One Red Hot Country Mama!

We saw Persepolis this weekend, and it was great. There is not much for me to say that has not been said by: IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes (with a rating of 96%) and Wikipedia. I think as a Canadian living in Toronto, the most diverse city in the world, you get to learn about a lot of different cultures and people, though I have rarely known people from that part of the world beyond a few dinners, and a very sweet afternoon tea with my friend’s Muslim neighbour.

I have always been very curious about what it is like to be a woman in that country, and what is like to live behind a veil. It was nice to see that as I suspected, they are pretty much like other women around the world with similar concerns… except stronger. In an interview with The Independant, Marjane Satrapi, the subject and one of the the creators of the film said:

“Iranian women are a hundred times stronger than the women I see here,” she says. “Parisian women spend their whole time sobbing. ‘Oh’” she adopts a plaintive tone, “‘I am so strong – or do I mean weak – anyhow, have you noticed how my stomach isn’t quite so flat as it used to be – and do you think I’m as attractive as I could be?’ You’ve seen them whining. People call me strong; you should meet the women in Iran.”

Her goal in both the graphic novels and the films, was for people to understand that part of the world better. She has succeeded.