Persepolis Screening Report

Ed Harris, Enemy at the Gates

Persepolis Screening Report

What is Persepolis?

Persepolis is the story of a young girl growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. She quickly realizes this is not a place for her and moves to Vienna. She struggles with life away from what she is used to and eventually comes back home. Home is no longer the same as it was when she left, and she is left wondering where she belongs.

Genre?

Persepolis is an animated autobiography and it follows the genre convention by being a true story of the person who wrote that comics/film. While there have been many animated documentaries, even after doing some research I could not find any other full length animated autobiographies.

Third Cinema, Accented Cinema, or both?

This film follows along with our course concept of Third Cinema. "Although Third Cinema films are made chiefly in the Third World, they may be made anywhere, by anyone, about any subject, and in a variety of styles and forms, as long as they are oppositional and liberationist." ( Transnational Cinema, The Film Reader 123) It did not set out to break box office numbers, it was made by small French production companies, and it presents the truth and inspires revolutionary activism. While this movie did make $22 million at the box office their main achievements came from awards, including a large award at Cannes and an Oscar nomination.

Accented Cinema is defined as "an aesthetic response to the experience of displacement through exile, migration, or diaspora." Our title character relates to all three of these concepts perfectly. She migrates away from her home country, then back, then away again. She is exiled especially upon returning to Iran. Diaspora is essentially obvious with the other two concepts taking place.

This film covers a large number of the early course concepts that we have discussed or read about but these two concepts stuck out to me as something you do not find all that often in films, especially as critically acclaimed as this one.

Simplicity

What makes this film exceptional is the simplicity of it. The simple black and grey colors throughout the entire film with hints of color to distinguish time periods is incredibly well thought out. To tell the story of Satrapi in 96 minutes with such simplicity speaks to the artwork and direction of Satrapi herself and her co-director. The story is easy to follow and while the translations may have had a few errors, including an extremely humorous misheard lyric during "Eye of the Tiger", it was easy to read all while enjoying the artistry.