Queer Eye For The Straight Girl: Marjane’s first lover decides he’s gay the morning after their experiment, but the second lasts long enough to break her heart. However, the guy pictured in the VW isn’t the gay dude — he’s the straight fella who cheated on her.

PERSEPOLIS

B

Directors: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
Voices: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Simon Abkarian

Opens Jan. 25 at Landmark Magnolia and Angelika-Plano.
1 hr., 35 min. PG-13

Though the title is as obscure as the framework scenes of the heroine at Paris' Orly Airport, I liked everything else about "Persepolis," the animated story of an Iranian expatriate. Based on her graphic novels, it's the autobiography of Marjane Satrapi, who wrote and directed the film with Vincent Paronnaud.

"Persepolis" is animation for adults and sophisticated teenagers, even though the drawing style is almost as crude as "South Park."

Marjane is eight years old (and voiced by Gabrielle Lopes) in 1978. Living with her parents (Catherine Deneuve, Simon Abkarian) and grandmother (Danielle Darrieux) in Tehran, she's a Bruce Lee fan who has conversations with God and Karl Marx. She dreams of one day shaving her legs and "being the last prophet of the galaxy."

These are momentous times in Iran, with revolutionaries overthrowing the Shah. Marjane gets a lesson in Iranian history going back 50 years to when the Shah's father seized power from the ruling family, which included Marjane's grandfather, a Qadjar prince who became a communist.
The revolution is supposed to make things better for the Iranians but their lives quickly get worse when the theocracy they vote into power forces women to cover their heads and Iraq invades the country, their torturers trained by the CIA.

Growing into a rebellious teenager, Marjane (voiced from now on by Chiara Mastroianni) listens to decadent Western music and gets into trouble at school. Her parents send her to Vienna for her own safety. There she tastes freedom she'll never be able to live without again.

Sex rears its head. Marjane's first lover decides he's gay the morning after their experiment but the second lasts long enough to break her heart. She tries returning to Iran, where the eight-year war is over but things haven't improved for the people.

Marjane suffers from depression, even attempts suicide. And because so many restrictions are placed on dating, she gets married instead. Finally things are so intolerable she makes a permanent move to France. There, we know, she will publish her autobiography in graphic form and adapt it into a movie.
The movie shows the people of Iran in a different light than what we see in the news media. Ordinary citizens are no more responsible for their government's misdeeds than we are for ours. The message comes across clearly and entertainingly, with a smattering of pop culture references to remind us how small the world is.

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This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition January 25, 2008