Persepolis

My friend Le Duc summed up the strange empty feeling left inside me after seeing Persepolis, one of the most celebrated animated films of recent times: 'it was a bit like a soap opera'.

This might come as an anathema to those who loved it, especially when backed by pretty much EVERY critic in the world. But I am with him on this one (as on many other things). Maybe I disliked it because of the hype surrounding it, or maybe simply because I had a bad day at work (there was a session of compulsory fun, you see, which extinguished all remains of my pleasant weekend - not the organiser's fault, I just hate group activities). Whatever the reason, I just walked out in a sour state.

The film gets off to a good start, with some beautiful characters that conquer your imagination, especially the old generation of idealist revolutionaries and good-hearted Communists who are depicted through the loving eyes of a young and impressionable Marjane Satrapi.


But somewhere between the time when she leaves the country to live in Austria, and the time when she returns to post-war Iran, the connection with the viewer is lost, and one is left following the twists of her life - into and out of depression/rebellion at regular intervals - like those of a goldfish in a water tank.


Perhaps this is precisely Satrapi's purpose: to give us a glimpse into a world that has no hope for change. This would be a terrifying picture, were it allowed to sink into the viewer's mind. But not all of us have lived through a war AND a revolution, as one of the characters puts it. Therefore, staring impotently at the unfolding of this drama is only going leave an empty feeling inside.

Perhaps I should avoid group activities at work in the future...