Persepolis Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Persepolis Blu-ray Movie Review

Though not a BD to rock your HT system, Persepolis is a rare animated feature championing humanity and offering an honest glimpse into a repressive country.

Reviewed by Greg Maltz June 24, 2008

Just days before watching Persepolis, I finished reading the autobiography of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. After living in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya, Ali immigrated to the West and dedicated her life to public service, studying politics and sharing her observations about the Muslim world. I consider Ali and women like her to be heroes. The few who speak out show great courage and strength, coming from a strict culture that would demonize and silence them. Persepolis tells the story of such a woman. Marjane Satrapi grew up in war-torn Iran after the Islamic revolution, struggling to reconcile her country's policies of oppression with her ideals of freedom, self-expression, and dignity.

Satrapi eventually immigrated to France and became an artist. She cowrote and co-directed Persepolis based on her life story and her illustrations. The result is a unique and touching animated feature. It is a coming-of-age story, a comedy, a tragedy, a political story, a family story, a story of Islamic fascism and above all a human story of rare power, simplicity and elegance. Satrapi is somewhat tormented by the violence and oppression in her homeland that claims the lives of a few of her family and friends and stifles her self expression. Both Ali and Satrapi possess a keen political and moral compass that leads each to tell her story in her own way. It is of paramount importance to listen to their stories so that we may hear through them the voices of millions of women who don't have a voice in their own countries. In the west, we have no framework to understand the kind of oppression in places like Iran. Persepolis builds that framework for us, with its unflinching honesty and accessible characters, delivering messages that everyone can understand.

Much of the inspiration and moral anchoring of Marjane Satrapi's story is rooted in the values instilled in her by family members such as her grandmother.

Satrapi is the only child of progressive parents, who place great value on freedom and civil liberties. As a young girl, her idols are Bruce Lee and American pop artists. She is precocious, inventing her own religion and talking directly to God. Slowly, she becomes aware of her family's and country's plight at the hands of the Shah. Her parents participate in demonstrations against the autocracy. Suddenly, their dream of revolution becomes reality and the Shah is overthrown. Satrapi's uncle Anoosh is released from jail and immediately bonds with the inquisitive young girl, sharing his story of fleeing and living in exile. He gives her a small swan he sculpted while he was incarcerated. But the revolution that Satrapi's parents dreamed about is not the revolution taking place in Iran. A more dangerous, oppressive fascism emerges and uncle Anoosh is imprisoned again. Allowed only one visitor, Anoosh asks Satrapi's parents to send his niece. The heart- wrenching scene that follows clearly haunts Satrapi to this day.

Meanwhile, other manifestations of Iran's Islamic theocracy are surfacing. The religious police are making society unbearable, especially for women. Like all females in Iran, young Satrapi must wear a headscarf. When her mother participates in demonstrations against mandatory veils, one demonstrator is stabbed. In this new atmosphere, Iranians must be careful where they go, what they say, what they wear. Satrapi's natural inquisitiveness and love of western influence creates the potential for disaster. After she questions her schoolteacher in a way not permitted, her parents become too fearful of the Islamic police and decide to send their daughter to school in Vienna. The remainder of the film focuses on Satrapi's experience in Austria, a decline into depression, her return to Tehran and difficult self-discovery as a young adult.

I don't wish to make Persepolis seem too dramatic and intense. Much of the film is marked by levity and humor, such as the image of the young Satrapi navigating the black market of Tehran to buy an Iron Maiden album, firmly negotiating a price for it, then rocking out to the music in the next scene. Or the way she enters adolescence, with hilarious descriptions of her physical "abnormalities" that are paid off in the animation. In essence, the girl's character is an overall lighthearted and comical creation. She's not unlike Lisa Simpson in humorously wearing her emotions and insecurities on her sleeve. Of course, Satrapi's predicaments, her relatives and the city of Tehran lead the film in a much more important direction. Lisa Simpson does not come from a world of oppression, air sirens and the veil, which makes Satrapi's message infinitely more relevant.

Persepolis Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

It is difficult to evaluate the picture quality fairly. Blu-ray discs are usually rated in terms of depth and contrast, black level and detail. But Persepolis is a deceptively simple cartoon--99% of which is in black and white. As solid and sharp as the picture appears, the imagery is arguably simple enough to be paid off with upscaled standard definition. But why would anyone opt for anything but the BD version? The black level is deep and the definition in 1080p looks exceptional. This resolution is important even for the "low-tech", greyscale animation approach taken in Persepolis. The organic qualities of the picture are impressive. I find it more human and artistic than the typical CGI fare like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What Persepolis gives up in its lack of color and lack of three- dimensional imagery, it makes up for in fine-arts style, grace and simple elegance.

The only scenes in color show an adult Marjane making her way through airports to her new life in France. The significance of black and white is to indicate memories or past occurrences that make up the bulk of the film. Illustrated images ranging from falling flowers to the horrors of war are paid off with delicate lines, patterns, mottled gradients and solid blocks of black, grey and white. Watch the floating car driving the "in-love" Marjane over the streets of Austria with ornate buildings in the background. The patters like stylized stars in the sky and flowers and wisps of smoke offer design elements that are paid off in the story and that resolve gorgeously in 1080p.

Persepolis Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

No bombastic explosions will push your subwoofer. No stereophonic acrobatics will have you looking over your shoulder in the direction of the surround speakers. Still, the purity and simplicity of the audio, like the picture quality, demonstrates good resolution. Some ambient sounds do make their way to the surround channels and add spacial cues that heighten the emotional impact of the film. The treble extention is very good. Voices--including Sean Penn and Iggy Pop--convey authority and heightened definition in 5.1 Dolby TrueHD. Iggy Pop's presence is especially apropos, since Marjane seems to greatly enjoy punk music. And speaking of music, the soundtrack of Persepolis is well suited to the film and resolved gorgeously in TrueHD.

Listen to the mid-bass in Iggy's gravelly tenor delivery. It lends an authenticity to his character. The voices in the French Dolby TrueHD version--including Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darreux and Simon Abkarian--are even more authentic and also demonstrate the resolution of TrueHD. The most interesting sequence, from an audio standpoint, occurs in a dramatic explosion as Iraq shells Tehran. While the explosion is tame by today's action film standards, it gives way to a haunting musical interlude as Marjane witnesses the horrors of war. Kudos to the filmmakers for ensuring good audio quality. With a low budget, it would have been easy to let the recording quality lapse into mediocrity, but the film maintains a commitment to quality and clarity, with good imaging and no-nonsense stereophonics throughout.

Persepolis Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While the film dialogue is available with a carefully produced English Dolby TrueHD track featuring Iggy Pop and Sean Penn, the supplementary material is mostly in French, making it a bit inaccessible. There are some exceptions in the featurettes and English subtitles, so there are many nuggets to be mined here. High definition content is nowhere to be found, unfortunately. The highlights of the bonus content are Satrapi's interviews and commentary.

Audio Commentary: Covering only a few scenes, the commentary by Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Faronnald and Chapa Mastroianni runs only seven fascinating minutes. Too bad there isn't more!

Hidden Side of Persepolis: This featurette is in French with English subtitles and runs about 20 minutes. It shows the illustrations that Satrapi used for her graphic novel that were then used for the starting points in animation.

Behind the Scenes of Persepolis: One of the most rewarding supplements on the BD, focusing on Satrapi in English interviews, this is another 20 minutes featurette that describes in more detail how Satrapi's graphic novel was adapted for screen. Highly recommended.

Animated Scene Comparisons: Satrapi provides commentary in this 11-minute explanation of the differences between the graphic novel and the film. Not nearly as good as the other two featurettes that touch on the graphic novel.

2007 Cannes Film Festival Press Conference: Another treasure trove of information from the filmmakers, involving questions from the press. The journalists, cast and crew speak in French (with English subtitles).

Persepolis Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Persepolis is worth buying because it has succeeded in ways most films never do: delivering an important story with humor, style, urgency and honesty. Satrapi unveils life in Tehran in a thoroughly unique and disarming way, offering instant access to a repressive, Islamic society in a manner that westerners can understand: through the eyes of a willful young lady. But consider all the other women in Iran and even poorer countries in the Muslim world. What are their lives like? Persepolis is only the tip of a very big iceberg that is one of the most serious sociological problems of our time. The film avoids looking directly at these issues and actually it is relatively non-judgmental on Islam. The main objects of its criticisms are the religious police, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Persepolis looks on the west with an equally critical eye, with our wishy-washy metrosexuals and our idealists who know nothing about sacrifice, fascism, revolution or political vision. Satrapi does know about those, yet she has not lost sight of the human lives behind them, and her ability to express that vision is her greatest gift.