Perhaps the most successful writer of our generation, Marjane Satrapi has been working hard for the release of her much-anticipated film Persepolis. Adapted from the original comic books written and illustrated by Satrapi, the film features legendary actress Catherine Deneuve, and other heavyweights such as Chiara Mastroianni, and Sean Penn. Co-directed by Vincent Parronaud, Persepolis has already won many awards around the world including the Jury Prize at Cannes and been nominated for several others such as the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Our recent discussion in New York was a moving one and I thank her for it.
Here are some excerpts from our conversation:
Shabnam Rezaei: Hi Marjane. Thanks for meeting with me. How are you and what it’s been like going through this amazing journey with your film Persepolis?
Marjane Satrapi: I made a book not knowing even if I would have a publisher. Then we made an $8 million movie. I mean it can sound like a lot but when you have a team of 100 people that you have to pay for 2 years, you understand it is not a lot. Then we got selected in Cannes. We were so shocked because firstly, animation never wins and if it is selected, it never gets a prize. Then it came here, you know and Golden Globes – for best foreign film – it goes beyond animation. This is not a genre, it is a medium that tells a story and it just happens to be drawn. It is really amazing.
The thing is that I am working a lot so I don’t have the time to realize what is happening around me. I think one year I will understand. In Cannes, it was like the day you get married. Everybody else enjoys it except you. I was so nervous. 2500 people watching and people are very rude. If they don’t like your movie, they boo you. We didn’t really understand what was going on
SR: And now of course the Oscars. I have high hopes for Persepolis. You?
MS: For the Oscars, if I tell you I don’t want to go, I will be the biggest liar. Of course I want to go. From the second that they start talk about it, you look forward to it. So many good things have happened. It is all like a bonus. If it happens, then great, if not, then the best has already happened.
SR: You will be first Iranian ever to get an Oscar.
MS: That would be great. There is always going to be a first Iranian to do something. Iranians are everywhere in the arts, advertising (Saatchi & Saatchi), the best scientists. We just need to be more supportive of each other.
SR: I think that is going to change with our generation, Marjane.
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MS: Yes – you are right. It is changing. In our generation it really is. We have suffered. We are the only generation, after Cuba, that is the only time in history when people sent their kids without their parents. That was the big immigration of the adolescents. For the Iranians, we are considered lucky, because we left. For the foreigners, we are not as Iranian because they know us from when we are kids. So we are in a situation and we think that it does not have an effect on us but it does. I was talking to a friend of a mine.
From our generation, none of us have children, even though we are at that age. I have friends who even don’t want to have an apartment. We are completely rotten. We saw what was before and what was after. We experienced a revolution and a war so our basis is made with this war and revolution and faith to the future, we don’t have it. You wrote it so beautifully in your article, we lost so much time assimilating, forgetting ourselves, achieving, being like the other one. And at the end, it all comes back. It is there and you are attached to it. People ask me why I don’t write a story about the future, and to make that story you have to have your past close to yourself to be able to lean on. Then you project yourself to the future. If I did something wrong as an adolescent, I would always ask myself, what would my dad say and what would my mom say. You become so much harder on yourself. They would forgive you but you don’t forgive yourself. It really scars you but you try not to complain. You live where you want and do what you want, you have friends. I am lucky and others are not.
But our generation is a much better one and we can make many things together. If one of us goes up, then all of us go up. I have always believed that. When one Iranian did something, then I did it. It transcends.
SR: What made you write the first Persepolis book?
MS: It wasn’t a quick decision. I had to find the distance to the story. Having too much anger in you is no good. Being violent is no good and I didn’t want to write with anger in me. Then you act like those you are trying to avoid. Taking a step back is good. As an artist, I don’t really have any answers. I have questions. And that is important because you realize it is much more complicated. Before I had an answer for everything. But fanaticism starts there when you have an easy answer for every question. You think this is bad and this is good. I knew I shouldn’t do that. There came a moment when I realized I had to write it. I was sick of saying it and I wanted to just write it and get rid of it.
Initially I thought Persepolis was a very personal story but in an incredible way, especially our generation, I had so many letters that this was their story. But even people who were not Iranian, a guy form Chile told me about the coup d’etat against Salvador Allende and a guy from China and the cultural revolution, the same thing everywhere. Suddenly things change. The individual reason becomes so much smaller than everything else. And then how do you grow up and how do you live? Because to live, it is not enough to just be alive. You need more. How do you deal with exile? These themes exist all around the world. And it gives you hope because suddenly it was not just our story but a story of the human being. The center of attention should be the human being.
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SR: Your grandmother’s character was real and strong. What are reactions of non-Iranians to the women in your film, who are so real but may seem strange to the outsider who does not know that women in Iran are very strong and outspoken.
MS: But those are the real grandmothers in Iran. My grandmother was a good example of that. My whole goal with the movie was for anyone to identify with the characters. The audience was shocked but in a nice way. This is the beginning of something. You know the reason you can go and bomb some place and kill people is that they get used to some abstract notion, like “The Axis of Evil” or this or that. They forget that the person who is supposed to be evil likes to make love, eat ice cream, go the movies; he has brothers and sisters, parents; we forget that. So that is it. Suddenly, they are surprised but I am happy about that. When the look at me like “Are you a human being?” and I am like, “Yes, we are!” But I prefer that to the complete ignorance.
People say, “Iranian women are miserable”. According to the law, yes, they are miserable but they are fighting everyday to make themselves not miserable. 64% of the students are women. If we don’t recognize this fact and just call them miserable then whatever they do, it is pointless, because then they are always miserable. You have to recognize the fight.
SR: The film was very educational about Iran in general and how different it is as a country from neighbors like Afghanistan.
MS: Yes. In Iran, they never say to a girl don’t go to school. This is not true. I went to school, under the current regime. And I went to university so let’s not make things worse by lying. It takes a while.
I am not saying I am changing the whole world but if I can participate a little just so people can see that the human being is the human being and there are fanatics all around the world. If we start naming the evil and putting an address on the evil, then this is the beginning of fascism. If the evil is that, this ethnical group, or this religion or this geographical place, then let’s go and exterminate all of them. That is what has already happened in history and it is extremely dangerous. It is important to ask questions and show the complexity and make the parallel with their own lives.
Yesterday this guy was complaining about the concept of a key of paradise to the kid to make war. In this country, they give green cards to the family of the Hispanic who goes to war in Iraq. Don’t you think this is a kind of key of paradise also? I mean you are making a promise to a guy that if he goes and dies, then his family will have this or money or education. The object is different but the basis of thinking is the same. So if you look at that, just be smart to make the parallel with yourself. I realize this is not only in once place. It is the cynicisms of the policy that use the people, the fact that they are poor. They use them to do whatever they want. If you understand that, then we are one step further, which is always better.
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SR: What was it like working with Catherine Deneuve?
MS: I was so scared. Imagine me asking her, “Khanume Deneuve, Eenjoori Nakhoonid” (“Mrs. Deneuve, don’t read it like that.”) I was told she was hard to work with. I was very nervous. I mean I couldn’t eat, I was drinking cognac but the reality was that she was a pro. She made me feel very comfortable. She said you are the director and I am the actor. I had a good relationship with her. She loves jokes, she loves to laugh and she loves to garden.
SR: What’s next for Marjane Satrapi?
MS: I want to make other movies and books. One about a family story. When I die, I want them to put it all together like a big family saga. It goes backwards. Persepolis was the 70’s- 90’s and Chicken with Plum was more the 50’s and this story is from the 30’s with the father of the shah taking over power. It’s a big family story. I want to make another movie but first I want to take a vacation and I have not had any rest since Cannes. My soul is poor. I keep talking and talking. I need time to myself, just to smoke a cigarette and look at the sky and just let things fall into place. But I will always try to do my best.
SR: You have done a great job! Thank you so much.
MS: Thank you Shabnam Jan.
Favorite City: New York and Paris
Favorite Drink: Vodka
Favorite Dish: Fesenjun
Favorite Color: Black
Currently Reading: “Nabokov et son oeuvres” about the life of Nabokov and an analysis of his works
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