Persepolis Comes Alive

While the animated film adaptation of Majane Satrapi’s Persepolis has been playing in St. Louis for several weeks, only a few days ago did I finally have a chance to see it. I missed the Star Clipper sponsored screening last year and have been waiting to see it ever since. I have to say that I’m really glad I got to scope it out as it has to be one of the best animated films I have seen in a while.

The feature film of Persepolis (co-written and co-directed Marjane Satrapi) delivers the tale of Satrapi’s growing up in an Iran as the Islamic Revolution unfolds around her as well as her high school years in Vienna, her eventual homecoming, and her even more eventual self imposed exile. The film covers serious topics like the ever growing tightening grip of the post-Shah Iranian government, the death of loved ones (sometimes under dreadful circumstances), or the constant feeling of being out of place in a foreign land. As the different situations play out on the screen, the film never loses its feeling of familiarity or its charm.

The easiest complaint against the movie is that it makes everything too charming (especially when compared to the graphic novel). There are scenes where Marjane dresses a little hipper or moments that play nicer than within the book’s pages. Such nit picking, though, seems like an exercise only at proving that the movie is not the book. Being the book is something this movie, or any other, could never be.

Instead, the movie provides a unique experience with its splendid animation, terrific voice acting, and warmly familiar narrative. I especially found the animation only inspired by the drawings found the panels of the graphic memoir. Instead, the stylistic art of film had its own visual tricks and charms. Both versions of Persepolis provide engaging stories with their own quirks and strengths that made them worth checking out.

-Nick