lot.
This is the true story of Marjane, a young Iranian girl during the revolution. From the tyranny of the Shah to the tyranny of the new Islamic fundamentalists rulers. Raised by a modern and socialist family, Marjane cannot accept the lies of the new regime and for her safety, she is sent to Vienna to stay with a friend of the family. But all is not easy for the young teenager and she returns to Iran a few years later. |
Will she like the new Iran? Will she fit in the new Iran? Will she accept to look “modest” and wear a veil?
This film has a particular resonnance for me because I grew up watching the Iraq/Iran war every night on the news. Also, I grew up in a family not dissimilar from Marjane’s family, except that we were living in France. That little difference - the fact that we lived in France - meant that I didn’t have to suffer the way Marjane did. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have dreams of a socialist revolution and to find yourself in a fundamentalist nightmare.
The film was originally a graphic novel and the style has been kept. Even if you aren’t a fan of graphic novels, don’t let that put you off. You might need a few moments to get into it but I guarantee you that you will soon be rooting for Marjane, her mother, her father, her grandmother and her uncle.
Catherine Deneuve and her real life daughter Chiara Mastroianni provide the voices for Marjane’s mother and Marjane in both the french and english versions of the film. And they make a fine job of it as I found myself fancying Marjane’s mother (until now, I didn’t know I could fancy a cartoon character lol)… which shows the power of voices because I do actually rather fancy Catherine Deneuve but I didn’t know she was doing the voice because I hadn’t paid attention to the opening credits.
Highly recommended.
Links:
Persepolis review, My Simple Life
Persepolis review, Flightless Boyds
Persepolis movie review, Suggested Thinking
Tags: strong women