Persepolis

By Dr. Lin Zucconi

I just saw the new French animated film Persepolis about an Iranian girl growing up before during and after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. This film is the autobiographical  story of a girl whose family is very comfortable middle class and lives in Tehran. One of the girl's uncles is a communist who is imprisoned by the ruthless Shah's government and then executed by the Islamists after the revolution.

Her parents are clearly intellectuals and moderates and her grandmother is one very intelligent and wise lady. Her grandfather had been a prince before the first Shah was put in place by the British and Americans. During the Shah's reign, her parents, uncles  and grandmother can't wait to see him gone for his brutality and corruption and are initially glad of the revolution in 1978. However they soon realize that the new Islamist regime is much worse.  The girl becomes an outspoken teenager and her parents send her to Vienna for her own safety after she speaks up once too often in school. This young girl is sheltered and privileged and doesn't make the smartest decisions in Vienna.

However, this animated B&W film is less about the girl and her maturation into womanhood and more about the horrid circumstances in Iran which she must flee. Excellent and very worth seeing.