Persepolis (film)

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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 dates	23 May 2007 (2007-05-23) (Cannes) 27 June 2007 (2007-06-27) (France) 25 December 2007 (2007-12-25) (U.S.)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	France
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.^[1] The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The title is a reference to the historic city of Persepolis.

The film was co-winner of the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival^[2]^[3] and was released in France and Belgium on 27 June. In her acceptance speech, Satrapi said "Although this film is universal, I wish to dedicate the prize to all Iranians."^[4] 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 25 December 2007 and in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2008.

Plot

The film begins at the airport where Marjane Satrapi (Chiara Mastroianni) is unable to board a plane to Iran. She then takes a seat and smokes. She looks back at her childhood. She remembers the good and bad times with her family, especially all the political issues going on. As a young girl, Marji lived in Tehran and wanted to be a prophet and a disciple of Bruce Lee. Her childhood ambition is the general uprising against the Shah of Iran. Her middle-class family participates in all the rallies and protests. Marji wants to have pride in her future. Marji and a group of friends attempt to attack a young boy whose father, a member of SAVAK, killed Communists for no particular reason. One day, Marji's Uncle Anoush arrives to have dinner with the family after recently being released from his nine-year sentence in prison. Uncle Anoush inspires Marji with his stories of his life on the run from the government, a result of rebelling. Political enemies cease fighting and elections for a new leading power commence. Marji's family's situation does not improve as they are profoundly upset when Islamic Fundamentalists win the elections with 99.99% of the vote and start repressing Iranian society. The government forces women to dress modestly, including wearing a head scarf, and Anoush is rearrested and executed for his political beliefs. Profoundly disillusioned, Marji tries, with her family, to fit into the reality of the intolerant regime. The Iran-Iraq war breaks out and Marji sees for herself the horrors of death and destruction. The Iranian government begins implementing ridiculous laws that create blatant injustices. Marji witnesses her father threatened by rifle-wielding teenaged government officials and watches her critically ill uncle die after an unqualified government-appointed hospital administrator refuses to allow him to travel abroad for medical treatment. The family tries to find solace in secret parties where they enjoy simple pleasures the government has outlawed, including alcohol. As she grows up, Marji begins a life of over-confidence. She refuses to stay out of trouble, secretly buying Western heavy metal music, notably Iron Maiden, on the black market, wearing unorthodox clothing such as a denim jacket, celebrating punk rock and other Western music sensations like Michael Jackson, and openly rebuts a teacher's lies about the abuses of the government.

Fearing her arrest for her outspokenness, Marji's parents send her to a French Lycée in Vienna, Austria, where she can be safe and free to express herself. She lives with Catholic nuns and is upset with their discriminatory and judgmental behaviour. Marji doesn't make any friends, and ultimately 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 insulting a nun and is driven out into the streets. Marji continues to go from house to house, until ending up in the house of Frau Dr. Schloss, a retired philosophy teacher. One night, her grandmother's voice resonates, telling her to stay true to herself as she leaves a party after lying about her nationality, telling an acquaintance that she was French. Her would-be lover reveals his homosexuality after a failed attempt at sex with Marji. She engages in a passionate love affair with Markus, a debonair native, which ends when she discovers him cheating on her. Marji is accused of stealing Frau Dr. Schloss's brooch, she becomes angered and leaves. She spends the day on a park bench, reflecting upon how cruel Markus was to her. She discovers that she has nowhere to go. She lives on the street for a few months. Eventually, she becomes ill and contracts bronchitis, and almost dies.

Marji recovers in a Viennese hospital and returns to Iran with her family's permission and hopes that the conclusion of the war will improve their quality of life. After spending several days wasting her time watching television, Marji falls into a clinical depression. She attempts suicide by overdosing on medication. She falls asleep and dreams of God and Karl Marx reminding her what is important and encouraging her to live. Her determination is renewed and she begins enjoying life again. Marji attends university classes and parties. She enters into a relationship with a fellow student. Marji notices that her situation has gradually worsened and that Iranian society is more tyrannized than ever. Mass executions for political beliefs and petty religious absurdities have become common, much to Marji's dismay. She and her boyfriend are caught holding hands and their parents are forced to pay a fine to avoid their lashing. Despite Iranian society making living as a student and a woman intolerable, Marji remains rebellious. She resorts to personal survival tactics to protect herself, such as falsely accusing a man of insulting her to avoid being arrested for wearing make up, and marrying her boyfriend to avoid scrutiny by the religious police. Her grandmother is disappointed by Marji's behaviour and berates Marji, telling her that both her grandfather and her uncle died supporting freedom and innocent people, and that she should never forsake them or her family by succumbing to the repressive environment of Iran. Marji, realising her mistake, fixes her mistakes, and her grandmother is pleased to hear that Marji openly confronted the blatant sexist double standard in her university's forum on public morality.

Her marriage is falling apart after one year. The police raid a party, resulting in one of Marji's friends being killed while trying to escape on the roofs. After her friend's death and her divorce, 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 forbids Marji from returning and Marji reluctantly agrees. Her grandmother dies soon after Marji's departure. Marji is shown collecting her luggage and getting into a taxi. As the taxi drives away from the south terminal of Paris-Orly Airport, the narrative cuts back to the present day. The driver asks Marji where she is from and she replies "Iran", showing that she's kept the promise she made to Anoush and her grandmother that she would remember where she came from and that she would always stay true to herself. She recalls her final memory of her grandmother telling her how she placed jasmine in her brassiere to smell lovely everyday.

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. The design was created by art director and executive producer Marc Jousset. 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)
Gabriele Lopes as child Marjane
Catherine Deneuve as Mother (also voiced the English dub)
Danielle Darrieux as Grandmother
Simon Abkarian as Father
François Jerosme as Uncle Anouche

English version

Amethyste Frezignac as child Marjane
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 5 September 2010, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 97% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 145 reviews.^[5] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 90 out of 100, based on 31 reviews.^[6]

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.”^[7]^[8]

It has been ranked No. 58 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.^[9]

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 organization 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"^[10]

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.^[11]

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."^[12]

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.^[13]

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 perogative."^[14]

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.^[15] Nabil Karoui, the owner of Nessma TV, faced trial in Tunis on charges of “violating sacred values” and “disturbing the public order”. He was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of 2,400 dinars ($1,700; £1,000), a much more lenient punishment than predicted.^[16] Amnesty International said that criminal proceedings against Karoui are an affront to freedom of expression.^[17]

Reviews

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.^[18]

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.^[1] 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.