Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is one of the wonders of the year, an animated feature that's more richly populated, vigorous, succinct and shrewdly funny than many a flesh-and-blood drama.
Persepolis never loses its momentum, its sustaining sense of fun or its rapturous hold on the viewer
Screened as part of NZIFF 2008
Persepolis 2007
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis is one of the wonders of the last year, an animated feature that's more richly populated and more vigorous, succinct and shrewdly funny than many a flesh-and-blood drama. Working with comix artist Vincent Paronnaud, expatriate Iranian Satrapi has adapted her own popular autobiographical graphic novels relating how she survived childhood under the Shah, adolescence after the Islamic revolution and early adulthood in Europe where her parents sent her for a liberal education. — BG
"A wonderful spirit - defiant, funny, tender, self-mocking - suffuses Persepolis... A bare synopsis doesn't begin to convey the imaginative breadth of Persepolis, the richness of its characters, the wit with which it encapsulates a huge amount of historical detail or its breezy flights of fancy, which include heavenly discussions between God and Karl Marx, Marjane's otherworldly advisers. Through all her adolescent torments, Marjane is counseled by her earthy, beloved grandmother, a wise, sophisticated and foul-mouthed mentor whose memorable, full-bodied personality belies her 2-D pen-and-ink profile... In a year that has given us such marvelous animated movies as Ratatouille... this vibrant, sly and moving personal odyssey takes pride of place." — David Ansen, Newsweek
"Marjane is a rebel with a love of punk music and a need to make her own mistakes, never mind the mullahs... Of course, the personal rebellion of any strong-willed young person from any culture makes a good story; the movies are full of them. But the sassy, nonchalant juxtaposition of political and personal specificity in Persepolis is a marvel." — Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly