Persepolis
Directed by Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi
Reviewed by Josh MacGregor
It’s no secret that coming-of-age movies have been placed on the dime-a-dozen shelf at your local cultural thrift store – just a short distance from the bric-a-brac section – and (arguably), with good reason…everyone grows up. And while, more often than not, better films of this classification could come out of a high-school girl’s diary, Persepolis offers a fresh, de-hollywoodized perspective of adolescence.
The premise, adapted from Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel by the same epithet, features a young Iranian girl (Marjane) growing up during the Islamic revolution who is sent by her parents to live France, far from the volatile political climate of the Middle East. What sets it apart from other coming-of-age movies is that it’s done largely in black and white animation. The film is remarkably beautiful; combining rich, hand-drawn backgrounds, with smooth character animation. It operates like a book – a lot of fade in and fade out techniques between scenes, as though the viewer were turning a page – which pays homage to its nativity. Visually astounding, Satrapi and co-director Vincent Paronnaud create an elegant dichotomy between the horrific imagery of a war-laden country and precious moments of self-realization.
Persepolis dives headlong into an introspective journey many of us have experienced in our youth: the search for accessible identities with which to attach our fashions and ideology. Marjane, while living in France, discovers punk rock, hippy dancing, poseur-savants, love, loss and ultimately, the thinly veiled convictions of contemporary counter-culture. And while her internal struggle in response to the frivolity of western discourse is nothing new, Marjane’s first hand experience with cultural revolution gives her story a validity most of the western world lacks the ability to understand. This is especially poignant in a generation where counterculture is funnel-fed down suggestible gullets, like geese on a påté block, with a byproduct not wholly dissimilar in content (I’d like to personally congratulate Hot Topic for it’s outstanding feat in this stratum).
While at times the movie can be absolutely fucking depressing, it finds reprieve in lighthearted moments (i.e. men with long jackets pushing contraband Iron Maiden tapes from desolate street corners in Tehran), and of course, the indestructible solace of familial love.
All in all, the movie is worth checking out. No sense of urgency though - avoid being robbed by the long, furtive, molesting arm of Hollywood (ten bucks a rodgering) - see it on video.
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