我在伊朗長大Persepolis

It was a surprise to me that the film “Persepolis” was shown one more time on last Sunday afternoon. At first, there were only two shows scheduled in the 4th Hong Kong Asian Film Festival in late September, and the tickets were sold out quickly. Thus, I missed the chance to watch it. Thank God, one week late, the organizer announced that they would have an additional show on 7 October. I was happy to see “Persepolis” with my friends then.

The Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi told us about the story of Iran in the last half century, a country full of mystery and tyranny. Not many Hong Kong people know about the war between Iraq and Iran in the early 80’s because it was far away from our lives and news about the Middle East is often not the focus in our media. Many think that Iranians are all conservative; or maybe, they are “Barbarian” as well.

Marjane recalled the memory of her childhood in Tehran, the capital of Iran in the 70’s, some of her relatives were dead because of tyranny and political repression. Young Marjane could only enjoy a short period of happiness with the love from her well-educated parents. Then she was sent to Austria to continue her education alone. However, the culture gap was large for a girl from the Middle East. Marjane experienced the lonely and the loveless days in Austria for a few years. Then she came back to her homeland and experienced another black days, since her country still occupied by tyranny.

She went back to Iran to continue her education in university, fell in love, got married in age of 21 and divorced after a few years, eventually, she left Iran with the advise from her parents. Now she is staying in France for a new life. I was touched by the encouragement of her parents to Marjane to leave Iran after her divorce even when they knew that the chance of meeting again in their lifetime was slim. Marjane’s beloved grandmother passed away soon after she left Iran. She believed that we have to make some scarify for freedom.

The story tells people outside of Iran that the country was forced to be separated from the world because of political reasons. Iranians are not all conservative and the majority wants freedom and right to choose. Marjane unveiled the veil of Iran to the world through her comic book and her film successfully.