History ComicBook / Persepolis

[[caption-width-right:350:This picture is the proof: [[CthulhuMythos Hastur]] [[DudeNotFunny is behind the Islamic theocracy!]]]]

** Neda Baby-Levy is a young girl who dreams of a fairytale prince coming to take her away. She and her family are killed by an Iraqi missile.

* FagHag: For a while, she lives together with eight gay guys in one shared apartment.

* GrowingUpSucks

** One nun in the school in Austria criticizes her for being Iranian. She retaliates by openly calling all the nuns former prostitutes, which is a CallBack to when another character mentioned prostitutes becoming nuns to Marjane earlier on. The nun then lies to her parents about the expulsion and rather than bringing up Marjane's comment claims she was being kicked out for getting caught stealing fruit yoghurt from the kitchen (never mind that Marjane hates yoghurt). The claim also seems a lot more rude in the movie; in the comic, one of the nuns is friendly to her and cries when she leaves.

* AdaptationDistillation: Quite a few chapters from the graphic novel are cut from the film version. They intended to add a couple but cut them out. Some scenes, such as Marjane's various jumping-around from home-to-home were also mentioned but minimalized in the film version.
** The film also meddles with chronology of some events, most likely in order to streamline storytelling.
* AllMenArePerverts: Used verbatim in the first book by Marjane's mother, after several fundamentalist men [[StayInTheKitchen make misogynist comments toward her]].
** Not to mention, the fundamentalist Islamist government tended to believe it, using it to justify making women wear the veil to "protect" them.

** Slightly justified, in the sense that the latter represents Marjane older and living in Vienna while the former portrayed her as a child in Iran.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The good characters are drawn rather ordinarily while the "bad" characters tend to have their flaws exaggerated and unpleasant expressions. However, this isn't always true, as the waitress who gets revenge on a customer for Marjane looks ugly but is good. And, well, it's a rather simplistic cartoony style, so what passes for "exaggerated physical flaws" ends up as "average".
** There is also some indication that Marjane's [[UnreliableNarrator opinions of people color her perceptions of them]].

** BiggerBad: Ayatollah Khomeini never shows up or gets a mention (although his picture appears), but it's his thoughts and ideals which clearly influence the government and its wider effects on Iran.

* FallingInLoveMontage: The film shows Marjane and Markus pelting one another with snowballs, running through the park, smoking hash with content expressions and showing a gleeful, happy romance... [[spoiler:before he cheats on her.]]
** Subverted [[spoiler: soon after when she re-envisions the entire thing but with Markus as a slimy, creepy douchebag.]]
*** [[spoiler: In his defence, she does mention in the comic that she was a huge emotional load on him, as she pretty much expected him to be an ersatz for every man in her life.]]

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:Marjane]] attempts to commit suicide by downing all her anti-depressants, yet still survives. {{Lampshaded}} when her therapist comments that he can't find any explanation for her survival other than divine intervention.
** Debatable; most anti-depressants are impossible (or at the very least extremely difficult) to overdose on, for obvious reasons.
* NotSoDifferent: The author's family is somewhat westernized and thus doesn't like the Islamists who claim that anything coming from the west is horrible and decadent. When she goes to Austria after some years under the Ayatollah, she is shocked when another girl openly talks about her pussy, and tells her she [[ReallyGetsAround had sex with 18 boys]] (without being married, of course).
** And when the author returns to Iran her female friends are eager to hear about her sexual experiences, but when they find out that she slept with ''several'' guys they call her a whore.

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The anarchists certainly don't act very anarchist (actually, often TruthInTelevision-but better than if they had started to [[BombThrowingAnarchist throw random bombs like some earlier anarchists did]].)
** This becomes a minor plot point when Marjane's boyfriend invites her to an anarchist party. She expects it to be a gleeful revel in leftist thought and anti-elitism, and is majorly disappointed when it turns out to be just a bunch of people playing games (though she quickly recovers).

* PrisonRape / MaritalRapeLicense: {{Discussed}}. When a virgin is arrested, a member of the SecretPolice marries and deflowers her before she's executed. Understandably, [[GoodParents Marjane's parents]] freak out over this.
** TruthInTelevision--a [[InsaneTrollLogic virgin can't go to hell]], and we can't have that, can we?
*** Also because executing virgins is illegal. So that's one way around that issue.

* WhatTheHellHero: When guards come in a raid, Marjane accuses a man of saying something indecent to her in order to save herself from being confronted over wearing lipstick. He's never seen again. Later on, she tells her grandmother about the incident--and also laughs about it. Grandma is far, far from amused. Since the movie takes place in post-revolution Iran, the man could've been [[spoiler: tortured or even executed]]. The scene shows how a police state could turn anyone into a monster.
** Basically, it's a RealLife equivalent of the [[spoiler: Do it to Julia!]] scene from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''

** Also, one nun in the school in Austria criticizes her for being Iranian. She retaliates by openly calling all the nuns former prostitutes, which is a CallBack to when another character mentioned prostitutes becoming nuns to Marjane earlier on. The nun then lies to her parents about the expulsion and rather than bringing up Marjane's comment claims she was being kicked out for getting caught stealing fruit yoghurt from the kitchen (never mind that Marjane hates yoghurt). The claim also seems a lot more rude in the movie; in the comic, one of the nuns is friendly to her and cries when she leaves.

* BlackMarket: Where people can buy stuff like Michael Jackson tapes.
** Or as one of the dealers put it, "Jichael Mackson."

* FullCircleRevolution: When the Shah is deposed in 1979, Marjane's parents and much of the population expect the new regime to be an improvement. But it soon proves every bit as dictatorial and repressive as the old one. And then even more than the old one. The comic mentions it: While the Shah had 3000 political prisoners, the Islamic theocracy had 300 thousand.

* GirlsWithMoustaches: A teacher tells her female students to wear headcoverings because a glimpse of any of a woman's hair is a temptation to men. Marjane's father comments that the teacher's moustache is hardly seductive.

* HollywoodToneDeaf: The ''Eye of Tiger'' scene in the movie.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Some of the more liberal Iranians view a few fundamentalist views as this. (The Comic book, for example, includes a line where they say hair emits rays that arouse men.)

* LanguageBarrier: When Marjane arrives to Austria, she doesn't speak German and her roommate Lucia doesn't speak neither Persian nor French (Marji's second language). They learn to cope and get along amicably anyway.

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:Marjane]] attempts to commit suicide by downing all her anti-depression medicine, yet still survives. {{Lampshaded}} when her therapist comments that he can't find any explanation for her survival other than divine intervention.
** Debatable- most anti-depressants are impossible (or at the very least extremely difficult) to overdose on, for obvious reasons.

** And when the author returns to Iran her female friends are eager to hear about her sexual experience, but when they find that she slept with ''several'' guys they call her a whore.

* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Anarchists certainly don't act very anarchist. (Actually, often TruthInTelevision. But better than if they had started to [[BombThrowingAnarchist throw random bombs like the first anarchists did]].)

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: {{Invoked|Trope}}, one of Marjane's relatives bribes the guard to her husband's cell so they could have one last night together, her intention being to get pregnant and have his baby to remember him by. He's not happy about it, and even warns her how terrible life is for an unwed mother.
* StarterVillain: The Shah, quickly replaced by [[TheFundamentalist the Iranian Islamic government.]]

** Marjane's mother delivers her one, after cutting in on the moment listed under KidsAreCruel. She asks Marjane "How would you like it if I nailed your ears to the wall?" before telling her that it isn't fair to hurt someone for what their parents do.

* WoundedGazelleGambit: See WhatTheHellHero above

''Persepolis'' is an autobiographical comic by Marjane Satrapi, published in 2000 and adapted into an animated film in 2007. It begins with her childhood in Tehran during the Seventies, as her middle-class family works to bring down the Shah. Soon, the fundamentalists are swept in to power, and a new wave of repression begins. Marjane rebels in small ways, by buying smuggled rock tapes and denim jackets, drawing the attention of the police and compelling her parents to send her to Europe. She kicks around Vienna for a few years, alienated by the people there, before returning to a Tehran changed by years of fundamentalist rule.

Both the graphic novel and the film were well received by critics upon their release. The film was nominated for the Best Animated Picture Oscar but lost to ''{{WesternAnimation/Ratatouille}}''. The Iranian government issued protest against it being shown at various film festivals worldwide, but it allowed a limited screening in Tehran. The film was {{banned|InChina}} for a short period of time in Lebanon, as well.

* AllMenArePerverts: Used verbatim in the first book by Marjane's mother, after several men [[StayInTheKitchen make misogynist comments towards her]].
** Not to mention, the fundamentalist Islamist government tended to believe it.

** Slightly justified, in the sense that the latter represents Marjane older and living in Vienna while the former had her being a child in Iran.

** BiggerBad: Ayatollah Khomeini never shows up or gets a mention, but it's his thoughts and ideals which clearly influence the government and its wider effects on Iran.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: In the graphic novel, Marjane points out the hypocrisy of her parents, who wax poetic about human rights while keeping an underage maid, Mehridia. Mehridia was born to a poor family in a destitute village, and the Satrapis took her in when she was a small child. While the Satrapis did feed and clothe Mehridia and try to teach her to read, they still kept her out of school and used her as a source of child labor. None of the characters (except the author) bat an eyelash at the situation.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome - the film.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Marjane]]. However it is [[HappilyFailedSuicide Happily Failed]].

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The good characters are drawn rather ordinarily while the "bad" characters tend to have their flaws exaggerated and unpleasant expressions. However, this isn't always true, as the waitress who gets revenge on a customer for Marjane looks ugly but is good. And, well, it's a rather simplistic animation style, so what passes for "exaggerated physical flaws" ends up as "average".

** There is also some indication that Marjane's [[UnReliableNarrator opinions of people color her perceptions of them]].

* YouAreACreditToYourRace: Lucia and her Tyrolean family treat Marjane very nicely...and later, a character implies they were just as racist as all the other Tyroleans, and wouldn't have been so nice if Marji was, say, a darker-skinned, frizzy-haired boy.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The "[[Music/{{Survivor}} Eye of the Tiger]]" scene in the movie.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: The good characters are drawn rather ordinarily while the "bad" characters tend to have their flaws exaggerated and unpleasant expressions. However, this isn't always true, as the waitress who gets revenge on a customer for Marjane looks ugly but is good.