Persepolis brings to the screen the true story of Marjane Satrapi, who struggled to have a normal childhood in Iran during the Islamic revolution. All images courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics Inc. © 2007/ 2.4.7. Films. All Rights Reser

Persepolis is the name of the Persian capital founded in the 6th century BC by Darius I, which was later destroyed by Alexander the Great. The name carries the history of a grand civilization, besieged by waves of invaders, that carried on through millennia -- a heritage that is deeper and more complex than the present-day view of Iran may reflect.

Persepolis is also the name of the acclaimed graphic novels, published in English in 2003 and 2004, that tell the personal story of author/artist Marjane Satrapi. The books illustrate -- both figuratively and actually -- the life of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. The story follows a precocious and outspoken nine-year-old through young adulthood, and illustrates the challenges faced by a modern young woman trying to forge an identity while having to conform within a tyrannical society.

Satrapi co-directed, with Vincent Paronnaud, the animated film version of her memoir, and she notes that animation was her first choice for the adaptation. "With live-action, it would have turned into a story of people living in a distant land who don't look like us," Satrapi says. "At best, it would have been an exotic story, and at worst, a 'third-world' story.

"The novels have been a worldwide success because the drawings are abstract, black-and-white. I think this helped everybody to relate to it, whether in China, Israel, Chile, or Korea; it's a universal story. Persepolis has dreamlike moments; the drawings help us to maintain cohesion and consistency, and the black-and-white also helped in this respect, as did the abstraction of the setting and location."

However, creating an animated film was not the first choice of producers Marc-Antoine Robert and Xavier Rigault (2.4.7 Films). "We were looking for the right project," Robert says. "I happened to know the new generation of French comic book artists quite well, and I'm a friend of Marjane's. I offered to write an original script for her, because I didn't want to work on an animated movie at all! At France 3 Cinéma, we'd produced a few of them, so I knew how complicated it was. Finally, we ended up having this crazy idea to adapt Persepolis, and turn it into a black-and-white animation movie!"

Part of the challenge of bringing the graphic novel to the screen was to make sure the production design was cinematic.

Standing Apart
As a French-language, 2-D, black-and-white animated film that deals with social, political and cultural issues, Persepolis already stands apart from the CG, full-color animated movies that dominate the market. And while Persepolis will see a North American theatrical release in English on December 25, it first garnered attention during a successful festival tour in 2007. The film was an official Selection for the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, an official Selection for the 2007 Telluride Film Festival and the official closing night selection for the 2007 New York Film Festival.

Persepolis has major awards buzz, and received the Cannes Film Festival 2007 Jury Prize and the award for Best Animated Feature at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. It tied with Ratatouille for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association 2007 award for animation, and was nominated for best animated feature in the International Animated Film Society's 35th annual Annie Awards. Satrapi and co-director Paronnaud were also nominated for directing in an animated feature.