Cast : Voice Over By : Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon AbkarianI was somehow hesitant before watching this as many have hailed the movie as an achievement both technically and artistically. Considering it tackles issues related to the Middle East I thought this will be yet another politically correct show-off that leaves you dead-cold. Well it's nothing like this. Though the story simplifies things quite a lot, it has a good reason for doing so: everything is seen from the point of view of the main character who brings forth her memories as a little girl in Iran, as a teenager in exile and as a married woman back in Iran. The story is always interesting, heart-felt, funny, sarcastic at times, nostalgic, cruel and absurd at some points but very very convincing.
The movie's best asset is it doesn't preach, it leaves everything to the viewer's judgment, and this is something to be appreciated because we all know that cartoons can be very effective propaganda devices. You can use animation for subversive purposes in a may number of ways. Technically, the movie-makers decided for stylishness rather than anything else. It's very interesting to compare Ratatouille's "realism" in animation and its shallow plot and the intricate and subtle plot of Persepolis and its abstract animation. I think animation was never about a big budget but about taste and artistic reason for choosing a specific technique. Displaying such a consistent style throughout, Persepolis manages never to feel too much in spite of its length (Ratatouille felt a bit too much after half an hour, at least to me and most of the people in the audience). Mnay reasons account for this: good story, excellent acting (the characters are all memorable), excellent pacing etc.
The best thing I got from watching this, besides the 95 minutes of great fun, is that there is a way of separating between good and evil without hurting anybody and you can come to terms with your past without feeling a sense of despair, no matter how bad that past was.
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