I’m finally out of my sad/depressed mood, thanks to my friends… Specially S for forcing me to stay at his place during my struggle. To entertain me and make me feel better, he decided we should watch Persepolis.

Which is an animated movie/cartoon telling the amazing story of a young girl named Marjane growing up in Iran around the time of the Islamic Revolution. Bringing her story to life and drawing the viewer into her what it was to grow up during a time of political revolution. Using a unique style of animation, that closely follows the style of the graphic novel, the audience is pulled into a world that is much different than the world they are used to.

Marjane’s story is often times humorous and often times heart breaking without resorting to heavy handed sentimentalism that is often seen in Hollywood movies. The movie sure helped me get out of the mood as there were some parts that were too funny that I laughed out loud during the movie, The “Eye of the Tiger” sequence had me in stitches. Other times during the film I had to wipe a tear from my eye. Her condition, and my family condition drove me way off. I won’t spoil any of those moments for anyone, but there were parts of the film that left me crushed into bones bitten by little cute dogs.

The characters in the story were all very interesting and all seemed very real. Marjane grows from a child to an adult and deals with struggles as extreme as a revolution and as simple as the end of a relationship. The most memorable (and personally loved) of the side characters is Marjane’s grandmother.

As an Arab I probably know what it is like to live in a state of such political oppression as the one depicted in the film. However, one of the things that makes this movie unique is that a lot of it is told from the point of view of a child, an innocent person that does not really understand the politics of what is going on around her, she just goes with the flow.

Since I do understand what it is like to be in the situation, having the story told from the point of view of someone that doesn’t really grasp the enormity of the events unfolding around her really helped to bring me into the story. I lived wars too and I know what it feels like, I’m living a daily war, not the way Marjane was but still. there’s a war everywhere.

Overall I really enjoyed the film and it is one that I may eventually want to see again. I really would like to read the graphic novels that it was based on and probably even a few of the other graphic novels written by Marjane Satrapi. I think she is a wonderful talent and I hope she continues to make such interesting films, perhaps bringing some of her other graphic novels to the big screen.

Rates 4.5/5 on my scale (I wanted a dubbed version into Arabic or English, it’d be nice)