Ticket and passport, please. Pause.
Never forget who you are and where you’re from. Pause.
How does one become a foreigner to the land they were born into? Well, Marjane Satrapi shows through Persepolis (2007), an autobiographical animation just how politics and the ugly facet of ideologies turn people against each other and transform individuals into alienated beings in their homelands. With the revolution in 1970 and fall of the Shah, there seems to be a spark of hope for a democratic Iran. However, the new regime which is chosen through elections treats the opposition more cruelly than ever. Neighbors turn on neighbors, schools are replete with propaganda, imprisonments increase continuously and worst of all, people are dying.
We witness the sudden transformation of Marjane from a child into an alien in this atmosphere. Helplessly returning to Iran after 8 years in Vienna, she realizes that nothing will be the same in her country. Nevertheless, she decides to get back on her feet and continue her education in college. The ridiculousness of the over-controlling regime can be found in the institutions as well. Her art classes are censored showing how absurd forcing a system into people’s lives can be. She is choked by the ideology and forced to do things without will under a suppressive regime. Everyone is bound to fit the frame of the dominating ideology.
The only free space people have are within the limits of their home. Even that is intruded by the watchdogs of the regime when they sense something that does not comply with the system. Yes, they turn religion into a system to mold everyone into the same shape. If you resist, you don’t deserve to live. That’s when you fully transform into an alien. When you realize that having different thoughts than the “majority” is not an option. It’s their system and you have to obey.
When the place seems right, the people are not. When the people seem right, the place is wrong. She has nowhere to go. Hopeless. Helpless Marjane. The film does not have a happy ending. She only ends up returning to Europe only to continue her alienation in another country.
Marjane narrates the dramatic story of every individual who is forced to feel like an alien towards their own country. No matter how much she resists, the system wins under black veils of “democracy“.
beetleypete
I thought this was a haunting film. Maybe because it was an animation.
Thanks for following my blog, which is much appreciated.
Best wishes, Pete.