'Persepolis'

The characters in Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis" (co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud) are simple, friendly black-and-white line drawings, as uncomplicated as characters in a children's book. Which is precisely what throws you when they get themselves put in prison or in front of a firing squad. Satrapi, who in the graphic novels on which the film is based recalls her upbringing in Tehran during the 1970s, '80s and early '90s, has said that she made her characters abstract so that they'd be more universal, so that we could see "us" in them. And it works.

By Carina Chocano

December 25, 2007