Persepolis
Release date: 2007-06-27
Votes: 2012
Genres: Animation, Drama
In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
Reviews
CinemaSerf
"Marji" is a young girl growing up in Iran just as the imperial Pahlavi regime is toppled and the birth of the Islamic republic proclaimed. Optimism is the order of the day, with everyone hoping the new government will represent new freedoms and liberties for all. Ha! Fat chance, as they say, and things start to become a bit dangerous for this honest and outspoken girl. To avert a familial disaster, her parents manage to get her studying in Vienna, but once there she finds herself immersed in a culture that is alien to her and one that doesn't live up to her (rather naive) expectations. Now she is truly rudderless - where does she belong? Where can she belong? The animation here is quite effective. It's basic, monochrome and at times it's slightly stop-motion style illustrates well the changing politics at home and her own attitudes as she matures and becomes less and less settled. It does cram a great deal in. We move through the decades at breakneck speed which at times disappoints. There are times when I would have liked to linger a bit longer with some aspects of her development, but it's still a lively and thought-provoking watch for much of the time and is well worth a watch.
Movie Recommendation
Chicken with Plums2011-10-26Since his beloved violin was broken, Nasser-Ali Khan, one of the most renowned musicians of his day, has lost all taste for life. Finding no instrument worthy of replacing it, he decides to confine himself to bed to await death.More...
The Rabbi's Cat2011-05-31The story of a rabbi and his talking cat, a sharp-tongued feline philosopher brimming with scathing humor and a less than pure love for the rabbi's teenage daughter.More...
Waltz with Bashir2008-06-12An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.More...
Chico & Rita2010-11-19Chico is a young piano player with big dreams. Rita is a beautiful singer with an extraordinary voice. Music and romantic desire unites them, but their journey - in the tradition of the Latin ballad, the bolero - brings heartache and torment.More...
Taxi2015-04-15A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…More...
The King and the Mockingbird1980-03-19A young shepherdess and a chimneysweep plan to get married and escape the clutches of a tyrannical king in love with her, assisted by the guile of a cheeky mockingbird, the king's archenemy.More...
The French Kissers2009-06-10An awkward adolescent boy and his angst-ridden friends try their best to fit in amongst a cast of varied characters.More...
Jesus Christ Superstar1973-08-15As played out by a theatre troupe, the last days of Jesus Christ are depicted from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, his betrayer. As Jesus' following increases, Judas begins to worry that Jesus is falling for his own hype, forgetting the principles of his teachings and growing too close to the prostitute Mary Magdalene.More...
Nine Queens2000-08-31Two con artists try to swindle a stamp collector by selling him a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps (the "nine queens").More...
Mary and Max2009-04-09A tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely, eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year old, severely obese man living in New York.More...
The Triplets of Belleville2003-06-11When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.More...
The Painting2011-10-12Three characters living in an unfinished painting venture out into the real world in search of their creator to convince him to finish his work.More...
A Mighty Heart2007-06-22Based on Mariane Pearl's account of the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's life and death.More...
The Look of Silence2014-11-13An optician grapples with the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-1966, during which his older brother was exterminated.More...
Mountains May Depart2015-10-30The life of Tao, and those close to her, is explored in three different time periods: 1999, 2014, and 2025.More...
The Happiness of the Katakuris2002-02-23The Katakuri family has just opened their guest house in the mountains. Unfortunately their first guest commits suicide and in order to avoid trouble they decide to bury him in the backyard. Things get way more complicated when their second guest, a famous sumo wrestler, dies while having sex with his underage girlfriend and the grave behind the house starts to fill up more and more.More...
Lost in La Mancha2002-02-11Fulton and Pepe's 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam's attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.More...
The Cotton Club1984-12-14Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.More...
Stray Dog1949-10-17A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side.More...
Playing Dead2013-12-11Jean, a forty-year-old struggling, out-of-work actor has hit rock bottom. Although open to any kind of work, he can't get a break. At the unemployment office, his counselor has a rather odd proposal: he can get a job helping the police reconstruct crime scenes, by standing in for the dead victim. Jean's obsession for detail impresses the detectives, allowing him to take a leading role in a sensitive investigation in Megève ski resort, during low season, after a series of murdersMore...
Similar Movies
Carrie
2002-11-04An awkward, telekinetic teenage girl's lonely life is dominated by relentless bullying at school and an oppressive religious fanatic mother at home. When her tormentors pull a humiliating prank at the senior prom, she unleashes a horrifying chaos on everyone, leaving nothing but destruction in her wake.City of Men
2007-08-31Best buddies Acerola and Laranjinha, about to turn 18, discover things about their missing fathers' pasts which will shatter their solid friendship, in the middle of a war between rival drug gangs from Rio's favelas.The Bucket List
2007-12-25Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.Sahara
2005-04-06Seasoned adventurer and treasure hunter Dirk Pitt, a former Navy SEAL, sets out for the African desert with his wisecracking buddy Al in search of a confederate ironclad battleship rumored to have vanished long ago, the main draw being the treasure supposedly hidden within the lost vessel. When the daring duo come across Dr. Eva Rojas, a beautiful scientist who is juggling an escape from a warlord and a mission to stop the spread of a powerful plague, their desert expedition begins to heat up.Frühstück mit einer U...
2007-05-29Laurens works for the German Minister of Finance and is an extremely correct and conscientious person. He knows his way around numbers, but less so with women. One day he meets Gina, a single young woman. She is sitting alone at one of the tables and Laurens forces himself to sit with her. Hesitantly, a first conversation develops between them. This is the beginning of a seemingly impossible love story that not only throws Laurens' life into turmoil. Laurens is secretary to the German finance minister. Over breakfast, he approaches the attractive Gina and invites her to accompany him to the G8 summit. There, Gina realizes that she doesn't fit into the world of politicians and business bosses. She is the only one to say what she thinks - and causes quite a stir. Laurens has to choose between his career and the love of his life.Die Anruferin
2008-03-13A lonely woman's prank phone call leads to an unexpected friendship with a grieving widow.Free Zone
2005-04-18Rebecca, an American who has been living in Jerusalem for a few months now, has just broken off her engagement. She gets into a cab driven by Hanna, an Israeli. But Hanna is on her way to Jordan, to the Free Zone, to pick up a large sum of money.Mutants
2002-01-01Thirteen-year-old Paula lives with her mother on a well-kept estate in a small town surrounded by nice neighbours. But Paula's view of normality has been sharpened by her extensive and consistent diet of horror movies.Earth
1998-09-16It's 1947 and the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl bears witnesses to tragedy as her ayah is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.Like Stars on Earth
2007-12-21Ishaan Awasthi is an eight-year-old whose world is filled with wonders that no one else seems to appreciate. Colours, fish, dogs, and kites don't seem important to the adults, who are much more interested in things like homework, marks, and neatness. Ishaan cannot seem to get anything right in class; he is then sent to boarding school, where his life changes forever.Water
2005-09-08The year is 1938, and Mahatma Gandhi's groundbreaking philosophies are sweeping across India, but 8-year-old Chuyia, newly widowed, must go to live with other outcast widows on an ashram. Her presence transforms the ashram as she befriends two of her compatriots.Running with Scissors...
2006-10-27Young Augusten Burroughs absorbs experiences that could make for a shocking memoir: the son of an alcoholic father and an unstable mother, he's handed off to his mother's therapist, Dr. Finch, and spends his adolescent years as a member of Finch's bizarre extended family.Come Early Morning
2006-01-10A thirty-something southern woman searches for love, despite the burdens she carries with her.Blueprint
2003-12-08The story of the first cloned human being - told in her own words: At the age of thirty the world-famous composer Iris Sellin learns that she has an incurable illness. She - a person who wanted to live for ever - does however not give in. In order to preserve her art and also herself, beyond death, for all posterity, she has herself cloned. Her daughter Siri, whom, in this way, she turns into her virtual twin, learns as a child that she is the world's first cloned human being. In fact a blueprint: a blueprint of her mother. From that moment on nothing is as it was before...Nacht vor Augen
2008-02-08After a lengthy deployment abroad in Afghanistan, young soldier David Kleinschmidt returns to his home village in the southern Black Forest ahead of schedule. He is warmly welcomed by his girlfriend Kirsten and his mother Inge. His eight-year-old half-brother Benni is full of admiration for him. But David has changed. He is withdrawn and no longer the person he was before his deployment.Amarcord
1973-12-18In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.Rang De Basanti
2006-01-26After a group of friends graduate from Delhi University, they listlessly haunt their old campus, until a British filmmaker casts them in a film she's making about freedom fighters under British rule. Although the group is largely apolitical, the tragic death of a friend owing to local government corruption awakens their patriotism. Inspired by the freedom fighters they represent in the film, the friends collectively decide to avenge the killing.Caramel
2007-08-09In a beauty salon in Beirut the lives of five women cross paths. The beauty salon is a colorful and sensual microcosm where they share and entrust their hopes, fears and expectations.The Match Factory Gir...
1990-01-12Iris is a shy and dowdy young woman stuck in a dead-end job at a match factory, who dreams of finding love at the local dancehall. Finding herself pregnant after a one-night stand and abandoned by the father, Iris finally decides the time has come to get even and she begins to plot her revenge.The Kite Runner
2007-12-14After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.