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Persepolis @ Cinefranco
April 2nd, 2008 by Alexandra Heeney
When: Thursday, April 3rd @ 12:00 PM
Where: The Bloor Cinema
Details: Cinefranco website
Adapting her graphic novel of the same name, Marjane Sartrapi wrote and directed Persepolis, an enjoyable film that’s worth seeing but that never quite hits the mark of a great film. Persepolis is the story of a smart, young girl growing up in Iran in the 1980s, struggling to deal with revolutions, the new government, and the laws limiting her freedom. As a young child, the revolution seems an adventure, and she’s easily believes anything she hears: when her teacher tells her to support the current government, she does; when her parents explain to her the faults of the government, she is eager to revolt against it. But when she meets her uncle, a long-time political prisoner, the glamour of revolution becomes hard-knock reality, and she is lost.
When the situation in Iran worsens, her parents send her to school in Vienna where she becomes a lonely outsider. She falls in with the crowd of disaffected youth, but she cannot cope with their “revolutionary” political ideas as mere play – she has experienced true political hardship – and she cannot fully join in. She feels the guilt of being away from home, living things grand while her family is left in a war zone. When she finally does return to Iran, she is an outsider there, too, because she has been so-called “Westernized”. She becomes, justifiably, frustrated living in a place where she cannot, among other things, openly have a boyfriend, and must live in fear of being seen holding hands – and being charged - by the watch.
Persepolis is a good introduction, with heart, to what the situation in Iran in the 1980s and 1990s was like, told through the eyes of a strong, gutsy, and sympathetic character. The animation is a gorgeous delight and the characters are voiced by greats like Catherine Deneuve and the lesser known, but wonderful, Simon Akbarian. But the film still never quite works. The story is a little too fragmented and keeping track of time in the film is difficult. We get a milestone every few years to let us know how old our heroine is and when the events are taking place, but events get a little bit muddled and confused in the in-between years. Our heroine’s grandmother, parents, and uncle are so frequently preachy about freedom and liberty and politics that it grows tiresome quickly, despite the film’s necessity for characters acting as the moral backbone. There are some genuinely sad and chilling scenes, but I felt too detached to really emotionally experience them: I felt like I should be crying, but try as I might, I could not get a tear to emerge. I was too disconnected from the action, the political situation, and worst of all, the heroine, who I liked but couldn’t quite get a grasp on. Persepolis is a clever and adorable film but it could have done, and I wish it did, so much more.
