As the year winds up, the animated PERSEPOLIS and creator Marjane Satrapi are getting vast amount of exposure, keeping graphic novels at the forefront of media news yet again. The film itself has a 98% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and has been winning many awards and plaudits in the season of honoraria including a Golden Globe nom for Best Foreign Film and an NY Film Critic’s pick as Best Animated Film. Satrapi is also making the interview rounds:

Do you miss Iran?

Of course. It’s my homeland and always will be. If I were a man, I’d say France is my wife, but Iran is my first love and will always linger with me. Obviously, I can’t forget all those years when I’d wake up with a view of an 18,700-foot high, snowcovered mountain that dominated Tehran and my life… It’s hard to think that I’ll never be able to see it anymore. I miss it. Then again, I have the life I wanted. I live in Paris, which is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with the man I love, doing the job I like - plus, I get paid to do what I like to do. Out of respect for those who have stayed there, who share my ideas but cannot express them, I’d find it inappropriate and distasteful to be complaining. If I had given in to despair, everything would have been lost. So up until the last moment, I’ll hold my head high and keep laughing because they won’t get the best of me. As long as you’re alive you can protest and shout, yet laughter is the most subversive weapon of all.

This entry was posted on 12/28/07 at 12:39 pm and is filed under Movies, Cartoons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.