Persepolis

A Reel Progress Screening

December 16, 2007, 7:00pm – 9:15pm

About This Event

PERSEPOLIS is the poignant story of a young girl in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. It is through the eyes of precocious and outspoken nine year old Marjane that we see a people's hopes dashed as fundamentalists take power - forcing the veil on women and imprisoning thousands. Clever and fearless, she outsmarts the "social guardians" and discovers punk. Yet when her uncle is senselessly executed and as bombs fall around Tehran in the Iran/Iraq war, the daily fear that permeates life in Iran is palpable.

As she gets older, Marjane's boldness causes her parents to worry over her continued safety. And so, at age fourteen, they make the difficult decision to send her to school in Austria. Vulnerable and alone in a strange land, she endures the typical ordeals of a teenager. Over time, she gains acceptance, and even experiences love, but after high school she finds herself alone and horribly homesick.

Though it means putting on the veil and living in a tyrannical society, Marjane decides to return to Iran to be close to her family. After a difficult period of adjustment, she enters art school and marries, all the while continuing to speak out against the hypocrisy she witnesses. At age 24, she realizes that while she is deeply Iranian, she cannot live in Iran. She then makes the heartbreaking decision to leave her homeland for France, optimistic about her future, shaped indelibly by her past.

Please join us for a provocative panel discussion and Q&A session immediately following the film.

OFFICIAL FRENCH SELECTION FOR THE 2007 BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM ACADEMY AWARDS

WINNER, JURY AWARD, 2007 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Official Selection 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
Official Selection 2007 Telluride Film Festival
Official Closing Night Selection 2007 New York Film Festival

Featured Panelists:
Marjane Satrapi, writer/director, PERSEPOLIS
Vincent Paronnaud, writer/director, PERSEPOLIS

Moderated by:
Mara Rudman, Senior Fellow, Advisor to Middle East Progress, Center for American Progress

Location

Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14
701 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

Biographies

Vincent Paronnaud a.k.a. Winshluss, was born in 1970 in La Rochelle. He is a major underground comic book artist. Together with his friend and collaborator Cizo, he invented the character of "Monsieur Ferraille", the emblematic figure of the comic "Ferraille Illustré", which he co-edited with Cizo and Felder. His solo projects include Super Négra (1999), Welcome to the Death Club and Pat Boon - Happy End (2001). He gained public recognition when he earned a nomination for Smart Monkey in 2004 and for Wizz and Buzz (with Cizo) in 2007 at the Angoulême Comic Book Festival. Winshluss and Cizo have also co-directed two shorts animations: O'Boy What Nice Legs (B&W - 1 min - 2004) Raging Blues (B&W - 6 min - 2003).

Marjane Satrapi was born in 1969. She grew up in Tehran where she attended the Lycée Français (French high school). She then studied in Vienna before she relocated to France in 1994. In Paris, through fellow comic book artists, she was introduced into the Atelier des Vosges, an artist studio which gathered major, contemporary comic book artists. In her first graphic novel, Persepolis 1, published by L'Association in November 2000, Marjane told the story of the first ten years of her life until the overthrow of the Shah regime and the outbreak of the Iraq-Iran war. In Persepolis, published in October 2001, she described the Iraq-Iran war and her teenage years until she left for Vienna at the age of fourteen.

Persepolis 2 dealt with her exile in Austria and her return to Iran. Since then, she has published Embroideries (Broderies) and Chicken with Plums (Poulet aux Prunes). PERSEPOLIS is co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud, and is her first feature film.

Mara Rudman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she focuses on national security issues and advises Middle East Progress. She is also President of Quorum Strategies, an international strategic consulting firm. From 1997 to 2001, Rudman served at the White House, including as a deputy national security advisor to President Clinton and National Security Council Chief of Staff, where she coordinated and directed activities among the various federal departments and agencies with defense and foreign policy responsibilities. In that capacity, she also played a role on Middle East peace efforts. From 1993-1997, she worked as chief counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Committee under Chairman Lee Hamilton. Prior to her committee positions, Rudman was a litigation associate at Hogan & Hartson. Early in her career, Rudman clerked for the Honorable Stanley Marcus, now of the Eleventh Circuit, in the Southern District of Florida.

Rudman serves on the Middle East Investment Initiative board, the board of advisors of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, as a member of the Aspen Institute Middle East Strategy Group, and as an Aspen Institute Crown Fellow. She is also a frequent media commentator. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College summa cum laude and her Juris Doctorate cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was the editor-in-chief of The Harvard Human Rights Journal.