In concert with Film Quotes Film and Riverdale 10 Cinema, Arkansas Times Film Series presents “Persepolis,” the animated version of Marjane Satrapi’s comic novels, “Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood” and “Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return.” 

The film depicts Satrapi’s childhood against the backdrop of the impending Islamic Revolution, the ways in which her sense of rebellion was catalyzed by the death of her Communist revolutionary uncle Anoosh, her socialist parents’ secret weekly parties to indulge in card games and wine, and Marji’s eventual departure to a French high school in Vienna to avoid an arrest that seems inevitable. 

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The film prompted a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran from the Iran Farabi Foundation preceding its showing at Cannes, stating:

“This year the Cannes Film Festival, in an unconventional and unsuitable act, has chosen a movie about Iran that has presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts.”

Satrapi, though, emphasized the film’s broader intentions:

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 “If we used real images, it would be a few Arabs in a country. Right away it would be an ethnic film. It becomes the problem of those people who live over there and are crazy about God; but drawings, with their abstract quality, emphasize the universal.” 

Catch the film tonight at Riverdale 10 Cinema, 7 p.m., $8. 

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