57th Street

Let me first say that this not a comparison of Persepolis, the books, and Persepolis the film. That comes later, once somebody hires me and starts paying me enough money to afford the books.

In our most recent, and to date only, live meeting of the contributors to 57th Street, I had the opportunity to talk to Ben about the film Persepolis. While both of us agreed that it was an excellent film, and brilliantly animated, he voiced something like displeasure about the film’s central “coming of age story.” For him, it didn’t seem like anything new. And that’s got me thinking: what about this film made it seem so different? What was it that really captivated me when I was in theatres?

To be clear: the film is charming, and beautifully animated. If I had wanted to talk about how great it looks, and how you should go see it, I would have published this weeks ago. Instead, I want to take a moment to figure out why it affected me.

First off, Marjane, the protagonist, is completely likable. It’s rare in film, at least in my experience, for a character to completely outshine the plot and really own the movie. Also, Marjane spends most of the movie as a very young girl. Typically, “coming of age” movies use childhood as a backdrop and do not dwell on it for any length of time. Instead, Marjane’s childhood is central the story as it establishes not only the core of her character — imaginative, free-spirited, and fiery — but also key events in the film, namely the Iranian Revolution.

Aside from Marjane, the setting and scope of the film was something truly refreshing for these American eyes. As one who grew up hearing about the strife in the middle east, I have only recently taken the time to investigate the countries so often talked about in the news. With this upbringing, it is unfortunately hard to not think of the middle east without first thinking of Kalashnikovs, sand, religious extremism, backward-ness, and violence. This is very ignorant thinking, I know. But it can hardly be helped with how the region as a whole is portrayed in the news. Which is why seeing a portrait of Iran featuring people who look and act and live just like me was so refreshing. I have to admit that I didn’t ever think that there would be high-rises in Tehran. It may not be enough to justify loving a movie, but a unique perspective goes a long way.

What I think I enjoyed most about the film was the sense of freedom that I felt at the end of the film. Marjane showed her life as tumultuous and ever changing. It ends bittersweet, and incomplete — truer to life than most movies are willing to admit. It would have been so easy to just end the film with her struggles behind her. But that’s not how life works. Marjane experiences so much through the course of the film. She is a child, an expatriate, a smoker, a partier, an intellectual, a rebel, a wife. In a time of my life when it seems like I might spend the rest of my breathing days with one career doing one task over and over again, the reminder that humans are infinitely capable brings so much hope and stands out in full color in a black and white world.