Persepolis is a place in Iran east of Shiraz. Darius the First founded it 2,700 years ago. It was the home of Cyrus the Great who united Persia. It is high, at 1,800m and there you will find the Gate of All Nations and the Valley of the Kings. It is an unusual name for an animated feature, but in this case a significant one. Persepolis is a refreshing movie after all the overdone CGI films saturating cinemas with trivial themes and exaggerated violence lacking any context in reality.

The only drawback in Persepolis is that none of Iran's ancient history is conveyed as it begins with the rise of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of the Iranian monarchy, who ruled from 1941 through 1978 and both modernised Iran and established a strong dictatorship over his people. Persepolis takes off in Tehran only 30 years ago. The tale reflects the revolution in 1978 for liberty that led to the Shah going into exile in January 1979, the civil war and the eventual establishment of an Islamic Republic. In 1980 a prolonged war with Iraq began that lasted eight years.

Persepolis is the story of Marjane Satrapi. In 2000 she published two volumes of her life story as an illustrated memoir. The movie version has been co-directed with another artist, Vincent Paronnaud. Little Marjane (voiced by Gabrielle Lopes as a child and Chiara Mastroianni as an adolescent and adult in both the English and French versions) was born on November 22, 1969. Uncle Anoush (voiced by Iggy Pop in the English version and Francois Jerosme in French) was in prison for opposing the Shah.

During Marjane's first decade she grew up in an atmosphere of relative freedom, but the repression was around her. Her two role models were Uncle Anoush and her grandmother (voice of Gena Rowlands in the English version and Danielle Darrieux in the French). Her Uncle, who had her visit him in prison, was executed, but her grandmother lived into extreme old age, while her wit and counsel continued to mature. During each of Marjane's coming of age crisis her grandmother had sterling advice to give her.

Her parents were bourgeois intellectuals and the family, showing three generations, was well off, but had to negotiate a difficult political terrain. Her father, Ebi Satrapi (voiced by Sean Penn/ Simon Abkarian) and her mother, Tadji (voiced by Catherine Deneuve in both English and French). When the young Marjane's behaviour will likely lead to imprisonment, her parents send her to live with friends in Vienna, Austria.

There a whole new life opens up to her, but it too is not an easy one. She attends the Viennese Lycee Francaise and finds the liberal lifestyle that she yearned for in Iran is not as attractive as she imagined. When she meets Markus, she is courted and falls in love, but when she finds him in bed with another woman it is too much. She gives up on Europe and returns home to an even more oppressive and autocratic Iran. At the airport her parents, there to greet her, do not recognise the young woman who has arrived she has changed so much.

She has to meet all her relatives who have not been killed, fled or are still in prison. She was a stranger in Austria and discovers now she is one at home. She studies art at the university but in extreme circumstances. Her grandmother tells her that, "Fear is what makes us lose our conscience".

She gets married, to achieve the status of a married woman, but after a year that becomes unbearable. Grandmother says to her: "Unless your life is horrible, stay with him." With her friends she still tries to have secret parties that are not acceptable to the regime. One of her friends is killed. Grandmother says: "In this life you'll meet a lot of jerks. If they hurt you, tell yourself that it's their own stupidity that makes them act that way. That will keep you from responding to their meanness.

There's nothing worse in this world than bitterness and revenge. Hold your head up and stay true to yourself". She is the one who told her granddaughter: "The first marriage is practice for the next one." Her parents tell her to return to Europe where she is a free woman. This time she goes to Paris in France.

Persepolis is one hour and 53 minutes long. It is rated PG. The directors and scriptwriters are Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud based on her animated or graphic novels that have appeared in France. There are no sub-titles so the English version will be shown.

sasa_majuma@yahoo.co.uk