Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel had escaped my attention until I heard a vague buzz about an animated film from Iran picking up awards nominations left, right and centre. It's nice to have something so original and outside your normal range of cultural intake shake you up a bit, and, seeing as I'm trying harder to engage politically with the world around me, I was quite looking forward to its cinema release.

Every time I saw the trailer whilst working at The Cameo I got a little shiver and a sense that this was going to be a subtle and intelligent treat. So I had no hesitation getting straight in there on the opening Friday. And with it being an animation about a little girl I even took the kid along, thinking she might not understand it all, but would enjoy its spirit.

To say I was disappointed is a bit much - it was good... It ended abruptly and in a strange place (which differs from the books, apparently); there were some very poignant moments and the animation was, indeed, very original and never dull. But... I don't know, maybe something got lost in the translation, or it was just not edited as well as it might have been, but parts of it sagged for me, and the overall impression was one of "yeah, that was OK, glad I saw it" rather than, "yeah, that was amazing, wow, what a life she had". It almost seems like Persepolis part 1: something incomplete. And the acid test - the kid said she liked it but has not mentioned it once since, which is very telling.