Angela Doland interviews Persepolis co-director Marjane Satrapi (right) for The Associated Press. Via the Kansas City Star:
"'What we wanted to say is, if these people [Iranians, Muslims] scare you, look closer: They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories,' Marjane Satrapi told The Associated Press in an interview at a Cannes beach cafe.
"Satrapi added: 'The only real divide in this world is between the idiots and non-idiots.'"
Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's Persepolis, one of the 22 films in the Cannes Film Festival' Official Competition line-up, is based on Satrapi's own experiences while growing up in Iran in the 1970s and early 1980s. Some of the voices heard in the French-language version of the animated tale belong to Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, and Chiara Mastroianni (as Satrapi), Deneuve's daughter with Marcello Mastroianni.
Didier Peron reviews Persepolis in Libération (Google translation):
"Atypical. Shot almost entirely in black and white — thus transferring for the screen the elegant simplicity of Satrapi's pencil — Persepolis puts forward a new genre in the increasingly rich world of animated films; a quite atypical genre, for a young girl's childish games co-exist with apparitions by Marx, and puberty issues with the executions of political opponents. More than halfway into the festival, Persepolis could well become the sleeper hit that will catch the eye of the jury."
It may already have caught the misty eye of jury president Stephen Frears. In his Le Monde blog (Google translation), Thomas Sotinel says he overheard two young women tell Marjane Satrapi that "Stephen Frears was in tears when the lights went on, and he applauded [the film] for 25 minutes."
(Sotinel contextualizes things by saying that Carlos Reygadas' Stellet Licht was also applauded for about 15 minutes — though he doesn't say if Frears and his fellow jury members were crying or not while clapping hands. Sotinel's quirky Cannes blog, by the way, is a must read.)
Needless to say, the Iranian government is doing its best to ensure that Persepolis wins the Palme d'Or. According to Peron's article, in a letter to the cultural attaché at the French embassy in Teheran an organization with ties to Iran's Ministry of Culture called Satrapi and Paronnaud's effort "a film about Iran that presents a false portrait of the consequences and successes of the Islamic Revolution." Better yet, it accused the Cannes Festival of committing a "political — perhaps even anti-cultural — act."
With that sort of promotion, Persepolis could indeed become the next Fahrenheit 9/11.
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