Historically, Persepolis, the "city of Persians", was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (around 550-330 BCE), representing one of the most glorious periods of Persian civilization. The ancient city, whose ruins still stand in modern Iran, symbolizes Iranian cultural identity, pride, and historical continuity. It mirrors one of this film's central tensions: how to preserve cultural identity while adapting to change.

 

Title: Persepolis

Country: France

Year: 2007

Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud

 

Persepolis, based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel, tells the story of a young girl coming of age during and after the Iranian Revolution. The film begins in Tehran in 1978, where we meet Marjane (called Marji) as a precocious nine-year-old girl from an educated, progressive family. Through her child's eyes, we witness the overthrow of the Shah and the subsequent establishment of the Islamic Republic, events that dramatically transform her relatively liberal childhood into one constrained by strict religious laws.

The political upheaval deeply affects Marji's daily life as she struggles to reconcile her private self with the new public requirements: wearing the veil, accepting new social restrictions, and watching as family friends become political prisoners or flee the country. Her parents and particularly her beloved grandmother serve as moral anchors, teaching her about integrity and staying true to herself despite external pressures.

As the Iran-Iraq War intensifies and Tehran becomes increasingly dangerous, Marji's parents make the difficult decision to send their fourteen-year-old daughter to Vienna for her safety and education. This marks the beginning of her exile and a new chapter of challenges. In Austria, Marji faces the complexities of being an immigrant, dealing with cultural differences, first love, and the struggle to find her identity between Eastern and Western cultures.

Her time in Vienna proves both liberating and isolating. After several tumultuous years marked by romantic disappointments and a period of homelessness, a depressed Marji returns to Iran. However, she finds herself equally alienated in her homeland, where the restrictions of the Islamic regime have become even more stringent. The once-familiar Tehran feels foreign to her westernized sensibilities, leading to a deep depression and questioning of her place in the world.

The narrative concludes with Marji making the painful but necessary decision to leave Iran permanently for France, recognizing that she can no longer reconcile her desire for personal freedom with the constraints of life under the Islamic regime. Her grandmother's final words of wisdom about maintaining her integrity and being true to herself serve as a guiding light as she embarks on this new chapter of her life.

 

Review

At first glance, the ruins of ancient Persepolis might seem an unlikely starting point for a contemporary animated film. And yet, in Marjane Satrapi's masterful work, these archaeological remains become something quite remarkable: a lens through which to view memory, identity, and transformation.

Consider how an archaeologist works: carefully brushing away layers of time, piecing together fragments to reveal a fuller picture. This is precisely what Satrapi does with her own history. She excavates memories - some intact, others beautifully broken - and arranges them into a narrative that feels both deeply personal and universally resonant.

What's particularly clever about Satrapi's approach is how she uses the metaphor of ruins to illuminate the persistence of culture. In the film, we see how pre-revolutionary life continues to exist within the new regime, much like ancient structures surviving beneath modern cities. There are the private parties, tucked away behind closed doors. The Western music, played in careful secrecy. The makeup, applied with defiant precision. These aren't merely acts of rebellion; they're cultural artifacts, preserved despite everything. Marji herself becomes a living ruin, a palimpsest of identities written and overwritten. Her body - that most political of canvases - transforms from child to woman against the backdrop of Iran's own metamorphosis.

The film's protagonist, Marji, embodies this idea of preservation through transformation. As she grows from a precocious child into a young woman, her body becomes its own kind of historical document. Each change - whether it's her first headscarf or her punk phase in Vienna - marks both a personal and political moment. It's rather fascinating how Satrapi renders these transformations in stark black and white, her animation style reminiscent of archaeological sketches.

What's most striking, perhaps, is how the film handles the space between things. Between childhood and adulthood. Between East and West. Between rebellion and conformity. Like ruins themselves, Marji exists in a state of beautiful incompleteness - not quite one thing or another, but something more interesting altogether.

In this way, "Persepolis" becomes more than just a coming-of-age story or a political commentary. It's a meditation on how we carry our histories with us, how we rebuild ourselves from the fragments of experience. Rather like those ancient ruins, standing proud near modern Shiraz, telling stories of what was and what might be.

 

The book and the film

"Marjane Satrapi." Vogue Italia, 2/2008: 84-84, 92 (login with Polimoda account)

Emma Tarlo. "Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis: A Sartorial Review", Fashion Theory, 11:2-3/2007: 347-356 (login with Polimoda account)

Gravett, Paul. "Art: Hung & Drawn", Dazed and Confused, 97/ 2003: 150-151 (login with Polimoda account)

Hohenadel, Kristin. "Features: Books: Drawing Room." Vogue, Apr, 2003: 259 (login with Polimoda account) 

Lack, Hannah. "Persepolis: Growing up in Black and White.", Another, 14/2008: 136 (login with Polimoda account)

 

Veils

Arthur, Linda B. Religion, Dress and the Body. Dress, Body, Culture. Oxford: Berg, 1999 (login with Polimoda account: http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781847888839 ).

Belkaïd, Leyla. Voiles = Veils. Paris: Vestipolis, 2007

Busto, Andrea (ed.). Il Velo tra mistero, seduzione, misticismo, sensualità, potere e religione. Milano: Silvana Editoriale, 2007 (Catalogue of the exhibition, Caraglio, Il Filatoio, 28 October 2007 - 24 February 2008)

Guindi, Fadwa El. Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance. Dress, Body, Culture. Oxford: Berg, 1999 (login with Polimoda account: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847888969 ).

Shirazi, Faegheh. The Veil Unveiled. The Hijab in Modern Culture. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2001

Steinmann, Alex (ed.). Veiled, Unveiled! The Headscarf. Wien: KHM-Museumsverband, 2018 (Catalogue of the exhibition, Wien, Weltmuseum, 18 October 2018 - 26 February 2019)

Tarlo, Emma, and Annelies Moors (ed.). Islamic Fashion and Anti-Fashion: New Perspectives from Europe and North America. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013 (login with Polimoda account: http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474235303 ).

Tarlo, Emma. Visibly Muslim. Fashion, Politics, Faith. Oxford: A & C Black Publishers, 2009

 

Persian clothing and dress

Carey, Moya. Persian Art. Collecting the Arts of Iran for the V&A. London: V&A, 2017

Harvey, Sara M. "Persian Clothing." In The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing through World History: Prehistory to 1500 CE, edited by Jill Condra. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008: 61–70 (login with Polimoda account: http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781440880094.0006 ).

Khosrowshahi, Maryam. Sofreh. The Art of Persian Celebration. London: ACC Art Books, 2017

Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Marie-Louise. Persische Textilien. Die Sammlung Ramezani. Salzburg: Verlag Anton Pustet, 2019

 

Iran

Abbas. Irandiario: 1971-2005. Milano: Il saggiatore, 2006

Afshar, Hoda. Speak the Wind. London: MACK, 2021

Balasescu, Alexandru. “Haute Couture in Tehran: Two Faces of an Emerging Fashion Scene.”, Fashion Theory, 11:2-3/2007: 299-317 (llogin with Polimoda account: 10.2752/136270407X202835 )

Beeman, William O. "Iranian Fashion in the Twenty-First Century." In Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: Central and Southwest Asia, edited by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2010 (Login with Polimoda account: http://dx.doi.org/10.2752/9781847888549.EDch051519 ).

Curtis, John, Tim Stanley, and Ina Sarikhani Sandmann. Epic Iran: 5000 Years of Culture. London, England: V & A Publishing, 2021. (Catalogue of the exhibition, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 29 May-12 September 2021)

Danto, Arthur C. Shirin Neshat. New York: Rizzoli, 2010

Darabi, Hannah. Enghelab Street. A Revolution through Books: Iran 1979-1983. Leipzig, Paris: Spector Books ; Le Bal, 2018 (Catalogue of the exhibition, Le Bal, 9 January-11 Febraury 2019)

Eyes on Iran: past, present and future of a cultural relationship. Domus, 1062/2021, supplement

Franke, Ute, Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, and Stefan Weber (eds.). Iran. Five Millennia of Art and Culture. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Verlag, 2021 (Catalogue of the exhibition, Berlin, James-Simon-Galerie, 6 December 2021-20 March 2022)

Ghabaian Etehadieh, Anahita (ed.). Breathing Space. Iranian Women Photographers. London: Thames & Hudson, 2023

Haraji, Hadi. Iranian Doors. Tehran: Nazar Research and Cultural Institute, 2007

Katebi, Hoda. Tehran Streetstyle. [S.l.]: Hoda Katebi, 2016

Minda, Beatrice. Beatrice Minda: Iran. Interrupted. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2014

Nafīsī, Parīsā Damandān. Portrait Photographs from Isfahan. Faces in Transition, 1920-1950. London, The Hague: Saqi ; Prince Claus Fund Library, 2004

Ostende, Florence, and Lotte Johnson (eds.). Into the Night. Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art. Munich, London: Prestel Verlag ; Barbican Art Gallery, 2019 (Catalogue of the exhibition, London, Barbican Art Gallery, 4 October 2019-19 january 2020; Wien, Belvedere, 14 February-1 June 2020)

Wearden, Jennifer, and Patricia L. Baker. Iranian Textiles. London: V&A, 2010

 

[Published on 09/01/2025]