Persepolis (2008)

I hate the idea that animation’s for kids; just because it’s animated doesn’t mean that it’s some silly cartoon and shouldn’t be taken seriously. There’s plenty of animated movies that are aimed for adults, but for this list, I’m just going to pick out five that have stood out for me.

Based on the 1972 novel by Richard Adams, and directed by Martin Rosen and John Hubley, Watership Down is about a group of rabbits who flee their home before it’s destroyed by humans. The rabbits find a new place to live and do whatever it takes to protect it from danger.

We follow brothers, Fiver (Richard Briers) and Hazel (John Hurt) as they go on their journey alongside fellow rabbits. At first, it all seems like a sweet, innocent story since we see rabbits and other cutesy creatures, but that turns out to not be the case. There are other groups of rabbits out there, and they are vicious; one of them practically runs a cult.

We find ourselves in the month of Ramadan, an opportune time to celebrate the work of a Muslim filmmaker: Marjane Satrapi. I decided to re-watch her magnum opus, Persepolis, and was struck yet again by its beauty. First a graphic novel by Satrapi, the story recounts her life growing up in Tehran during the Iranian Revolution. The powerful storytelling shines with poetic animation, an exploration of deeper truths, and highlights the protagonist's complex search for identity. All of these elements give Persepolis an enduring beauty and make it a film worth coming back to time and again.

Different aspects of the animation hold meaning and thought behind it. The use of the fantastical puppet-like imagery to depict historical facts borrows from the ancient artistic tradition of Shadow Theater. When we see young Marji’s (a pet name for Marjane) uncle recounting the political rise of the Shah (whom we now know was backed by the American and British governments for economic interests) the puppets dance and we see the retelling of history through the eyes of a child’s perception. In other words, Persepolis not only uses the ancient tradition of Shadow Theater to recount historical tales in a sort of “homage to the past” kind of way but also brings us into the childlike interpretation of a younger Marji’s imagination.

There is also a lot of imagery or symbolism superimposed with grave depictions of war and violence. An example of this is when rioting silhouettes turn to complete darkness so as to suggest death rather than blatantly show us. In a similarly nuanced scene, one of Marji’s friends narrowly misses the neighboring roof he tries to jump to and falls to his death after being chased by armed soldiers. Instead of showing the fall, the moon behind the building becomes the central focus, with the subtle downwards look of the soldiers as the only scenic indication of his death.