Persepolis

Last night I went with a couple friends of mine to watch Persepolis. I normally don't go to movies in the middle of the week but I couldn't pass up a chance to watch a foreign movie at an independant theatre.

All I knew about this movie was that it was a girl's story during the Islamic revolution in Iran. I was not prepared to deal with a tragiccomedy that mirrored the life of my Iranian friend. Marjane Satrapi released a comic book in France in 2000. The movie was in french with English subtitles. Most of the scenes in the movie are memories of what she was told as a child and what she saw.

Marjane is a descendant of the royal emperor of Iran before the Shah's regime. She moves from being curious, idealist to depressed to realist. The profound thing for me was that at the beginning Marjane thinks she is a prophet and has personal conversations with God but after the desolutism she goes through she chases him away. At the end it is God who provides her salvation by sending her back when she has given up on life.The movie shows the relationships she makes and breaks. More than that it is a journey of self discovery for Marjane, whose parents are Marxists.

Scenes of her wearing hijab and "punk is not dead" jacket,walking the streets of Iran in search of banned music. Marjane rocks out to classic rock in her house as the country goes through a purging. Marjane watches as people around her change and die. Her uncle is imprisoned and requests to see her. Marjane braves this prison visit at such a tender age but what is told to her stays with her. Her relationship with her parents is unique and her grandmother is a character to say the least. Definately a must see movie and a must get when it is released. By the by the movie is banned in Iran.