[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] Persepolis begins tonight at the ART theatre

[john martirano]

> Persepolis

It was an enjoyable movie... tho it seemed to gloss over political
responses, treating them as gibberish... almost like fashion trends that the
girl gets caught up in, but doesnt really convey any understanding of
history...

while the movie begins with the islamic revolution it flashes back as early
as the sell-off of iranian oil to the british by the qajars, but then leaves
out entirely the story of the democratic election of Mossadegh and the 1953
CIA engineered coup, but also leaves out the hostage crisis as well i
think... in some ways it was self-consciously apolitical while marinading in
generalities about politics... the 1953 coup seems to be a vital context for
the 1979 revolution... the story seemed to favor the supposedly lesser
oppression of the pre-1979 shah to the greater oppression of the
post-revolution islamic republic...

there were i think 3 references in the entire film to western political
influence in the region... 1 was the sell-off of oil to the british, 2 was a
passing comment in a conversation about how 'the shah took his orders from
washington' (the only reference really to the 1953 events), and 3 was a
passing comment about how 'the west' had cynically sold weapons to both
sides in the iran-iraq war... however western *culture* was the symbol of
liberation throughout...

although the film has alot of history in it, i cant imagine one would learn
much about history from it because history and politics are referenced in
such a passing unexplained manner, it left me wondering what iranians would
think about the film...

but an interview with the films maker and the author of the book makes clear
her political viewpoint and specifically her implication of the 1953 coup as
the 'end of democracy in iran', which leads me to wonder if the book was
watered down with its hollywood production.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/marjane-satrapi-of-madness-and-mullahs-409478.html
>>> Nonetheless, she still retains fond memories of the idealism that
originally drove the 1979 overthrow of the Shah. "The end of democracy in my
country was not 1979," she says, "it was 1953, when Mossadegh was pulled
from power. That killed the dream of democracy, not only in Iran but in the
whole region."

That view is entirely missing from the movie.
john

On 2/22/08, Jan & Durl Kruse <jandurl at insightbb.com> wrote:
>
> > Persepolis
> >
> > http://www.boardmansarttheatre.com/
> >
> >  Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young
> > Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.
> >
> > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/
>
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