Persepolis

When a movie is based on a book, one generally expects the movie to be different. A different medium, the inability to effectively create a third person narrative, etc. results in a different tone, plot alterations, a shifted focus. However, when a graphic novel is made into an animated movie, it turns out that the movie and the book can be exactly the same. Such is the case with Persepolis. And both the graphic novel and the movie are excellent descriptions of the life of a young girl growing up in revolutionary Tehran. And while in book form, this biographical story could have been effectively told as a graphic novel or in prose, the film version would not have held up in live action. The biographical nature of the story actually required the animation to hold my attention. Putting this story together with Reading Lolita in Tehran gives a good picture of life in Iran.
4-stars