Marjane Satrapi's experience of growing up during Iran's Islamic revolution translates perfectly from her graphic novels to her pointedly political animated film, which is poignant and hilarious, writes Michael DwyerFilm Correspondent.
ONE OF THE pleasures of seeing films fresh on the international festival circuit is the thrill of discovery. Attending the world premiere of Persepolisat Cannes last summer, I knew little about it beyond the two-line synopsis in the festival programme. I was intrigued because it was one of the few animated feature films ever selected for competition at Cannes, and because the Iranian embassy had objected to its inclusion.
A sense of exhilaration kicked in early during the screening, and was sustained to the end when the 2,000-strong audience rose in a standing ovation that continued for 25 minutes. Co-directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, Persepolisis based on Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novels about a precocious young girl (named Marjane) growing up in Tehran, from the downfall of the Shah in 1978 through the radical transformation of the country after the Islamic revolution. Raised by middle-class liberal parents, Marjane is scathing in her outspoken criticism of the repression of women under the new theocratic regime, and the pointedly political film is alternately poignant and uproariously funny.
On meeting the adult Marjane (now 39) in London recently, she proves as exuberant as her film, discussing it and the issues raised with palpable enthusiasm in almost perfect English. She was so nervous at the Cannes premiere that she covered her eyes for most of the screening. "When the applause started I was shocked," she says. "I tried to keep in the tears, but I couldn't. That ovation was fantastic. We were all crying."
There were no tears of joy from Iran. "But it was not such a big fuss," Satrapi says. "The Iranian minister of culture sent a letter to the French embassy in Tehran. He didn't even send it to the Cannes festival." Later last year, Persepolis was chosen to open the Bangkok Film Festival and then promptly dropped when the Iranian embassy complained. "Yes, but that's not the full story," Satrapi says. "What I've heard is that the festival chose the movie and then went to the Iranian embassy and asked if it was going to be a problem. What did they expect the embassy to say?"
Nevertheless, Persepolis is most unlikely to be released in Iran. "No, but it will be seen there," Satrapi says confidently. She was last there eight years ago, to see her family and friends. Does she miss the country? "Of course," she says, "because it is my country. At the same time, I have the life that I want. I am a successful person. I live in Paris, the city where I want to live. If I start complaining, what should the people in the rest of the world do? So many other people have unhappy lives."
Given that the Persepolis screenplay is drawn from four of her graphic novels, she had to jettison reams in the process, but she has no regrets. "When you are adapting a book, you always have to have one direction. If you want to put everything from the book in, it becomes a not very good movie. That was the problem with Gangs of New York, for example. On the other hand, look at Jean-Jacques Annaud's film of The Name of the Rose. The book Umberto Eco wrote was much more about philosophy and religion, but Annaud took the detective side of the story and left the philosophy and religion in the background. He didn't try to put the whole book into the film."
Having drawn all of her graphic novels, Satrapi found it "very odd" at first that other animators were working from her drawings for the movie. "I was so used to working by myself. I didn't want to know the other animators who were, in a sense, taking my work away from me, but then I realised that they all believed in the project. They were putting their hearts and emotions into it. The whole collaboration became so exciting, and I was very happy.
"You know, it's never good to be a neurotic artist. It's good to be an artist who is pragmatic, or otherwise the film will become a mess for you and everyone working on it with you. I'm very pragmatic. I keep my ego somewhere else. The goal was to make a good movie, so if there is another animator who has a better idea, I always accept that idea. It's important for the other animators to feel free. They're not just hands that do something. They have their own talent and passion to bring to the movie."
THE SPIRITED voice cast of Persepolis features Chiara Mastroianni as Marjane, Mastroianni's real-life mother Catherine Deneuve as Marjane's mother, and venerable veteran Danielle Darrieux as Marjane's grandmother. "The casting just happened to work out wonderfully," Satrapi says. "I wanted Darrieux because the grandmother is so feisty and outspoken, and Darrieux is exactly like that herself. I could not find another lady of that age who would be more suitable.
"Deneuve was an obvious choice. She is a great actress, but she is so subtle. Chiara is her daughter, but we weren't thinking of her, or anyone else, at the beginning. Then Chiara was visiting her mother and saw the script. She is a very shy girl, but she called me and asked me if she could play the part."
The US dubbed version features the voices of Deneuve and Mastroianni in English, along with Gena Rowlands as the grandmother, Sean Penn as Marjane's father and Iggy Pop as her uncle. For once, a dubbed treatment sounds interesting, however incongruous.
Satrapi is bemused to have made a film critical of Iran while President Bush was condemning the country as a key constituent of "the axis of evil". Her film is "not a political leaflet", she insists. "I live in the time that I live. In 10 or 15 years, you could see Persepolisand I hope it will seem just as good, whatever is happening in the world. It just happens that it corresponds to this time. For me, the best example of that was The Deer Hunter, which was made just after the Vietnam War and was the movie of its time. I saw it last year for about the 50th time, and it's still a great movie. It is as intense and powerful now as it ever was.
"That is the difference between art and politics. Politicians think they have answers for everything. We artists, we only have questions. We don't have any answers. That's why we're artists. America had the role of being the cop of the world because everyone was scared of communism. Now communism doesn't exist anymore, and we know the UFOs are not going to come from Mars and hit us, so we need another enemy.
"What does this expression, 'the axis of evil', mean? All the terrorists on September 11th were from Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, but they're not called the axis of evil. There's something very dangerous in that. It plays with the emotions of people, and even some intelligent people embrace these fanatical ideas. Evil is international. It's universal. It's everywhere."
On the subject of fanatics, did Satrapi ever receive any threats about the content of her graphic novels or her film? "Oh, no," she says, shaking her head vigorously. "They say things in the corner but I don't respond. What do they want me to say? So they don't like my movie? Okay, fine."
Growing up as the child of broad-minded parents was "a huge advantage", she says. "It doesn't matter if you come from Iran or Ireland or America, if you're living in a family that loves you and are open-minded enough to let you make your mistakes. It's important for people to make mistakes and to get through them. My parents still live in Tehran and they come to see me very often." Have they seen Persepolis? "Not yet," she says. Is she nervous about that, given that her film is so personal and so political? "Not really, but you know . . ."
What prompted Satrapi to opt for graphic novels as the form for expressing herself? "I read and saw so much incredible stuff about my country that what I wrote in the beginning was my response to the rest of the world. People were asking me these crazy questions about my country, such as how many wives my father had.
"My father was in love with my mother since they were 15, and they married and had one child. I was surprised people didn't ask me if my parents were riding camels. I just felt I had to write the books. It was different with the movie because that came five years later, and by then I understood that the story didn't just belong to me, that it was a universal story of repression. I used humour in the novels and in the movie because that made them easier to understand. I think laughter is extremely important as a way of understanding things. Crying is a lot easier. People cry for the same reasons all over the world, but a sense of humour is something specific, and only really stupid people don't have one."
SATRAPI DESCRIBES herself as a humanist rather than a feminist. "My film has been invited to women's film festivals, but I always ask them how they would feel about a men's film festival. They would say those guys are freaks. Of course, I'm talking about the western world. In a country like mine, where the law is against the women, I would be a feminist. But in the western world, there is equality between men and women. I have met great men and great women. It's not a question of gender. It's a question of intelligence. There's this whole idea that whatever is bad is masculine and whatever is great is feminine. That's ridiculous. People have asked me how difficult it is to work with men, and my answer is that it's very easy."
Divorce is common in Iran, she adds, noting that her first marriage ended in divorce there. She is now married to a Swedish man, living in Paris - and clearly so contented that she is the personification of joie de vivre.
Persepolis opens at selected cinemas on Friday