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life made graphic

Cartoons have rapidly won their place as an artistic medium worth the time of even the snobbiest of critics. Persepolis, which has been shown at respected international film fests such as Cannes, and has made numerous top ten films of 2007 lists in the media, is art in cartoon form. Life made graphic.
The storyline begins by following Marjane Satrapi in Iran. It is the story of her childhood set against the Iranian revolution and regime change. We listen as the adults hope for freedom from oppression and as their hopes are dashed and people are imprisoned.
Humor and horror seem to walk hand-in-hand during the film, particularly when the children deal with the reality of torture in their own terrifying, yet somehow amusing way.
Soon some of Marjane’s family members are imprisoned and friends die because they cannot get a passport out of the country. Under the new religious regime, Marjane is forced to wear a headscarf by law. You can see the death and resurrection of hope and what wearing a head scarf really means for these women, in a few ugly little incidents.
When Iraq attacks, it begins a war that drives the people further into fear. Sons in their early teens are sent to die, told that their service will guarantee them entrance to a heaven with food, gold and girls.
For her own safety, her parents send the outspoken Marjane to Vienna, where they hope she’ll find a better life. In a way, she does. She spends time in the supermarket, marveling at the aisles and aisles of groceries they couldn’t get back home. But she’s soon set adrift without roots or family. After suffering disillusionment in love, she ends up on the streets and eventually returns home.
Her time away has made her as much an outsider at home as in Vienna, and she slips into depression. She ends up marrying a man she doesn’t know very well because they can’t go anywhere together in public without the benefit of marriage.
It’s both a coming-of-age story and a broader picture of the Iranian people. The film directly confronts the prejudices that are felt toward some Iranians. Not every Iranian is a zealot and not all fell in line with the status quo. You might think that it would be difficult for a Westerner to empathize with this foreign tale, but it strikes a surprisingly universal chord.
Even though the version I watched was in French with English subtitles, I still appreciated the voice acting and rendering of the characters. The English language version will apparently be available on DVD. Although all of the voice acting was excellent, the standout performance came from Danielle Darrieux, who plays Marjane’s grandmother.
Pop culture and artistic references are peppered throughout the movie. Westerners will enjoy sly references to Munch’s The Scream and the absurdity of a teacher talking about Botticelli’s Venus, with most of it blacked out. Young Marjane rocks out to black market Iron Maiden and is a devotee of the punk movement.
Before it was a movie, Persepolis was a series of autobiographical graphic novels by Marjane Satrapi. Although she storyboarded much of the animation, other artists did work on the film.
The movie has upset an Iranian organization: the Iran Farabi Foundation, who sent a letter to the Cannes Film Festival which claimed the picture “presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts.” The movie was actually pulled in Bangkok, due to Iranian pressure.
The medium of pen and ink elevates the subject matter because of the stark presentation. We hear about hundreds dying for their beliefs, we see blindfolded figures slump and fall. War is seen in sharp relief, represented by shadows and figures. Compared with flicks like Beowulf, Persepolis is remarkably low-tech, but it radiates a humanity that some of the more technical animated features just can’t match. You don’t think about the fact that you’re watching a cartoon; you’re just watching the story unfold.
But it isn’t just the images that have power in this movie; it’s the words, because they ring so true. Certain phrases will stay with me, such as the poignant “We were so eager for happiness that we forgot we weren’t free.”