An official selection at the prestigious Cannes, Toronto, Telluride, New York and AFI Los Angeles film festivals, Persepolis recounts the plight of an Iranian girl’s life against the backdrop of Iran before and during the fundamentalist Islamic revolution that swept the country during the latter part of the 20^th century. Fearing for her safety, the girl’s parents (mother voiced by Catherine Deneuve; father voiced by Simon Abkarian) send Marjane (young Marjane voiced by Gabrielle Lopes; teenager and adult Marjane voiced by Chiara Mastroianni) off to Europe. In Europe, Marjane finds troubles of a different kind.

Based on the famous graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi, the Official French Selection for the 2007 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Awards (Persepolis is on the short list), co-writers/co-directors Satrapi and underground comic artist Vincent Paronnaud’s delightful film bounces between the personal turmoil of Marjane against the political strife of her native land and beyond.

Now a French citizen, Satrapi sits across from me in a Beverly Hills hotel room in noir garb to discuss her film, France, Farsi and fanatics.

Los Angeles Journal: My impression and research of the film lends me to think this story is not as autobiographical as it would appear on the surface.

Marjane Satrapi: Right. The story is not so much about myself as what is happening around myself. I never wanted the story to become a political, or historical or sociological statement because I’m not a politician, I’m not a historian, and I am not a sociologist. I’m a person that is born by coincidence in a certain place in a certain time who had feelings and experiences and who got an impression on what was happening around herself. I keep it on a very personal level because otherwise it becomes a statement. In a statement you want to give an answer and I don’t have any answers. I only have questions. This is not a documentary about my life. And it is not a reality show either. This is an artistic project. The art is not searching for the reality. It is an expression of the truth.

LAJ: Why did you choose to use animation for the film rather than live action?

MS: If you use live action in some geographical place with a human being, again, that becomes this story of “those crazy Middle-Eastern fanatics”; people we cannot relate to. There’s something abstract about the drawing that makes it something anybody can relate to. Plus the drawing is the first language of human beings – far before language and writing. The film also has many narrations – realistic scenes, meeting with God, the puppet scene, daily life, etc. In order to go from one narration to another without falling into vulgarity – if you could do it with grace your name would be Federico Fellini – the animation and the black and white help us go from one narration to another with a certain coherence. We never considered animation as a genre; animation is a medium.

LAJ: You mention the black and white. Often filmmakers use black and white when dealing with the past as if the past were concrete and clearer.

MS: You’re right! You’re right! In one way this story is based on a flashback of a woman remembering her whole life. This black and white works perfectly with that. But Vincent and I come from the underground and we always work in black and white. There’s something immediate about black and white

LAJ: Why did you tell the film in French rather than Farsi?

MS: The voices were taped before the drawings. An animator has to listen to that and draw it. How can a French animator listen to something in Farsi and have a clue what it means and make the lips synch? I don’t have 100 Iranian animators living in Paris. Why did Sofia Coppola make Marie Antoinette in French?

LAJ: That was a major criticism against the film, particularly by the French.

MS: Yeah, but…Technically it wasn’t possible. I am French. I come from another background but it is a French movie because the co-director and I are French, everybody is French. If I could make it Farsi maybe I would not have needed to make the movie because that means I could make it in Iran.

LAJ: Does that mean your film is a reflection of contemporary Iran?

MS: When you grow up there are changes around you and the reasons behind these changes are so much bigger than the individual these changes happen around. How do you grow up? How are going to live? The turning point of the film is how do you deal with the exile. That is why the movie works everywhere. It goes beyond a place. It becomes a human story. It’s a reflection of the human condition.

LAJ: Have Iranians had the opportunity to see the film and how have they responded?

MS: Iranians abroad – I don’t go to Iran – have been very nice until now. Of course you always have people who don’t like what you say, but what can you do with people like that [Laughs]? Everybody has the right to think what he or she wants.

LAJ: Which is why, as your film highlights, during fundamentalist revolutions the first target are the intellectuals. Once the smartest people are prohibited from speaking their minds to the public, fundamentalism is on its way.

MS: It’s the same way in this country. Those are the first people who have to have their mouths shut. Their articles are not published. They cannot be on the TV shows. Fundamentalism in a democracy or in a dictatorship functions in the same way. Intellectuals are the people who don’t take the shit. They are the people that make you think An intellectual--contrary to the fanatic who presses on the buttons of emotion and makes you crazy--asks you to think, to make you work at thinking. They show people are complex and that’s what the fanatic doesn’t want. The fanatic doesn’t want you to think or have ideas. That’s how he rules the people.

LAJ: One of the themes your film deals with is how Marjane encounters people with stereotypical portrayals of Iranians. How has that changed over the years?

MS: In France people don’t care so much. They have problems with other kinds of people. We became this “Axis of Evil” here. That’s why watching this movie can help. I don’t think I can change the world with this movie but if there is one goal, if people see this movie and can say, “It could have been me,” that’s my highest goal. I don’t have any intention beyond that. By reducing people to some abstract notion called, “a terrorist” or “fanatic” and then put a name and an address is extremely dangerous. This is the beginning of fascism. If the evil is one ethnicity or one religion or one country then we have to go out and exterminate all of them; that is fascism. We have to understand that evil is international. Terrorism is international. An intelligent man is international. If we can understand that, then that is a big step for human beings.

LAJ: What would you say to people who saw this film and say, “This is what Iran’s like and this is why we have to overthrow their government”?

MS: The reason you can go and bomb people is because you don’t consider them human beings. You have to dehumanize them and make them the enemy.  You have to forget they are people with hopes, dreams, love, etc. That is why you can do it. If you consider them human beings you will never go and attack them. You’re giving me too much responsibility [Laughs]. Michael Moore couldn’t stop Bush from being re-elected with Fahrenheit 9/11. Everything was there to convince people, “Please don’t vote for the guy.” They voted for him anyway. Change in Iran has to come from within the country. How arrogant people can be when they say, “We are going to come and free you.” We don’t want you to fucking come and free us. If we want freedom we will take it ourselves. Instead of creating Al-Queda name and giving them money so they go too far and come and kill innocent people, maybe the best way is not to give money to Al-Queda name to start with.

LAJ: What does Iran mean to you these days?

MS: Iran is a country I was born in and nothing will ever change that. In my affection, my hair color and my politeness I will always be Iranian. I’m also French. Knowing two cultures and two identities is a very good thing because then you realize the human being is the human being and there are not so many differences. I’m French. I’m Iranian. My husband is Swedish. I come very often to America. The feeling of belonging somewhere is very good. Patriotism is not very bad, but to become freaks about that is very scary. Afterall, we’re human beings.

LAJ: Lastly, what do you think about these interviews where talk about yourself and your work? Does it serve the film? Does it serve the work?

MS: The work speaks for itself. But they tell me I have to do it so I obey [Laughs]. I don’t think it’s very necessary.