Persepolis

Viewers who missed Persepolis when it played locally at the Fine Arts Theatre last February may want to catch the Asheville Art Museum’s upcoming screening of this wonderful film. This utterly beguiling movie—adapted and codirected by Marjane Satrapi from her own series of autobiographical comic books—is that most unusual of creations: It’s an animated film of genuine emotional depth (as distinct from the relatively simple sentimentality of a Disney film). Moreover, it’s one of the best—possibly the best—coming-of-age stories ever committed to film. That it’s the coming of age of a rebellious Iranian girl ought to have made it less universal, but instead it only serves to make it more so by showing the things that connect us rather than divide us as people. Alternately playful and heartbreakingly real, it’s definitely a film to see if you’ve not already done so.