Venus Rising

ProfileIssue: Aquarius 08

Marjane Satrapi Tells Her Story of Growing Up in Iran

I recently discovered the graphic novel "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi. I found the book so captivating that I read it all in one day. In the process, I learned more than I was ever taught in school about the fall of the Shah of Iran, the Islamic Revolution, and the Iran and Iraq war. I was thrilled to learn that Marjane had also written "Persepolis II" and worked with Vincent Paronnaud to produce a full-length feature film, now the French selection for Best Foreign Language Film at the upcoming Academy Awards. I highly suggest reading the book and watching the film.

“Persepolis” is the poignant story of Marjane as a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine-year-old Marjane, we see hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power - forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the “social guardians” and discovers punk. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable.

As she gets older, Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry about her continued safety. When Marjane is fourteen, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. Over time, she gains acceptance, and even experiences love, but after high school she finds herself alone and horribly homesick.

Highly recommended by A.O. Scott of The New York Times, he writes that the film is “…frequently somber, but it is also whimsical and daring, a perfect expression of the imagination’s resistance to the literal-minded and the power-mad, who insist that the world can be seen only in black and white.”

It took three years for Marjane and the other animators to complete the film. Marjane herself was transformed by the process of reliving her childhood again while making the film. And, it is her hope that Western audiences will see in it the humanity that exists in Iran. In a recent release she said, “The film is not judgmental, it doesn't say, "this is right and that is wrong" it just shows that the situation has many layers. This isn't a politically oriented film with a message to sell. It is first and foremost a film about my love for my family. However, if Western audiences end up considering Iranians as human beings just like the rest of us, and not as abstract notions like - "Islamic fundamentalists", "terrorists", or the “Axis of Evil”, then I'll feel like I've done something. Don't forget that the first victims of fundamentalism are the Iranians themselves.”