totally engaging!

Persepolis

Directed by: Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi

Writing credits:
Vincent Paronnaud: screenplay
Marjane Satrapi comic & screenplay

Marjane Satrapi novel

Cast of the English dubbed version:
Marjane: Chiara Mastroianni
Marjane's mother: Catherine Deneuve
Marjane's father: Sean Penn
Marjane's grandmother: Gena Rowland

i was totally charmed by this animation. i didn't have a clue of the plot. steve booked it, i just saw the billboard and agreed to go because it was free. yesterday morning, without the least expectation, thinking i was going to watch a weird cartoon about nuns, i slipped out of bed, and half asleep made my way to the coffee machine, the shower and the bus. as soon as the opening credits finished i was completely taken. i was captured by the alluring voices of the leading actors/actresses, the engaging soundtrack, last but not least, the abstract graphic in black & white, whose stylisation conveyed a highly expressionistic value to the plotline - extracted from marjane satrapi's graphic memoirs.

marjane is a little bright girl who lives with her liberal parents in a free and secular teheran in the late seventies. her life is not dissimilar from that of a western family. however, the political unrest which will end with the shah's defeat in the iranian revolution starts defining her experiences. she will go through death, war (iraq-iran) and witness a deep change in her society ruled by islamic fundamentalism, until she will be sent to boarding school in vienna where she will come into contact with abrasive characters and will be troubled by bizarre experiences and disappointments. back in her country she will feel a stranger in her own country but will desperately try to integrate herself into it...