Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 0043396225251
Format: AC-3
Label: Sony Pictures
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
MPN: COLD22525D
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: 2008-06-24
Running Time: 96
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2007-12-25

Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl coming-of-age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine-year-old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power — forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable. As she gets older, Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safety. And so, at age fourteen, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. In addition, Marjane has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. Over time, she gains acceptance, and even experiences love, but after high school she finds herself alone and horribly homesick. Though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society, Marjane decides to return to Iran to be close to her family. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, all the while continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.
A fascinating and wholly unexpected take on Iran’s Islamic revolution beginning in the 1970s, Persepolis is an enthralling, animated feature about a spirited young woman who spends her life trying to deal with the consequences of her nation’s history. Based on an autobiographical comic book by Marjane Satrapi, the story concerns Marji (voiced as a teenager and woman by Chiara Mastroianni), whose natural fire and precociousness are slowly dampened by the rise of religious extremists. Marji grieves over the imprisonment and execution of a beloved uncle, then begrudgingly adapts to ever-tightening rules about dress, social mores, education for women, and expectations about marriage and divorce. Along the way, her grandmother (Danielle Darrieux) and mother (Catherine Deneuve) help keep Marji grounded during her rebellious teens and encourage her to find life beyond Iran’s borders, a decision that proves both a blessing and curse. An unique window onto a crucial chapter of 20th century history, Persepolis is graphically engaging with its black-and-white, bold lines and feeling of repressed energy, fit to burst. The emotional content is so strong that after awhile, one almost forgets the film is a cartoon. Satrapi co-wrote the screenplay and co-directed the film along with animator Vincent Paronnaud. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Persepolis (click for larger image)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not your typical coming of age film
Comment: I had long intended both to read the graphic novel upon which this film is based and to see the film itself. As it turned out, I encountered the film before the book. I had long wanted to see it after noticing the stellar reviews it received upon its release and because of the extreme outrage the film created in the Iranian government, which repeatedly requested that various countries not allow it to be shown. I can understand why. It is an unfiltered and uncensored insider's perspective on what life inside post-revolution Iran is like. There is absolutely no question that life under the Shah was horrific. It is also absolutely certain that life after the Shah has been just as bad or worse.

I am a religious person and I certainly have no problem with anyone worrying about what God wants them to do. I have a great deal of difficulty with people who think they know what God wants other people to do. This film should not lead Americans into complacency. There are millions of fundamentalist Americans who are just as certain that they know what you or I need to do to fulfill God's will as the religious zealots in Iran. So this film should stand as a warning to us reaffirm diligently the separation between church and state. We really, really don't want religion shaping our government.

If PERSEPOLIS were merely about the dangers of religious fundamentalism taking over civil society this film might have pedagogical value but no more. Luckily, it is a witty, charming, and deeply moving account of one person's life. As Marjane Satrapi's real life story unfolds in animated form we come to feel deep compassion for the tragedy that has surrounded her childhood and youth. We are also moved by the delight and joy she finds in life despite the religious zealots who want to micro manage and tightly control her thoughts and habits. We also come to understand the impossibility of anything approaching a normal life in a society where self-appointed policemen (and the occasional policewomen) for God dominate everything. The film is filled with dozens of amazing moments illustrating the absurdities that enforced religiosity creates. My favorite may have been when Marjane goes to the black market where shifty looking men quietly hawk their wares, looking for all the world like drug dealers. But instead of heroin or pot they are selling the Bee Gees and Julio Iglesias. And you have to love it when Marjane refuses to succumb to religious pontification but instead goes back to her apartment to listen defiantly to Iron Maiden.

This is a delightfully unique film. We are used to non-animated films dealing with serious topics and as a result are somewhat steeled against them. They are simply all too familiar. But we aren't used to animation delving so deeply into such serious and profound matters, and as a result the film surprises us. The film provides us with a grim and illuminating portrait of life in Iran since the late seventies, but it does something else besides: it delights and entertains.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Breath Of Fresh Air For Animated Features...
Comment: Winning the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2007 and even getting a surprising Oscar nod in the Best Animated Feature category, PERSEPOLIS is more of a dramatic biography of one girl's life as she runs away from her country and her Iranian heritage.

Most Americans are probably used to animated films being light, funny, or a combination of the two (thinking along the lines of Finding Nemo). But Persepolis isn't even in the same ballpark.

The animation is cruder, with thick, black lines indicating the strict black and white laws of Iran during the Islamic Revolution that rocked the nation. No 3-dimensions here either. But the austere coloring and 2-dimensional representations are an integral part of the story.

The story follows the real-life history of its creator, Marjane Satrapi, who grew up during Iran's tumult and the battles incurred while trying to find its identity. Marjane, too, tries to find herself, and often latches onto the world around her, until family and friends teach her the horrors of past, present, and probably future.

The audience grows up with Marjane, learning the ways of the outside world while watching Iran implode. Alone and lost in a world that doesn't understand her, Marjane must learn to live her life while worrying about what's happening back home (she leaves Iran at the behest of her parents and travels around Europe, going to school and working odd jobs).

The gripping story is told all from Marjanes point of view, making the viewer care tremendously about this young girl as she creeps into womanhood. We feel her aches and pains as she tries to understand the world around her but keeps getting stymied by her upbringing and her terrible losses back in Iran.

I do have to warn potential viewers, though, that this animation holds back nothing. The language, the wars, sex, drugs, it's all there, and Marjane experiences all of them in their great and terribleness. That being said, this is a breath of fresh air in terms of what most audiences think of as an animated feature. It'll surprise you again and again.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A girl growing up in Iran, Austria and France
Comment: There was all the rage about this animated movie that finally made me watch it. I am not a great fan of animated films, so it takes a lot of convincing for me to see one. To me this story really is about coming of age, differences between middle east and western world and a girl stuck in between becoming the unwilling participant of the events around her. Marjane is curious, smart and overbearing while her immediate and extended family take a great effort to raise her right so she can be a decent human being. Her background story is about political uprising in Iran is really a story about social polarization betweeen left (communists) and right (fundamentalists). Very similar to 1930s in Europe when Nazis were getting advantage in Europe. Our main character's protective parents send her to Austria in order to protect her from the unstable political situation, but shelter away from one country never really is a shelter against emotional ravage a young girl becomes a part of while away from her parents. It is interesting story with the political history backgorund to it; it touches on the importance of family and values family instills in us that become part of our own moral values we live by every day. Touching, but not memorable. In French, so be ready for the subtitles.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Narrating History in a Simple Language
Comment: Talking to many Iranians who are about the same age as Marjane, one could realize how natural and honest the Marjane's story is. When the movie 300, which shamelessly lies about history, receives so much attention, it shouldn't be surprising that Persepolis is widely ignored in the US. We should not forget that narrating a story based on the complex mentality of the people in middle east, is itself an enormous task. Marjane Satrapi and her colleagues did a superb job while accomplishing this task. Persepolis could be considered as a strong response to some Iranian movies made by well-known film makers, whoes ONLY goal is to be acclaimed in European film festivals. Despite its tragic content, Persepolis manifests resistance and vitality of a suppressed nation.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: graphic novel come to life
Comment: Movies don't come much more boldly original or stylistically unique than the animated hit "Persepolis," an autobiographical tale of life under a totalitarian regime as seen through the eyes of a spirited Iranian girl named Marjane Satrapi, who, after immigrating to France, wrote the graphic novel upon which the film (co-directed by Satrapi herself) is based. Satrapi was a wide-eyed, inquisitive youngster when, in 1978, the Shah of Iran was toppled and a new era of freedom appeared to be dawning for that nation's people. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with revolutions, the new regime - in this case, the fundamentalist Islamic Republic led by the Ayatollah Khomeini- turned out to be even more cruel, dictatorial and repressive than the one that got overthrown.

As the central character in the movie, Marjane is both an observer of and a participant in the many events that play out in the story, as any number of her own relatives and neighbors fall victim to the systematic purging of all those who refuse to adhere to the present regime`s newly enacted draconian measures (women must go out in burkas and head scarves, lovers are not allowed to hold hands in public, etc.) - while those who remain behind live in constant fear that they will find themselves in jail or up in front of a firing squad for a simple, perhaps even inadvertent, code violation. Yet, despite all the bleakness and repression, hope and freedom of thought somehow miraculously flourish and prevail in the human heart, as exemplified by Marjane who refuses to yield her rebellious spirit (she buys bootleg Iron Maiden CDs from hawkers on the street) to the forces that would suppress and imprison it.

In terms of style, "Persepolis" relies on old-school cell drawings rather than computer graphics for its animation. The starkness of the times and of the setting is enhanced by the simple, "flat" look of the largely black-and-white drawings. Yet, the movie is a veritable cornucopia of visual delights, thanks to the animators' generous use of surrealism and magical realism throughout the picture. (If the movie reminds us of any one film, it is probably "Yellow Submarine").

In quick, bold strokes, director Satrapi, along with her co-director Vincent Paronnaud and their team of expert animators, chronicles not only her own experience but that of an entire nation as well.

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