Lebanon Bans PERSEPOLIS
A winner of multiple film awards, the animated feature Persepolis is no prize to the Lebanese government, who believe that it antagonizes Iranian allies.
The Oscar-nominated animated feature Persepolis has been banned in Lebanon, VARIETY reports. Lebanese authorities cite "the distorted image it presents of the post-Islamic Revolution Iran."
Winner of the jury prize at Cannes and the Best Animated Feature at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, the controversial black-and-white film by Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud is based on Satrapi’s best-selling graphic novel about growing up in Iran around the 1979 revolution. It offers "a wry, satirical look at the increasingly oppressive life under the rule of the mullahs."
Since its premiere at Cannes, Persepolis has drawn harsh criticism from Iranian government officials. Mehdi Kalhor, cultural adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, called the jury prize a sign of France’s "Islamophobia," and Alireza Rezadad, of the government-affiliated Farabi Cinema Foundation, published a letter accusing the film of presenting "an unreal picture of the outcomes and achievements of the Islamic Revolution."
In a March 4th review on Iranian.ws, FIROOZEH EKRAMI wrote that Persepolis had squandered "an opportunity to portray the real miseries of the Iranian nation," especially "the young generation of women [who] had little options and great difficulties to tackle after the Islamic revolution," in favor of the "fabrications" of a protagonist which she described variously as lazy, spoiled, dishonest and big-mouthed.
Lebanon has been in a political crisis for months, split between the West-backed pro-government force and the opposition that is supported by Syria and Iran. Authorities likely want to avoid offending pro-Iranian members of the Lebanese opposition, especially Hezbollah.
"They want to stay on the safe side and not create any more friction," Gianluca Chacra, of United Arab Emirates-based distributor Front Row Entertainment, told Variety. "We're still hoping for a DVD release in Lebanon."
Remarkably, Persepolis recently was screened at two cultural centers in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
"The aim of this screening is to end the delusions surrounding the film which have been created by the media," explained Mahmoud Babareza, the Rasaneh cultural center’s public relations chief. "When a film is not shown, people make all sorts of misconceptions. Cinema is cinema, after all, and it should not be put into a limited political context."
[Thanks to Reelsuave.com and Press TV (Iran) for additional material.]