{"id":1576,"date":"2007-12-24T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2007-12-24T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html"},"modified":"2007-12-24T11:00:40","modified_gmt":"2007-12-24T11:00:40","slug":"the-other-side-of-persepolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html","title":{"rendered":"The Other Side of ‘Persepolis’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"persepolis.jpg\"When the subject of Iran comes up, religious extremists tend to take center stage. However, co-directors\/co-writers Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud show that there is more to the Iranian culture with their animated feature \u201cPersepolis\u201d \u2014 in limited theatrical release on Dec. 25.
\nThe film based on Satrapi\u2019s eponymous autobiographical graphic novel series has already received acclaim with the likes of the jury prize from the Festival de Cannes in May and a recent Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
\nPart of the film’s intrigue is that it gives a glimpse into the political and religious diversity of Iranians. The coming of age story follows freethinking Marjane \u2014 who is raised with socialist ideals in an apparently secular Muslim family during the fall of monarchy rule, rise of the Islamic revolution and the beginnings of the war with Iraq.
\nAdoration for the 9-year-old Marji is easy. She\u2019s a self-proclaimed prophet, Bruce Lee fan and Che Guevara emulator. In her dreams, Marji converses with a masculine long-white-haired God. She even has her own holy book with commandments like \u201cno old person should have to suffer.\u201d
\nBut the young one ends her relationship with God, or so she thinks, when her beloved uncle is imprisoned and killed by the authorities of the Islamic Republic. She later discovers punk music in the black market, almost getting in trouble with the authorities. Marjane then finds that staying quiet about the injustice and lack of freedom around her isn\u2019t possible.<\/p>\n


\nBy 14, she is sent to Austria for her protection and to attend high school. After the joys and sadness of teenage love and the unbearable attributes of being an outsider, Marjane returns to Iran for college. The culture shock never really subsides and now feeling like an outsider in her home country, she decides to leave for France at 24.
\nSome might say the film’s chosen medium and language \u2014 black and white animation with specks of color and French with English subtitles \u2014 are negative attributes. It could even be considered too eclectic for some prospective audiences, taking away from the filmmakers\u2019 intention of showing another side to Iranian culture to a greater audience.
\nBut the black-and-white animation makes the message stronger. A majority of film-goers probably won\u2019t define the Iranian characters by their ethnicity, but by what they believe in and act on. A live-action feature with a predominately Middle Eastern cast would make it easy for some moviegoers to place this subject in the \u201cOther\u201d pile, marking it as irrelevant to them.
\nAlso, character emotions aren\u2019t lost through the animation or stuck with one-dimensional characterizations typical in children cartoons; “Persepolis” contains some memorable scenes filled with great sadness and others bound with exhilaration. If subtitles are too disturbing, an English version of the film is set for an upcoming release with voice talents such as Sean Penn, Iggy Pop, Gena Rowlands.
\nHowever, \u201cPersepolis\u201d feels right in its French form. Satrapi stays true to her home in the Iranian Diaspora by working with her friend and fellow French comic artist Paronnaud, keeping the production in Paris and casting renowned actresses Danielle Darrieux and Catherine Deneuve.
\nProbably the most intriguing aspect about this story is the matriarchal triumvirate of Marjane, her mother and grandmother in the patriarchal society of Iran. Their power is even given more meaning by the casting of voice talents, Chiara Mastroianni, Deneuve and Darrieux, in the respective roles. Darrieux and Deneuve have starred in multiple mother-daughter roles, and Mastroianni is Deneuve\u2019s real-life offspring.
\nThis casting and production shows that Satrapi is telling her story on her terms, with a French focus. So, maybe the new auteur is saying that she has found her identity in the Diaspora, and she isn\u2019t that much of an outsider anymore.
\n\u2014 Posted by Sara Shereen Bakhshian<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the subject of Iran comes up, religious extremists tend to take center stage. However, co-directors\/co-writers Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud show that there is more to the Iranian culture with their animated feature \u201cPersepolis\u201d \u2014 in limited theatrical release on Dec. 25. The film based on Satrapi\u2019s eponymous autobiographical graphic novel series has already…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Other Side of 'Persepolis'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Other Side of 'Persepolis'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the subject of Iran comes up, religious extremists tend to take center stage. However, co-directors\/co-writers Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud show that there is more to the Iranian culture with their animated feature \u201cPersepolis\u201d \u2014 in limited theatrical release on Dec. 25. The film based on Satrapi\u2019s eponymous autobiographical graphic novel series has already…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-24T11:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/persepolis.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Other Side of 'Persepolis'","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Other Side of 'Persepolis'","og_description":"When the subject of Iran comes up, religious extremists tend to take center stage. However, co-directors\/co-writers Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud show that there is more to the Iranian culture with their animated feature \u201cPersepolis\u201d \u2014 in limited theatrical release on Dec. 25. The film based on Satrapi\u2019s eponymous autobiographical graphic novel series has already…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2007-12-24T11:00:40+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/persepolis.jpg"}],"author":"Idol Chatter","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html","name":"The Other Side of 'Persepolis'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/persepolis.jpg","datePublished":"2007-12-24T11:00:40+00:00","dateModified":"2007-12-24T11:00:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/7b2e8e676bc915bc32051c9e41248d05"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/persepolis.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/idolchatter\/files\/import\/persepolis.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2007\/12\/the-other-side-of-persepolis.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Other Side of ‘Persepolis’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/7b2e8e676bc915bc32051c9e41248d05","name":"Idol Chatter","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/795\/79542c5d9e1738eb80d672f845b02a65x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/795\/79542c5d9e1738eb80d672f845b02a65x96.jpg","caption":"Idol Chatter"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/idolchatter"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}