Persepolis
Feb. 4th, 2008 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pasitheaStacey and I went to watch Persepolis last night. It's a story of an Iranian woman about my age. The overthrow of the Shah and the religious extremists coming to power. Really good film. I'd particularly recommend it for Jon.
I think what I was most struck by in it was some of the parallels between her life and those of myself and other people I know. How do you preserve your sense of self in a world that wants you to be something else? In her case, a shrouded meek woman who submits to men. I was totally cheering when she's wearing her "Punk is not ded" jacket on the streets of Iran. Awesome.
The other thing that really really struck a chord was that just as I was starting to feel like, "Geez. I had it easy compared to her." she says basically the same thing. Her parents had sent her away to France. She'd escaped a lot of the oppression other women in her country were facing and she's feeling the same as me. "I've got it easy.."
Of course, I know we can't really compare the suffering of any two people. Even if the worst you've ever experienced is a hang nail, you have no basis for comparison so it is the worst thing you've ever experienced. Most of us find a way to survive.
Persepolis isn't a film that really goes anywhere. If you boiled it down, it would be nothing more than, 'Stay true to yourself', but it's a fascinating story of the life of someone who is totally alien and yet very familiar at the same time. I think in this case, it being an animated film also helps with that. Where some people might find it hard to identify with an actual Iranian woman, the simplification that a drawing provides lets them see past that to just 'a human being'.
Well worth watching before it slips out of the theaters entirely.
I think what I was most struck by in it was some of the parallels between her life and those of myself and other people I know. How do you preserve your sense of self in a world that wants you to be something else? In her case, a shrouded meek woman who submits to men. I was totally cheering when she's wearing her "Punk is not ded" jacket on the streets of Iran. Awesome.
The other thing that really really struck a chord was that just as I was starting to feel like, "Geez. I had it easy compared to her." she says basically the same thing. Her parents had sent her away to France. She'd escaped a lot of the oppression other women in her country were facing and she's feeling the same as me. "I've got it easy.."
Of course, I know we can't really compare the suffering of any two people. Even if the worst you've ever experienced is a hang nail, you have no basis for comparison so it is the worst thing you've ever experienced. Most of us find a way to survive.
Persepolis isn't a film that really goes anywhere. If you boiled it down, it would be nothing more than, 'Stay true to yourself', but it's a fascinating story of the life of someone who is totally alien and yet very familiar at the same time. I think in this case, it being an animated film also helps with that. Where some people might find it hard to identify with an actual Iranian woman, the simplification that a drawing provides lets them see past that to just 'a human being'.
Well worth watching before it slips out of the theaters entirely.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-05 02:13 am (UTC)It was a little disconnected due to being 'a bunch of incidents from my life' rather than an artificial, constructed, fictional narrative. But it was really wonderful nonetheless. Occasionally beautiful.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-05 11:02 am (UTC)