Persepolis

I don’t usually say movies are “important to watch” because it’s cliche and comes off as a white liberal academic, but I would probably say it about Persepolis. It’s not a political treatise or some grand statement, it’s not a manifesto convincing the western world to take a certain stance, it’s a detailing of a life constantly caught up in a frenzy of change and institutions and war and laughter and discrimination and family and joy and love and grief and hopelessness and rebellion and loneliness and solidarity; a vibrant, varied life that is often smushed down into a little box that’s easy to understand, that can’t be reduced to the typical categorizations that every non-westerner is, even if unconsciously, reduced to by people in the west. Ultimately why I use the word “important” here is the ability of Persepolis to thoroughly counteract the latent dehumanization of our understanding of pretty much any non-western politics, the caricatures we use to approximate the political landscape, our inability to understand the nuances of varied beliefs that exist everywhere, our tendency to smash an entire people into a comprehensible box even when purporting to advocate for them. It does this all in a way that seems, and sort of just is, very intuitive and obvious, which is one of the most impressive parts of this movie. It doesn’t aim to be a radical statement, it doesn’t try to convince you of something, it’s documenting people, real people, living, and an examination of politics not as a separate, almost allegorical field, but rather as the direct organization of that life, of those real people. It’s a testament to how great this is that I can sing praises this much without even mentioning the spectacular animation and the many, many great sequences (like the Eye of the Tiger part). Whenever I see a movie like this I’m both sad about how far a lot of popular animation has strayed (with the horrible, lifeless, polished animation that dominates today) as well as appreciative that something like this can be made and withstand, giving me hope that creative animation can never be killed. The backgrounds, the alternating use of color vs black and white, the visual storytelling and gags, the family dialogue, the many references to philosophy and pop-culture, it’s all so amazing. Definitely one of my favorite animated movies. Thank you high school english teacher for teaching the graphic novel in sophomore year🙏