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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Persepolis

EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Persepolis reviews
90
8.1 User Score:

Movie Info

Genre(s): Animation  |  Drama

Written by: Marjane Satrapi (novel, comic & screenplay)
Vincent Paronnaud

Directed by: Vincent Paronnaud
Marjane Satrapi

Release Date:
Theatrical: December 25, 2007
DVD: June 24, 2008

Running Time: 95 minutes, Color

Origin: France / USA

Language(s): French / English / Persian / German

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for mature thematic material including violent images, sexual references, language and brief drug content

Starring Catherine Deneuve, and Chiara Mastroianni

Persepolis is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of the precocious and outspoken 9-year-old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power--forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, Marjane outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk, ABBA, and Iron Maiden. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable. (Sony Classics)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Newsweek David Ansen

It's not to be missed in any language. In a year that has given us such marvelous animated movies as "Ratatouille" and "Paprika," this vibrant, sly and moving personal odyssey takes pride of place.

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100

USA Today Claudia Puig

Cinematic poetry in black and white. It also is a deeply affecting tale of the power of resilience and an unflagging sense of humor through the worst of situations

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100

Slate Dana Stevens

A completely different kind of animated movie that, even more than "Ratatouille," reimagines what the medium can do.

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100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

While avoiding specious bromides about universality, Persepolis insists on communicating with its audience, and insists that communication and empathy are the keys to our survival.

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100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The movie sparkles with witty self-awareness.

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100

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

If "Ratatouille" taught the world that rats have feelings too, Persepolis teaches the same thing about the people of Iran, who in the current political climate are probably in greater danger of being eradicated.

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100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

While so many films about coming of age involve manufactured dilemmas, here is one about a woman who indeed does come of age, and magnificently.

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100

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Persepolis, the superb film based on Satrapi's graphic memoirs of the same name, is a riveting odyssey in pictures and words. It's unlike any journal you've read or any animated movie you've seen.

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100

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Fascinating memoir of coming of age in Iran.

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91

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

In a stroke of voice-casting genius, the voices of Marjane and her mother are provided by real-life mother and daughter Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve, respectively, both of whom bring heft and measured emotion to the characters.

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91

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

The two main points Persepolis makes are that strife is relative, and all politics are personal.

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90

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Persepolis, austere as it may look, is full of warmth and surprise, alive with humor and a fierce independence of spirit.

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90

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Satrapi’s parents ship her off to a French school in Vienna, but she’s rudderless, ungrounded. She’s drawn back to a devastated Tehran, where she can’t design a life, either. This great film, by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, is that life, designed. It freed her mind; it frees ours.

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90

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The filmmakers were right to believe that a live-action version of this story would have failed to achieve the universality Persepolis does.

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90

Variety Lisa Nesselson

This autobiographical tour de force is completely accessible and art of a very high order.

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90

Village Voice Nick Pinkerton

Persepolis is a small landmark in feature animation. Not because of technical innovation--though it moves fluidly enough, and its drawings have a handcrafted charm forgotten in the era of the cross-promoted-to-saturation CGI-'toon juggernauts--but because it translates a sensitive, introspective, true-to-life, "adult" comic story into moving pictures.

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90

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A dazzlingly smart and entertaining animated feature by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, looks like a black-and-white graphic novel come to life.

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89

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Though you might have a hard time discussing some of the film’s verbal descriptions of torture with young ones, Persepolis will prove a worthwhile movie for thoughtful teens.

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88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

They're both tales of growing up in the shadow of Islamic fundamentalism, but Persepolis is everything "The Kite Runner" is not. It's a personal memoir rather than fiction, coolly observant instead of melodramatic, female rather than male in sensibility and sense of humor - it has a sense of humor.

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88

Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson

Without significantly changing the books’ content, they bring in a wealth of emotional tones--particularly a playful, wry humor.

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88

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Persepolis is as modern as tomorrow's headlines and as classic as an ancient myth.

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88

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The black-and-white animation won't dazzle your eyes, but everything else about Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's adaptation of Satrapi's graphic comic book series Persepolis will hold you in its thrall.

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88

TV Guide Ken Fox

The French-language voice cast is first-rate, although the film will also be released in the U.S. in an English-language version featuring Sean Penn, Iggy Pop and Gena Rowlands in addition to Deneuve and Mastroianni.

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83

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

You can learn about the grand shifts of history from Persepolis, but you learn about a handful of lives as well.

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80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The movie, while no fun, faces hard truths and asks hard questions.

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80

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

The combination of pen, ink and geopolitical strife have yet to yield anything quite like it.

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80

Empire Helen O'Hara

The monochrome animation is stark and beautiful, and Marjane’s an appealing narrator. Often hilarious, sometimes tragic, this may be low-tech, but it’s high-class.

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80

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

A familiar story set in an unfamiliar context, it's a paean to the universality of human experience, a testament to the endurance of individuality during great political and fanatical upheaval, and a reminder that even the most complex situations, identities and stories are heartbreakingly simple.

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75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

It is a vivid, at times heartbreaking, portrait of a life and a nation in crisis.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

It's striking how much emotion Satrapi is able to convey through blocky drawings.

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70

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

There is no denying the boldness of Persepolis, both in design and in moral complaint, but there must surely be moments, in Marjane’s life as in ours, that cry out for cross-hatching and the grown-up grayness of doubt.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 58 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Andrew G gave it a10:
God, this film was funny.

lance k. gave it a6:
What seemed captivating and fresh in the first 40 minutes gradually wore out its welcome. After a while, we feel less sympathetic with the rather self-absorbed main character. The animation is very nice, and perhaps a new and interesting way to tell an elaborate and long historical story without having to go to the trouble and expense to re-enact it all. The graphic style is very evocative of the psychological and cultural territiory in ways that modern 3D computer animation could not. Sadly, the material becomes quite split after awhile, partly personal issues of a pretty mixed up young girl, partly epic family tragedy in a warring country. They don't mix particularly well, and after a while I began to wonder why one or the other was not more emphasized, and why would I want to watch both at the same time? Oddly, the animation seemed more interesting and fitting to the war and historic segments, and a decent young women's movie could've been made in a conventional method. I would want to see the historical movie, and would've skipped the other.

Levi H. gave it a7:
The film is based on the graphic novel of the same name, and is autobiographical. After an amusing history of Iran told through puppet-show antics, the film stops being about Iran and starts being about the humanity of Marjane's situation. Sure, it takes a while to get there and there really isn't a good way to separate the narrative from the polemics of the characters, but in the end there's no political didacticism, just a woman and her memories. It is the image of grown up Marjane that we must hold with us in order to recognize the beauty of this film.

Sayantan D gave it a10:
A wonderful film with dark sardonic humor, poetic animation dwelling into human relationships. LOVED IT.

Al P. gave it a1:
If this were intended to be an overview of anti-Middle Eastern sentiment aimed at a 10 to 12-year old audience, I'd say it did a great job.

Mae B. gave it a10:
This film captivated me from start to finish with its simple yet striking animation that manages to convey the horrific and the emotional so beautifully.

Daisy&Kazumi gave it a10:
Incredible! The words Marjane says in the last scene moved my heart and brought tears to our eyes. A definite 10/10. All Must Watch!

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