The Coolidge Corner Theatre

"Absurdly entertaining while asking age-old questions about identity and homeland, as well as grimly modern questions about life under a religious dictatorship. These are filtered through sardonic feminism and the immediacy of good comic art. The drawing is simple without ever being crude, and Satrapi's line is thick and sure, at times womanly; at other moments, she jabs with the force of punk." - Ty Burr, Boston Globe

Based on Marjane Satrapi's best-selling graphic novel, PERSEPOLIS is a poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution of the late '70s. Clever and fearless, young Marjane outsmarts the “social guardians” and discovers punk, ABBA and Iron Maiden. As she gets older, Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safety.

And so, at age 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. In addition, Marjane has to combat being equated with the religious fundamentalism and extremism she fled her country to escape. After high school, weary of the bohemian atmosphere of Europe and terribly homesick, Marjane makes the difficult decision to return Iran to be close to her family.

After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, all the while continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.

dir. Vincent Paronnaud, w/ the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, and Danielle Darrieux, 1h35m