Persepolis (12A)

Thursday 29th January 2009
Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi 2007 - 96 mins
France, USA
Language: French / English / Persian / German

Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Satrapi, this is a wonderfully inspiring and beautifully animated tale of a young girl's life in Iran under the Shah and coming of age during the Islamic revolution.  Never too heavy handed, this film makes Hollywood's female roles look like ridiculous stuff.  Here we have a real woman with passion and fortitude dealing with oppression, depression, marriage, separation and death.

Score:   74.34%

Some Members' Comments:

What a serious subject for an animation!  Powerfully told, especially the fleeting image of "The Scream".
Superb animation and thoroughly watchable.
Very clever, beautiful way to tell a horrible story.
Entertainment & education - 2 for the price of 1.

Very good, but quite hard work!  Nice animation.
Unusual, but it worked.
Thought provoking if a bit laborious.
Very well done and a good insight into the Middle East.
Unusual and thoughful.
Didn't expect to enjoy a cartoon, but I did!
What was the "FB" in the bottom right corner?  Much better than Shrek.
Colours well chosen - good music.  Original.
Would have preferred it "straight" rather than animated.
Would rather watch a documentary but very well done.

Worthy but tedious.
Did not enjoy animation.