Iranian Movie Up for Major Award at Cannes

One of the buzz films at the Cannes Film Festival this year is Persepolis, directed by an Iranian woman and adapted from her book. Marjane Satrapi, the co-director and author of the animated film based on one of Satrapi's graphic novels, told the Associated Press, "What we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, look closer. They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories." The overall message is to promote tolerance and understanding of the common thread of humanity in all people.

The movie, according to Satrapi, is about an average teenager who comes of age after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. However, the film has not run without complaints from Iranian authorities, who sent a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran protesting the film's showing at Cannes. Persepolis, it reads, "[presents] an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts."

Satrapi, who currently lives in France, feels a bond to Iran, a place where she lived and loved.