Persepolis

My first introduction to Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi was in Development of Art and Ideas, where I watched the movie adaptation of the graphic novel.  The move took a lot of its story from the novels but in order to fit it in a film there had to be a lot of editing the story down into a more digestible narrative.  The comic on the other hand had a lot more substance to it, and was able to go more into depth as well as tell more stories. The first part of Persepolis is a semi biographical work based off her childhood growing up in Iran during the 70's, during the Iraq and Iran wars as well as the overthrow of the monarchy. The whole first part of the two part graphic Novel is a relatively short part of the movie. A lot of the description of the books she was reading at the time as well as the talks with her mother about her grandfather did not make it into the film. In an interview from Movieweb with Marjane Satrapi, she describes adapting the novel. In order to do this she had to forget about the book and take the material and make it into a cinematic language.  It is also interesting how she never wanted the novel to become a film, but the only reason she said 'yes' to the project was because a friend of hers wanted to become a producer. In the interview on of the questions was about if she wanted to give the world a Iranians Womans perspective and her response was that she wanted to give a personal perspective and it just happens that she is a woman. The reason this story did so well as both a graphic novel as well as a movie was because it was not trying to make a political, sociological or religious statement, the main statement is that of a humanist. "Human-beings anywhere are the same, because they have the right to live, because they have dreams, because they have love, because they have parents and kids. The life for all of us is worth something, to understand that the situation is not as easy as we think."-Marjane Satrapi 2010.  Both the Book and the movie, have the same narrative points as well as the human perspective with a personal touch.  The topics and story are complicated and down to earth, and that is what makes this story brilliant.


If you want to listen to her interview here is the link, she has a lot of really good and interesting points she makes about the movie was well as the novel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9onZpQix_w