Few screenplay adaptations live up to their original stories. And though “Persepolis” makes an earnest attempt in this visually striking cartoon, it falls short in providing the full story of Marji, an Iranian girl weathered from witnessing the Islamic Revolution while growing up.
The film is adapted from Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novels “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” and “Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return,” which are based on Satrapi’s identity as a young girl growing up amidst the Iranian revolution. “Persepolis” shows others not only what it means to be Iranian, but, more importantly, that “freedom always has a price.”
Unlike the novel, the film begins with Persepolis smoking a cigarette in a Western airport, looking glum, aggravated.
The film, which is black, white and gray animation except for the first and final scenes, takes no time to revisit Persepolis’ upbringing at the moment when she first begins to open her eyes to the brutal political violence developing in her home city, Tehran, during the early 1980s. The violent undertones become overt when a full-fledged revolution ensues. Persepolis’ liberal parents silently rebel against the police’s ridiculous rules that enforce nothing less than draconian ideology: women’s strict wardrobe adherence to veils and absolutely no alcohol.

Persepolis’ mantra, “Freedom always has a price,” speaks volumes when she witnesses her uncle become imprisoned for intellectual thought, a neighbor’s home turn to rubble from a missile attack and her parents receive rigid police scrutiny at every corner they turn.
But the whole film isn’t predicated on the dismal living conditions spawned from a merciless government. Satrapi makes light of her obsession with Western music – Abba, Michael Jackson, and Iron Maiden – when she tries to purchase her much-coveted sampling of music culture from illegal street vendors.
Though Marji appears as a cartoon character, she is nothing short of poignant. She struggles with her heritage and the Western view of Iranians as “blood-thirsty” villains when she leaves her family to get an education in Austria, where her parents believe she will have more opportunity.
The story of Marji is an intricate one, and the film fails to portray the depth of some of her experiences. What may have been pages in the novel translate to a brief blip in the film, not enough to illuminate the weight of some situations.
The film also moves at a quick pace with simple dialogue to reflect the graphic novel art form, demanding undivided attention to the sometimes abstract plot turns.
When Marji returns to Tehran after three years in Vienna, she is battling with depression. When she finally begins to muster slight optimism for the future of her country, the film creatively shows her breakthrough in a way the novel could not. Playing on her love for rock music, there is a scene of Marji doing aerobics, clad in a leotard and leg warmers, to the “Rocky III” theme song, “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.
Unlike most film adaptations, “Persepolis” does not strive to incorporate superficial drama or embellished character personalities into the plot.
Marji’s story is strong enough on its own.