The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Marjane Satrapi’s feature length animated film, Persépolis, is presented to the world at the 60th international film festival in Cannes. The film, which is based on Satrapi’s graphic novel of the same title, tells of how her world changed when the Islamist government took over in Iran, and how the war with Iraq prompted her parents to send her to Europe. After living in Switzerland and France for a long time, Satrapi returns to Iran to visit her family, and finds the country and herself totally estranged.

Considering the critical stance Satrapi takes against the Iranian government’s policies towards civil liberties, and the rights of women in particular, it comes as no surprise that that same Iranian government officially protests against the film being shown at the Cannes festival. (Tehran objected to Oliver Stone’s Alexander, they objected to 300, now Persepolis – presumably next they will object to History itself and burn all copies of Herodotus. Somehow I imagine an Orwellian Ministry of Truth constantly editing entire events out of history – Joe)

(panel showing the attitude of some in authority in Iran to women from Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis – Germaine Greer would not approve of this treatment of women. Interesting to contrast this with recent debate on Western comics blogs about the depiction of women… If anyone is offended by this image, frankly you deserve to be offended)

The Belgian weekly “Le Vif” reports an official statement by the Farabi, a film organisation related to the Iranian Ministry of culture to the French embassy’s cultural envoy in Tehran. It says “This year the Festival in Cannes has selected a film about Iran which does not take into account the consequences and results of the Islamic revolution”. Further on, the question is raised whether the fact that this film was selected, should not be considered a political and anti-cultural act, more so since no other Iranian work will be presented at the festival.

Needless to say, the graphic novel Persepolis, which was translated in 20 languages, has not been published yet in Iran…