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An ode to freedom
What an autobiographical coming-of-age animation can tell us about humanity, religion and gender
Myrto Nika • F
ollowing the recent bombing of the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris by jihadists, religious fanaticism and conflict in the Middle East has once again become a prominent subject, making Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi’s animated French biography Persepolis (2007) a film worth revisiting. Based on the autobiographical graphic novel of the same name written and illustrated by Satrapi in 2000, Persepolis offers a unique and rather brave point of view. The story is told through the eyes of a young Marjane (voiced by Chiara Mastroianni), growing up in Iran during the Iranian Revolution and the film openly comments on issues such as the deprivation of freedom, religious fanaticism and gender inequality. An examination of the conflicts that result from such polarised subject material, the impact that the war has on Marjane, and to what extent people who experienced similar situations are affected by their environment, provides an insight into the negative
effects that violence and deprivation of freedom have on society. Conflict in Persepolis is most prominent in the form of war. Early on in the film, Marjane reminisces about her childhood and plainly states, “I remember I led a peaceful, uneventful life as a little girl”. However, this statement is quickly contradicted when, through a flashback sequence, the audience is introduced to the young Marjane at the time of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. At a very young age Marjane has to come to terms with the cruelty of the regime. The Revolution is her first contact with the cruel reality that she and her family
24 Diegesis: CUT TO [conflict]