Persepolis

I went to see Persepolis for a 2nd time today - the autobiographical "bande dessinée" by Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian, from a communist family but also with ties to an old Iranian Prince and fortunately educate in a French school in Tehran.

The 1st time I saw this film, was in Paris in May 2007, in a cinema next to the Centre Pompidou. Despite missing some of the detail the first time, I think I enjoyed the film even more the 1st time in French!

The film pushed all the right button for a left of centre, liberal audience but is also a great story. Highlighting how oppressive regimes operate, the casual violence of petty officials and the stupidity of such regimes and the frustration for intelligent people who must suddenly act in a subservient way to religious fanatic window cleaners... Unfortunately unlike our heroine manner of the characters to do not survive - many are tortured and/or executed!

The film also tells a lot about life in the West too, from apathy to teenage nihilism.

Everyone favourite character, is her grandmother, who is full of wisdom. Every-time she opens her mouth, she says something intelligent and insightful. My favourite is her counsel to a very frustrated Marjane, that she is "going to meet a lot of jerks in her life" (i.e. get used to it!). In another scene, she stresses the importance of integrity (Marjane has escaped trouble by dropping an innocent man into deep trouble) .

I couldn't help feeling lucky in life when I saw how tough her life was! But I still have to watch out too; for those jerks out there "waiting to trip you up" ...

There is much more to this film, I have seen it twice now but I know this is a film I am going to watch many more times :)

integrity |inˈtegritē|

noun

1 the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness : he is known to be a man of integrity.

2 the state of being whole and undivided : upholding territorial integrity and national sovereignty.

• the condition of being unified, unimpaired, or sound in construction : the structural integrity of the novel.

• internal consistency or lack of corruption in electronic data : [as adj. ] integrity checking.

ORIGIN late Middle English (sense 2) : from French intégrité or Latin integritas, from integer ‘intact’ (see integer ). Compare with entirety , integral , and integrate .