Response to Persepolis Film

While the film Persepolis was an enjoyable watch, I would argue that the graphic novel did a much better job of telling Marjane's story. The graphic novel, having more time/pages to convey the depths of Marjane's character, allowed the reader to grow with Marjane through out the novel- to really see her at her worst and watch her build her life back up as she returned to Iran. We saw her at school in Austria, frustrated that no one wanted to listen to her talk about her life back home unless she was talking about war or death. In the film, we saw a little of this, and I think we would have seen a bit more of her rock bottom had we not skipped a section of the film, but these parts of the film didn't convey her feelings of difference and being outside of the norm as well as did these sections in the graphic novel. While I felt that the most important scene of the film was where Marjane's grandmother yelled at her for getting a mostly innocent man arrested by the Guardians in order to save herself, the fall out from this scene was much different in the film than it was in the graphic novel. In the graphic novel, we saw how Marjane really felt she needed to redeem her self in her grandmother's eyes, and it was a big deal when her grandmother was talking to her again. In the film, the issue was blown over almost immediately, and we missed the depths of Marjane's shame and subsequent growth. The film was well done, but the graphic novel did an infinitely better job of conveying Marjane's life as it progressed, and her growth through the years.