Adapted from a pair of hefty graphic novels, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's illustrated autobiography and tells the story of her youth in Iran and Austria, with the Iranian revolution providing a contrast to Marjane's feisty personality and leftist leanings.
Beautifully animated in a simple black and white line style, Persepolis looks like a graphic novel come to life, and maintains the simplistic charm of Marjane's original artwork. Persepolis also has brains to go with its looks, deftly shifting from funny to sinister to sad and back again, often in the space of a single scene. It's a movie of contrasts and juxtapositions that manages to tell both an intimate personal story along with a broader political one.
At times Persepolis feels like a series of scenes rather than an overarching narrative, but the scenes fit neatly together and are always moving and enlightening, and we highly recommend it.
