Preview: Persepolis

Persepolis closed the New York Film Festival to a packed audience on Sunday night. Directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, the gorgeous adaption of Satrapi’s graphic novels packs an enormous emotional wallop. In black-and-white animation, Satrapi depicts her own painful coming of age in Iran during the Islamic Revolution and the Iraq-Iran war, and the deceptively simple drawingskeep pointing to our shared humanity. Like real life, Persepolis is both an effective tearjerker and shamelessly funny.

France has also selected Persepolis as its Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film, a surprise choice over Olivier Dahan's Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose. Persepolis will be released on Christmas in the U.S. by Sony Picture Classics in its original subtitled version, with the voices of Catherine Deneuve, her daughter Chiara Mastoinni, Danielle Darrieux, and Simon Abkarian. The DVD will also feature an English-language voice track, with Gena Rowlands, Sean Penn, and Iggy Pop, along with Deneuve and Mastoinni reprising their roles in English.

One of the best of the year, Persepolis is certain to make out top ten lists. Read Marcy’s advance review of Persepolis.