A ten year old Bruce Lee fanatic attached to her Adidas trainers and determined to become a future prophet is not your average leading lady. Meet Marjane, of Marjane Satrapi's Oscar-nominated film Persepolis, adapted from her autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. At a packed ICA screening in London this week, part of the Bird's Eye View festival, much of the audience fell in love.
Essentially a young woman's coming-of-age story, this French language black-and-white animation also offers a potted history of the last thirty years in Iran for the uninitiated. The young Marjane witnesses much first-hand, not least the creation of the Islamic Republic and grim reality of the Iran-Iraq war. She is provided with further histories by her adored "communiss" Uncle, later imprisoned and executed, and exchanges night-time conversations with God and Karl Marx.
Really, though, this is a simple story, simply told, but with plenty of added wit. Marjane is a young woman struggling with the same insecurities of childhood, adolescence and young adulthood - "my chest grew alarmingly, my butt soon restored my centre of gravity" - experienced the world over, but doing so against an extraordinary backdrop.
As an extroverted and free-spirited child, egged on by her matriarchal grandmother, she chafes against revolutionary rule and is eventually sent to Vienna by her parents, fearful of her safety in the new republic. Alone in Europe, she is both a celebrity and a misfit "you saw a revolution and a war" asks one of her new "nihilist" friends, "wow, that's wild!" But it is a deeply unhappy time, and Marjane, having publicly denied her identity by claiming to be French, eventually chooses love of her homeland over the freedoms she enjoys in Austria.
This post is part of our coverage of the Bird's Eye View film festival, London 6-14 March 2008.
Also in openDemocracy on Bird's Eye View:
Kasia Boddy, "Clowning glories: Hollywood's screwball women"
Kanishk Tharoor, "Getting close to Musharraf" In contrast to the computerised wonders of Disney Pixar and others, the animation is simple, black-and-white and 2D, but no less expressive for it and visually incredibly beautiful. The emotions - particularly the moving scene in which her parents see her off to Europe - are plain for all to see. Satrapi and her co-director Vincent Paronnaud have spoken of the importance of the hand-drawn production process, and are proud of having brought back the nearly-forgotten art of tracing in France.
Despite some tough subjects, especially the increasing conservatism of the mullah's rule, there are plenty of laughs. Shadowy men in long jackets offer "Jackson Michael", "Julio Inglesias" "Estevie Wonder" and "Iron Maiden" on the black market, Marjane is taught a censored "birth of venus" in art class, and is told off by police for running to get to a class, as "there is too much movement" (of the bottom).
Marjane is feisty though, a trait inherited from her grandmother, who is in herself representative of all that ties Marjane to Iran. She teaches her the importance of integrity, chastises her for petulant and thoughtless behaviour, and applauds her assertion of rights in an increasingly restrictive society. There are a couple of great moments such as her reaction to her school teacher's assertion that "the veil represents freedom" and at university when a professor demands that the girls lengthen their headscarves: "you think we can control ourselves when we can nearly see what you've had for lunch..."
The sadness of Marjane's story is to truly love her homeland, but ultimately be unable to live in it, especially as a young woman, and the enduring themes are those of exile and identity. The film ends as she leaves Tehran once again, this time for France. The goodbyes are all the harder, as she is never to see her grandmother again; she leaves with the memories of the sweet-smelling jasmine blossoms her grandmother stuffed in her bra every morning, and a knowledge that "freedom always has a price".
Persepolis is released in UK cinemas on 25th April 2008. You can read more about it and view trailers here.
