Persepolis (film)

Persepolis
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Marjane Satrapi Vincent Paronnaud
Produced by	Xavier Rigault Marc-Antoine Robert Kathleen Kennedy
Screenplay by	Marjane Satrapi Vincent Paronnaud
Based on	Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Starring	Chiara Mastroianni Catherine Deneuve Danielle Darrieux Simon Abkarian
Music by	Olivier Bernet
Editing by	Stéphane Roche
Studio	The Kennedy/Marshall Company
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release date(s)	23 May 2007 (2007-05-23)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	France United States
Language	French English Persian German
Budget	$7.3 million
Box office	$22,752,488

Persepolis is a 2007 French/American animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Satrapi with Vincent Paronnaud. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The story ends with Marjane as a 24-year-old expatriate. The title is a reference to the historic city of Persepolis.

The film won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and was released in France and Belgium on June 27. In her acceptance speech, Satrapi said "Although this film is universal, I wish to dedicate the prize to all Iranians." The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Ratatouille.

The film was released in the United States on December 25, 2007 and in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2008.

Plot

The film begins at Paris-Orly Airport where Marjane Satrapi (Chiara Mastroianni) is unable to board a plane to Iran, for reasons that are not clearly explained. Sitting down to smoke a cigarette, she remembers her life as a girl in 1978 at the age of 9. As a child, Marji lived in Tehran with dreams of being a prophet and an emulator of Bruce Lee. Juxtaposing her childhood ambitions is the general uprising against the US-backed Shah of Iran, with her middle-class family participating in rallies and protests with high hopes for a better society. Meanwhile, Marji attempts to identify with her generation's point of view, whether it is threatening the child of an unpopular government official, or competing for the greater childish prestige of having a relative who has been a political prisoner the longest time. Marji and a group of friends attempt to attack a young boy whose father, a member of SAVAK, killed Communists for fun, but they are stopped by her mother (Catherine Deneuve). That night, God appears before her to teach her about forgiveness, and about how she should not take justice into her own hands. One day Marji's Uncle Anoush arrives to have dinner with the family and catch up with them after recently being released from prison. Anoush tells Marji about his life on the run from the government for rebelling with his Communist ideology, his role in the establishment of Azerbaijan People's Government and that he was imprisoned by Iranian authorities when he attempted to return to Iran from the Soviet Union. He also speaks of his nine years spent in prison to subtly warn Marji of the consequences of standing up for innocent people, but that she should always remember her family and remain true to herself.

During this time all political enemies ceased fighting and elections for a new leading power commenced. However, things do not get any better for the family, when they are profoundly upset when Islamic Fundamentalists win the elections with 99.99% of the vote and force Iranian society into its own kind of repressive state. The hands of the law, now controlled by Khomeini, make laws that make things worse for the Iranian people, such as forcing women to dress modestly (including wearing the hijab) to rearresting and executing Anouche for his political beliefs. Profoundly disillusioned, Marji rejects her prophetic aspirations before God and tries with her family to fit into the reality of the intolerant regime. To make things worse, the Iran-Iraq war breaks out and Marji sees for herself the horrors of death and destruction; the Iranian government begins implementing blatant laws that create ridiculous injustices. Marji witnesses her father threatened by teenage government officials wielding machine-guns and watches her critically ill uncle die because an unqualified government-appointed hospital administrator refuses to let him go abroad for medical treatment. The family tries to find some solace in secret parties where they can enjoy simple pleasures the government has outlawed, such as alcohol. As she grows up, Marji begins a life of over-confidence, where she refuses to stay out of trouble, secretly buys Western heavy metal music, notably Iron Maiden, on the black market, wears unorthodox clothing such as a denim jacket, celebrates punk rock and other Western music sensations like Michael Jackson, and openly rebutts a teacher's lies about the abuses of the government.

Fearing her arrest for her outspokenness, Marji's parents make the difficult decision to send her to a French Lycée in Vienna, Austria in 1983, where she could be safe and free to express herself. She lives with Catholic nuns when she arrives and soon finds herself on edge with the discriminatory and judgmental nuns. Marji does make new friends, but ultimately she feels intolerably isolated in a foreign land surrounded by annoyingly superficial people who take their freedom for granted. As the years go by, Marji is thrown out of her temporary shelter for verbally abusing a nun, and is driven out into the streets. Marji continues to go from house to house, until ending up in a house of Frau Dr. Schloss, a retired philosophy teacher. One night, her grandmother's voice about staying true to herself resonates within her when she leaves a party after lying about her nationality, telling an acquaintance that she was French. Her shame culminates in a passionate love affair with Markus, a debonair native, which traumatically ends on her eighteenth birthday when she discovers him cheating on her. Also, her previous lover reveals himself to be homosexual after a bad sexual experience with Marji. Marji falls apart over her breakup, and when she is accused of stealing Frau Dr. Schloss's brooch, Marji gets fed up and angrily leaves. She spends the day on a park bench, and reflects upon how cruel Markus was to her. She soon discovers that she has nowhere to go and ends up living on the street for a few months. Eventually, she becomes so ill that she contracts bronchitis, and almost ends up dying.

Marji recovers in a Vienna hospital, and returns to Iran in 1987, with her family's permission and hopes that the conclusion of the war would mean an improved life there. After whiling away her time in front of television for days on end, doing nothing to advance her life, Marji falls into a clinical depression over the state of affairs in Iran and the misery that has nearly ruined her family. It is not clearly explained in the movie, but she attempts suicide by overdosing on her medication. She gets into bed and closes her eyes before she enters a dream where God and the spirit of Karl Marx appear to remind her of what is important and encourage her to go on with living. She bounces back with renewed determination and begins enjoying life again: she attends university classes, goes to parties, and even enters into a relationship with a fellow student, Reza. With the recent death of Khomeini, Marji notices that things have gradually worsened. She discovers that Iranian society is more tyrannized than ever with numerous atrocities occurring. With Ali Khamenei now controlling the society, mass executions for political beliefs and petty religious absurdities and hypocrisies have become common in everyday life (she and her boyfriend are caught holding hands and their parents forced to pay a fine), much to Marji's dismay. While this makes living as both a student and a woman intolerable, Marji manages to hold on to her rebellious attitude. However, she starts resorting to personal survival tactics to protect herself, such as falsely accusing a man of making a pass at her to avoid being arrested for wearing make up and marrying her boyfriend to avoid scrutiny by the religious police. Her grandmother, disappointed by Marji's behaviour, berates Marji, and tells her that both her grandfather and her uncle died supporting freedom and innocent people, and that she never forsake them or her family by succumbing to the repressive environment of Iran. Marji, realizing her mistake, does what she can to fix it, and her grandmother is pleased upon hearing that Marji openly confronted the blatant sexist double standard in her university's forum on public morality.

By 1994, her marriage is falling apart and things come to an end when the police raid a party, resulting in a friend being killed trying to escape. After these incidents and her subsequent divorce from Reza, the family decides that Marji should leave the country permanently to avoid being targeted by the Iranian authorities as a political dissident. Marji's mother then forbids Marji from coming back, to which Marji reluctantly agrees. Her grandmother was never to be seen again by Marji, and she dies soon after her departure. Marji is shown collecting her luggage and getting into a taxi. As the taxi pulls away from the south terminal of Paris-Orly Airport, the narrative cuts back to the present day. When the driver asks Marji where she is from, she replies "Iran", showing that she's kept the promise she made to Anoush and her grandmother years ago that she would remember where she came from and that she would always stay true to herself. The screen fades to black as she recalls her final memory of her grandmother telling her how she placed jasmine in her brassiere to allow her to smell lovely every day.

Cinematography

The film is presented in the black-and-white style of the original graphic novels. Marjane explained in a bonus feature on the DVD that this was so the place and the characters wouldn't look like foreigners in a foreign country but simply people in a country to show how easily a country can become like Iran. The present-day scenes are shown in color, while sections of the historic narrative resemble a shadow theater show. To help with the translation of the comic to animation, art director and executive producer Marc Jousset came up with the design. The animation is credited to the Perseprod studio and was created by two specialized studios: Je Suis Bien Content and Pumpkin 3D.

Cast

French version

• Chiara Mastroianni as teenage and adult Marjane(also voiced the English dub)
• Catherine Deneuve as Mother(also voiced the English dub)
• Danielle Darrieux as Grandmother
• Simon Abkarian as Father
• François Jerosme as Uncle Anouche

English version

• Gena Rowlands as Grandmother
• Sean Penn as Father
• Iggy Pop as Uncle Anouche

Reception

Marjane Satrapi at the premiere of Persepolis.

Critical reception

The film was critically acclaimed. As of September 5, 2010, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 97% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 145 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 90 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.

Time magazine's Richard Corliss named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #6. Corliss praised the film, calling it “a coming-of-age tale, that manages to be both harrowing and exuberant.”

It has been ranked #58 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.

Iranian government reaction

The film has drawn complaints from the Iranian government. Even before its debut at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the government-connected organisation Iran Farabi Foundation sent a letter to the French embassy in Tehran stating, "This year the Cannes Film Festival, in an unconventional and unsuitable act, has chosen a movie about Iran that has presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts"

Despite such objections, the Iranian cultural authorities relented in February 2008 and allowed limited screenings of the film in Tehran, albeit with six scenes censored due to sexual content.

Thai government reaction

In June 2007, the film was dropped from the lineup of the Bangkok International Film Festival. Festival director Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya stated, "I was invited by the Iranian embassy to discuss the matter and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown" and "It is a good movie in artistic terms, but we have to consider other issues that might arise here."

Lebanese government reaction

Persepolis was initially banned in Lebanon after some clerics found it to be "offensive to Iran and Islam." The ban was later revoked after an outcry in Lebanese intellectual and political circles.

School controversy

A group of parents from the Northshore School District, Washington, in the United States objected to adult content in the movie and graphic novel, and lobbied to discontinue it as part of the curriculum. The Curriculum Materials Adoption Committee felt that "other educational goals — such as that children should not be sheltered from what the board and staff called 'disturbing' themes and content — outweighed the crudeness and parental prerogative."

Islamist attack on TV station in Tunisia

On 7 October 2011, the film was shown on the Tunisian private television station Nessma. A day later a demonstration formed and marched on the station. The main Islamic party in Tunisia, Ennahda, condemned the demonstration. Nabil Karoui, the owner of Nessma TV, faces trial in Tunis on charges of “vio­lat­ing sacred val­ues” and “dis­turb­ing the pub­lic order” after his sta­tion broad­cast French film, which has been crit­i­cized for being blas­phe­mous because of a scene show­ing a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of God. If con­victed, Nabil Karoui faces up to three years in prison. Amnesty Inter­na­tional said that Crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings against the owner of a Tunisian TV sta­tion that screened the 2007 ani­mated film Perse­po­lis are an affront to free­dom of expres­sion ahead of the January 2012 trial.

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.

• 2nd - Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post
• 3rd - Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
• 3rd - Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
• 4th - Mike McStay , Socius Website
• 4th - Claudia Puig, USA Today
• 4th - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
• 4th - Mike Russell, The Oregonian
• 4th - Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
• 4th - Stephen Holden, The New York Times
• 6th - Richard Corliss, TIME magazine
• 7th - Ella Taylor, LA Weekly
• 8th - Dana Stevens, Slate
• 10th - Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor

Awards

80th Academy Awards

• Nominated: Best Animated Feature. It is the second film ever nominated in this category to be rated PG-13 in the United States, after The Triplets of Belleville (also a French film). Additionally, it is the first traditionally animated nominee since 2005's Howl's Moving Castle. It was also France's Best Foreign Language Film entry, but was not nominated.

65th Golden Globe Awards

• Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film

César Awards

• Won: Best First Work (Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi)
• Won: Best Writing – Adaptation (Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi)
• Nominated: Best Editing (Stéphane Roche)
• Nominated: Best Film
• Nominated: Best Music Written for a Film (Olivier Bernet)
• Nominated: Best Sound (Samy Bardet, Eric Chevallier and Thierry Lebon)

2007 Cannes Film Festival

• Tied: Jury Prize
• Nominated: Palme d'Or

2007 European Film Awards

• Nominated: Best Picture

2007 London Film Festival

• Southerland Trophy (Grand prize of the festival)

2007 Cinemanila International Film Festival

• Special Jury Prize

2007 São Paulo International Film Festival

• Won: Best Foreign Language Film

2007 Vancouver International Film Festival

• Won: Rogers People's Choice Award for Most Popular International Film

See also

• Iranian cinema
• List of animated feature-length films
• List of films based on French-language comics

External links

• Official website
• Persepolis at the Internet Movie Database
• Persepolis at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Persepolis at AllRovi
• Persepolis at Box Office Mojo
• Persepolis at Rotten Tomatoes
• Persepolis at Metacritic
• "Iranian life in cartoon motion" By N.P. Thompson for Northwest Asian Weekly.
• Interview with Marjane Satrapi about Persepolis at ion magazine

Awards
Preceded by Red Road	Jury Prize, Cannes 2007 tied with Silent Light	Succeeded by Il Divo