“War. Revolution. Family. Punk rock. All part of growing up.” Marji is a bratty young girl who idolises Bruce Lee and likes to play pranks on the other children.
But her life is far from normal. As the 1979 revolution in Iran reaches its climax young Marji stomps around her house chanting “down with the Shah, down with the Shah!”
“War. Revolution. Family. Punk rock. All part of growing up.” Marji is a bratty young girl who idolises Bruce Lee and likes to play pranks on the other children.
But her life is far from normal. As the 1979 revolution in Iran reaches its climax young Marji stomps around her house chanting “down with the Shah, down with the Shah!”
She drives everyone up the wall with her rants about communism and Ché Guevara.As Islamic fundamentalism escalates under the new regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Marji learns what it means to be a woman in Iran.
Forced to wear a headscarf and to be treated with no respect by men, Marji the teenager rebels. There’s a hilarious scene in the movie when she goes down a dingy ally to buy an IronMaiden cassette.
Music, along with magazines, pornography and Michael Jackson are forbidden for it embodies the height of western decadence.
As tension in the country mounts Marji’s parents send her to Vienna in Austria so she can be a free, emancipated teenager.
But Marji struggles with her identity in Austria, and when she returns to Iran she feels like a stranger caught between two worlds.
Persepolis is based on an original biographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008.
The cinematography is outstanding and even people who are not interested in history or Iranian politics will be able to appreciate its aesthetic appeal.
The narrative is a bit long, because the events occur in chronological order following Marji as a young girl until she is an adult.
However, the graphic, starkly beautiful black and white animation is so haunting you keep your eyes glued to the screen even after the credits start to roll.
Persepolis is a must see for anyone who has ever felt like an alien in their own skin. Watch it at Eden Grove red lecture theatre at 7pm tonight.
Don’t miss The Class next week, a movie that was described by Rolling Stone magazine as “fierce, funny and moving. Truly unmissable.”
