Persepolis

Persepolis - that strange, comic-book-style, largely black-and-white animation from France that was nominated for an Oscar and in my view deserved it more than the eventual winner Ratatouille, and has met almost universal acclaim. Here are my thoughts from the screening I caught in 2007:

I thought it was excellent, a simple memoir but moving, poignant, pleasingly frank and with some great moments of humour. The simple art was coupled with some wonderful animation and pastiche, and there were some very gripping moments and plenty of likeable characters. If anything, the fundamentalist government is shown in a considerably less threatening way than in, say, Reading Lolita in Tehran. The floggings and murders seem less of a real threat here, where talking back cleverly to authorities seems to go mostly unpunished. Nonetheless, there are some harrowing moments when real political dissidents are caught.

Superb and highly lauded, it is well worth seeing.