Last night I was finally able to catch a showing of Persepolis at the Angelika Film Center in NYC. It’s an animated film based on an autobiographical short series of black and white comic books by Marjane Satrapi. The film faithfully retains Satrapi’s graphical style and charm, and to put it mildly it was awesome.

Persepolis follows Marjane as she grows up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. She bares witness to the crumbling of her society as radical Islam slowly takes hold of its people and begins to turn women into objects. At a young age, her parents send her abroad to that she may study in safety as Iran’s war with Iraq intensifies during the early 80’s. In Europe, she is confronted with racial prejudice and fear because of her Iranian upbringing. She eventually makes her return to Iran where life has not gotten any easier.

Watching it made me realize just how dumb I am. We are given a glimpse into a people who are really just like us, and who want the same thing, but somehow find themselves under the oppressive thumb of their government. Music and clothing is suddenly subjected to censorship after the overthrowing of the Shah, and any Western influence is rejected. Alcohol is prohibited. Attempts at throwing a party is met with armed police charging in and subjecting you to either paying a fine or receiving corporal punishment. All young Marjane cares about is getting a copy of “Iron Maiden” from the black market and rock’n out in her room playing air guitar with a tennis racket. However, as she grows into an out spoken young adult, she can no longer accept what has become of her culture.

For such a simple design, the film makers really got a lot of mileage out of the characters and each one is full of personality despite the lack of gross detail. In particular, the animators did an awesome job of making Marjane as a child full of life and spunk, and the segment where she begins to mature into a woman is hilarious. Again, it’s a B&W film to replicate the graphic novels, and careful attention was paid in the layout department with the art work so everything is easy to visually read and distinguish. The film also takes advantage of the fact that it’s being done with animation. The narrative moves along with a very fluid pace with the use of its drawn images, and the fact that the characters are so simple it’s very easy to imagine yourself in the same role.

Persepolis was nominated this year for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Now, I’ve made it well known that I’m a huge fan of Ratatouille and I’m glad that it had won this year’s Oscar, but after seeing the movie last night my buddy said that he wished Persepolis had won the Oscar instead. I agree. I feel its subject matter is very important in this day and age, and I think that fact that it was animated traditionally would’ve been a win for the medium as a whole. More importantly, Persepolis was an independently produced film done out side of the typical Hollywood mill. It’s a testament that a highly engaging and entertaining animated film can still be produced without all the gloss of mo-capped imaginary muscle men at a reasonable budget. An Oscar for Persepolis this year could’ve been another step forward for animation not just being a means to keep the kids busy while Mom chats on the phone.

Perspolis is a great film. Any one looking for something different that will give you pause and give you a little something to chew on, please give it a shot.