At the heart of the 2007 French film “Persepolis” is a commentary on how Islamic fundamentalists changed Iran by becoming repressive tyrants after the 1979 Iranian revolution. Making this resonate with those who haven’t been through such an experience is no easy task, but it may become an even tougher task when trying to capture it in an animated movie.

But “Persepolis” rises to the occasion and easily places itself amongst the best animated movies of all time. It won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Animated movie at the 2008 Academy Awards, and rightfully so.

In order to make the film’s subject resonate, we essentially see everything through the perspective of Marjane Satrapi. At the beginning of the film she is an adult, ready to board a flight to Iran. As she waits patiently to board the plane, she recalls what life was like when she lived in Iran. The experiences are then shown through flashbacks which begin when Marjane is 9 years old in 1978.

We see that Marjane, or Marji as she is called as a child, is raised by a middle-class family who enjoy protesting and attending rallies to promote a better society for the Iran they live in. As this occurs, Marji begins to be exposed to new ideas and points of view, something that prompts her to mature a lot faster than other children around her.

Unfortunately, the hopes of the family are profoundly disappointed when Islamic Fundamentalists win the elections. The party begins to force Iranian society into adopting new, unfair laws (such as forcing women to dress modestly) and simultaneously rearresting and executing individuals because of their political beliefs. The family begins to secretly meet with other governmental parties, but as Marji grows up she becomes more outspoken and more rebellious This creates interesting conflicts between not only the established government, but her family as well.

As powerful and as moving as the film is, it also has an inspiring and unique sense of humor. Marji is as smart as she is witty, and the film never uses this quality to the point where it gets old or annoying. Also commendable is the believability of her transition from child to mature adolescent. This creates a great metaphor in which Marji represents the people of Iran who unfortunately didn’t quite understand what they were getting into until it was too late. But they quickly learned, and we experience this and see it through Marji.

“Persepolis” is based off of a graphic novel of the same name and its animation reflects the black-and-white style of the source material. The decision to do this was an admirable and great one. It would have been easy to make the film as colorful as any Pixar film and maybe appeal to a broader audience that way. But with that decision the emotion of the film’s content may have been lost, and because the film allows it to flourish, it truly succeeds in many areas most animated films do not.