moviereview - Persepolis

PERSEPOLIS

	Award-winning animated feature about a young girl coming of age during Iran's fundamentalist revolution.	score 4	moviereview rates films from 1 (unwatchable) to 5 (unmissable)
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Cast
Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastorianni, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian

Director
Marjne Satrapi,
Vincent Paronnaud

Screenwriter
Vincent Paronnaud
Marjene Satrapi

Country
France / USA

Rating / Running Time
M / 93 minutes

Australian Release
August 2008

Official Site

As political warriors line up to rattle their sabres and demonise Iran, the worldview of its citizens is once more rendered black and white. It is therefore appropriate that Marjane Satrapi’s feature animation adapted from her graphic novel, should be largely bold, blocky, black and white drawings. With her writer/director partner Vincent Paronnaud, Satrapi has created one of the most poignant, certainly the most affecting, animated features in years.

It tells the story of a young girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution – a time when fundamentalist ‘social guardians’ took control and imposed a new civil order. Nine-year-old Marjane is a precocious youngster who manages to outwit law enforcers and express her liberal values – including a fondness for ABBA and Iron Maiden – until her uncle is senselessly murdered by the new regime. When Iraqi bombs begin to fall, she is sent to Austria for a safe education. While adolescence makes wary inroads, Marjane’s heart remains with her family in Iran.

Flanked by France’s favourite daughter, Satrapi earned a long and tearful standing ovation when Persepolis screened at Cannes last year. A stroke of casting genius, Catherine Deneuve stars opposite her own daughter as Marjane’s mother in a role that defines the film. For if it is about anything, Persepolis is about the universal desire for compassion and communication. Yet it is also smart enough to avoid tumbling into the gaping holes that open up around such potential clichés.

Coupled with resilient humour, this is a superior tale that speaks of the greater truths that bind us all. It does so with sparkling wit and daring imagination - part history-lesson, part wake-up call. It’s a stunning odyssey through personality and politics that underlines our commonality.

Deceptively simple, astonishingly good, Persepolis is unlike anything you’ve seen before.

// COLIN FRASER