In an era of sophisticated computer animation, this film is a visual throwback to a time when abstraction was a useful aesthetic tool for telling a great story. Persepolis is the fictionalized memoir of director Satrapi's experiences as a young girl from a liberal, cosmopolitan family in Iran, and having to come to terms with her outspoken and often feisty behavior in a foreign country. The impressive narrative spans Satrapi's childhood and young adulthood, from age 7 to age 23, when, having lived through the overthrow of the shah, the Islamic revolution and the even more oppressive fundamentalist regime that followed, she has to endure a painful period of exile in Austria for her own safety as a young adolescent. It might seem Satrapi’s story is too large for only a 98-minute film, but here is a coming of age story told carefully and lovingly with great style, without falling prey to manufactured dilemmas.
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