Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, s'il vous plaît

I am giddy excited about this movie. I adore the books, and it seems that the film will include many of the narrative and stylistic elements of Persepolis and Persepolis II; the popular graphic novels about the ways in which life changes for young Marjane and her family as they witness the events leading to the Islamic Revolution - and its consequences. Satrapi's semi-autobiographical narrative explores the impact that the establishment of an oppressive regime has on the daily lives of Iranian people; and the reading of her works has endowed many westerners with both a deeper understanding of the history of the region and with a sense of out-right solidarity with the Iranian people, who struggle to maintain normalcy in a time of extremism.

Predictably, the Iranian government is none too pleased with the film and recently managed to get it barred from the Bangkok International Film Festival. The government's discomfort is understandable since, as Stephen Holden of the New York Times explains, Persepolis is "... tacitly feminist in its depiction of Islamist patriarchs as ludicrous misogynist prudes." At other festivals, however, this feminist film has gotten a much warmer reception. At Cannes, Persepolis was awarded the grand-jury award. Persepolis is to be France's submission for best foreign language film at the Oscars.

To see a trailer with subtitles, visit the beautiful website.




The English-language version of the film will be released on December 25, but I am hoping to see it in the original French before that. I'll need subtitles of course, since I assume the characters will do more than order food and complain about being lost, which is the limit of my French language skills.

M'excuser, où est le cinéma le plus proche?