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Iran 1978: The country is still gouverned by the Shah, who is of course
a ruthless dictator who sends those who oppose him to jail, but politics
aside, the society is still rather liberal and pro-Western. Young Marjane
is but a kid at that time, but she loves Bruce Lee and adidas shoes.
Several of her relatives however are political prisoners, who are only
freed when the Shah is overthrown. One of these is Anush, Marjane's uncle
whom she now only meets for the first time, but who completely fascinates
the girl, and she readily accepts his Communist ideals, even if she's far
too young to really understand them. The though, the Islamic Revolution
takes place, and all of those who were released when the Shah was
overthrown are now put back into prison (where they very often die) by the
Revolutionary Guards. Worse yet, women are robbed of all their
rights, including their right, it seems, to think for themselves. And the
possession of alcohol is strictly forbidden. Worse yet, Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein decides this is the time to attack the Iran, and the
country, drained of much of its manpower due to the Islamic cleansing, is
thrown into turmoil.
In this atmosphere, caught between Islamism and war, Marjane, a
teenager who likes nothing better than to listen to tapes of the hard rock
band Iron Maiden, dares to speak out against the revolution ... and
immediately gets into enough trouble that her parents - who support her
free spirit - decide it's best to send her to a boarding school in
Vienna Austria.
In Vienna, Marjane has problems to integrate as an Iranian girl, first
and foremost because everyone else thinks taht as an Iranian girl she has
to be vastly different. So during her first few years, she has to move
from place to place, and slowly she becomes a woman with the same needs as
every other women ... but her first boyfriend turns out to be gay, while
she catches her second boyfriend cheating on her - which makes her lose
her current appartment and forces her to live on the streets - where she
almost dies from bronchitis.
Recovering in the hospital, Marjane decides it might be time for her to
return to her home Iran once again: The Iran-Iraq-war is now over,
Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of the Islamic Revolution has just died, and
the country is supposed to open up again. Back in Iran, Marjane is faced
with a different truth: The Revolutionary Guards are still watching over
the private lives of citizens, alcohol is still strictly forbidden (so
much so that people rather die than getting caught for it), and women have
even less rights than ever before. Still, Marjane, whose free spirit is
mainly kept alive by her grandma, falls in love with a man, and after they
can hardly see each other because of the strict laws, she marries him ...
only to find out he's a complete chauvinist asshole. Reluctantly she
divorces him, only to soon get into conflict with the law again ... which
finally makes her decide to leave her home for France for good ...
In writing, Persepolis might sound like an epic drama weighed
down by the political message it tries to carry ... but quite the
contrary: Despite its graveness, and even despite the fact that it is
based on writer/co-director Marjane Satrapi's own autobiography,
(which is anything but a comedy) the film is amazingly lightweight (not to
be confused with air-headed) and always keeps its ironic distance to the
proceedings without of course ridiculing them. Add to that an imaginative
direction and exceedingly nice character and background designs and you
have one piece of amazingly entertaining animation.
Totally recommended.
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find Persepolis at adultvideouniverse.com
