Film Response to Persepolis

As I watched the film version of Persepolis, the masterful use of color struck me and impacted my understanding of the theme. The very first scene of the film Marjane, now a young adult, waits in the airport. This scene is shown in color. Soon, the narration begins and Marjane tells the audience of her past as a young girl growing up in Iran during the revolution. This portion of the story is told with black and white images. Later on in the tale, when she reaches the moment of her sitting in the airport, the black and white becomes color images once again.

This transition from black and white to color images not only operates as an effective time marker, but also, I believe, has a distancing effect, wherein Marjane, as well as the audience, seems to present a disconnect between the tumultuous and violent environment in Iran during her childhood and what Iran has become once she has returned as a young adult. Like Marjane, we see this Iran as a new place. We, like the narrator, do not know what to expect.  

In the moments characterized in black and white, the artist's ability to visually tell this story using various shades of gray, black, and white and, while doing so, capture the power and gravity of the situation of Iran during the revolution. It seemed that perhaps the author's meaning came across more pointedly using black and white images here. The audience was not distracted by the colorful terrors of revolution (i.e. blood, guts, etc.) and could really focus in on the events and their significance.