Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

CIDMoosa A poignant and underplayed critique on religious fundamentalism - Persepolis caught my eye first for its very original and exceptional 2D animated make, remaining faithful to its original graphic novel source and capturing the wrung life and anguish with splendid silhouettes and symbolic imageries. This French-Iranian adult animated biographical film however develops with much serious themes and narrations, going through a barrage of social and geopolitical commentary through the eyes of a young Iranian girl. The narrator, Marjane Satrapi, only daughter of an educated Tehran couple, traces the history of her home country starting from the Shah regime, its fall with the 1979 revolution, the rise of the subsequent current repressive regime - entangling quite closely with her personal life and setbacks. Starting from the rebellious 70's to the 90's through the Iraq-Iran war of the 80's, the dry humor and the raw criticism to the oppressive regimes with its meaningless nationalism and martyrdom are told in a quite poetic yet sarcastic manner. The protagonist buying Iron Maiden cassettes from a black market (since music, cards and other stuff are banned and sacrilegious in the oppressive regime), speaking out against a fallacy of an anatomy class on a veiled subject and her major life happenings instigated by the eyes of religious police are often clever takes on the fundamentalist regime by the film maker on her semi-autobiographical piece. For the sake of the cynics mostly, the makers have maintained a balanced political commentary, often mentioning about the hands of the "west" in manipulating the fall of shah or fueling the Iraq-Iran war from the sidelines. In a true ode to her origins, the maker's personal life is reflected as an epitome of her communist family, cleverly undermining the shallowness of much awed about western culture in between. Persepolis is a must watch. Absolute shame that this flick lost the Oscar race for best animated film to Disney's "Ratatouille"!

sol- Growing up amid wars and repression in 1970s and 1980s Iran proves challenging for a free-spirited girl in this animated drama based on the real life experiences of co-director Marjane Satrapi. Mostly filmed in stark black and white with accentuated shadows and elongated, eerie silhouettes, 'Persepolis' is not your average animated film in the best possible way. Aside from looking great, the animation process allows the filmmakers to do more than what live action can do, providing especially wide eyes for Marjane as a child, incorporating fantasy sequences (imagining herself hung up by her ears), including dream sequences and dreamy bits like Marjane literally hopping from building to building to depict all the places that she moved to at one point in her life. There is also a nifty scene set to 'Eye of the Tiger'. Marjane's experiences as a child are, however, far more interesting than her bouncing between unhappy relationships as an adult, with this being one of those movies in which the second half is less magical than the first half. In a way this is appropriate for a film about a girl waking up to the harsh realities of her patriarchal society, but it is the scenes of young Marjane pretending to be Bruce Lee and believing everything is possible as a child, as opposed to the scenes of her arguing for equal rights at university, that linger in the mind long afterwards.

jamariana Persepolis is a wonderful tale about a young girl's journey from childhood spent in war-torn Iran to adulthood. The main character is strong, one that the audience can sympathise with, and fairly intelligent. The history of the Iran-Iraq war is told with such sincerity and emotion. It's explained with lyrical and poetic clarity in a way that the audience can emotionally connect to and understand. The narrations by Marjane, her father, and several other people in the life of Marjane do not sound like boring history lectures, but insightful and captivating accounts of destruction, hatred, terror, injustice, and the likes. The film touches on many controversial issues such as women's rights in traditional Islamic countries, war, torture, and corruption. It is very well adapted, entertaining, and incredibly refreshing. I particularly appreciated the colour switching, which many have called pretentious. However, I think it suits the film very well and serves a wonderfully artistic purpose.Persepolis is a great film for women, a great film for men, for those who have suffered, for those who want to understand suffering, for those who appreciate good animated films, for those who like politically charged dramas with a heart and a mind, and for anyone who can appreciate a great film as rare as this one.

SnoopyStyle Marjane Statrapi struggles with her identity as she recalls her childhood in revolutionary Iran. Starting from 1978 in Tehran, her family is middle class. Even though they live a comfortable modern life, they also suffer under the dictatorial rule of the Shah. Her family rejoice at his overthrow at first. However, Islamic fundamentalists turn the new regime into a repressive tyranny. After suffering years of war and deprivation, her parents sent her away to study in Vienna. Life abroad isn't easy either, and she had difficulties fitting in. When she returns to Iran, she is completely lost. Just as things improve personally and the war ends, the repression gets worst.It's an animated movie based on Marjane Statrapi's personal comic novel. The use of simple animation brings her childhood observations to life. However it doesn't do the same thing when she's more grown up. The second half of the movie isn't quite as fascinating. The animation style doesn't do her adult years with enough justice. Complex ideas and emotions seem to be simplified by the block style drawings.