Persepolis Film V.S. Persepolis Book

                                     In my opinion, the Persepolis film was more powerful than the book. The Persepolis book was powerful, but it was hard to really hear her “voice” throughout the novel. There wasn’t a difference between the “little” Marji voice and the “adult” Marji voice.  I feel like the film  captured her thoughts as both a child and an adult. During the film, when Marji was a young girl, I understood her point of view as a child by the way they made her voice younger and put it in her perspective as a child. I think the way Marji looked back and voiced her adult thoughts and opinions while she was still a child in the film made it very understandable; I was able to see both sides of her and how her thought process changed as she grew older. The film bettered my understanding of the book because I got to hear everyone’s opinions through their own voices.

                   The opening of the film is Marji sitting on an airport bench smoking a cigarette; looking very gloomy. A short while after she starts to imagine a "little" Marji running by. At this time she starts to look back at how her life was and what she thought as a child. The little Marji running by seemed to be happy and energetic. As the "adult" Marji looks back she states, "I remember…I led a peaceful, uneventful life...as a little girl". Marji says this very sadly and her facial expressions show that she wished she were still a naive child that didn't understand what was really going on around her. By Marji saying that it shows that her life wasn't as smooth as she grew older.

                   By watching the film and seeing her as a little girl helped me to understand her point of view and how she felt during this time. In many parts of the film they would do a close up of Marji as a child listening to her elders talk. Marji's facial expressions showed a lot of what she was thinking; her eyebrows would raise or she would squint her eyes and move her eyes. At one point in the film it shows her peaking out of her bedroom door while her grandmother was talking to her parents. After overhearing her parents and grandmother talk about the Shah and what was happening to people that would rebel against him, Marji comes out of her room saying "Down with the shah, Down with the shah". I think this scene shows how her elders influenced a lot of what she would say and think as a child. After watching the film it was clear to me that what Marji heard as a child influenced her later in life. I defiantly prefer the film over the book because I think it captures the meaning of Marjane's story.