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THE BAPTIST TIMES Thursday, May 29, 2008

An Iranian abroad FILM

How did Iran’s revolution impact the lives of one family? Persepolis is a shocking but beautiful account, writes Mark Woods

EVEN the sniffiest intelligentsia have discovered a respect for the graphic novel nowadays, if rather grudgingly. Marjane Satrapi is one of the reasons they have done so, and her multi-award-winning film Persepolis is an adaptation of her autobiographical work. Born in Iran before the Khomeini revolution, she was sent to Austria to be kept out of harm’s way but returned to Tehran, where she studied art. Eventually she left and settled in Paris, where she writes and draws to increasing acclaim. The film, mainly black and white with the occasional scenes in colour, tells a rich story of an imaginative, fiercely independent child of a remarkable family, and her experiences under a crushing tyranny in Iran and an equally crushing freedom in Vienna. It is drawn beautifully, with a restrained flair which explains why it took the world of cinema by storm. It is not, though, a film for the faint-hearted. Marjane’s Iran is a place of repression and terror. We are drawn into her

MY DEAR friend Michael died ten years ago. He was in his early fifties. It is still a shock and a loss. He was gay, Jewish and a determined controversialist. At his memorial service, the preacher said of Michael that in debate he could be like the terrier’s teeth in the postman’s trousers, adding ruefully: ‘I know about this; I was the postman on more than one occasion.’ Michael had a love-hate relationship with his Church – did I say that he was a convinced Evangelical? – which, he said, was a dangerous place for a gay to be. The hostility from some of his fellow-believers was violent and vile in its expression. ‘Splenetic’ doesn’t get close... Michael was a liturgist. He taught the subject to ordinands and theological students and he wrote widely and intelligently about the worship of the Church. His

Pictures:Sony Pictures

Conformity - Persepolis tells the story of Marjane Satrapi as she grows up in Iran where her independent spirit often gets her into trouble

world as the grim transition from one oppressive regime to another takes place. Her family has suffered under the Shah; nothing, they believe, can be as bad as that. As the grip of the Ayatollahs tightens, they realise how wrong they were. The film is a reminder of the evils of that regime. A young woman is arrested for her political dissidence. It’s illegal to execute a virgin, so she is forcibly ‘married’ to a member of the Revolutionary Guard, raped and then hanged. Iran’s near neighbour Saddam Hussein sees his opportunity and launches an attack which brings on a war in which a million people are to die (‘What a pity

they couldn’t both lose,’ was the comment of a US diplomat at the time.) These are some of the most chilling scenes in the film, not because of any explicit violence – there is none – but because of what it shows us of its effect on the people themselves. For instance, a 14-year-old boy is given a cheap plastic key and told that it will open the gates of paradise to him if he joins up to fight the hated Iraqis. Only the persuasiveness of Marjane’s mother saves him from his fate. Schoolchildren are harangued about Islamic virtues: ‘The veil is synonymous with freedom!’ At the back of the class, the girls giggle over pictures of the Bee Gees.

The only way of surviving this regime is through entire conformity or through acts of small rebellion, like drinking alcohol, throwing parties or listening to Iron Maiden, all in the context of a society where bearded vigilantes can abuse a woman for showing too much of her face in public. Marjane’s time as an adolescent in Vienna has its own perils. Rebelling against another joyless religious tyranny – this one in a convent school – she begins a freewheeling life in the city’s counter-culture, experimenting with nihilism and other cheap political pseudo-philosophies. An unhappy love affair lands her on the streets, and her only recourse

is to go home, back to Iran. Interestingly, God is present throughout, an old man on a cloud who offers wise advice in spite of being banished in a teenage rage. But this is autobiography, not a tract – either religious or political – and we should not expect it to be a tidy exposition of doctrine. There is an acute moral perceptiveness here, though. Iran’s theocrats are crazy, and with the help of Saddam bring their country to ruin. They want to control everything, and end up killing not just the body but the mind and the spirit. Vienna’s cynical liberalism is no answer: ‘Life’s not a game,’ Marjane tells one spotty

intellectual. ‘You think my uncle died just for fun?’ In the end, she portrays the superiority of family and humanity over any attempt to create an artificial paradise. If her own philosophy, ‘Be true to yourself’ rings a little hollow in the ears of believers used to more potent words, it is hard to fault her given the alternatives. This is not a easy film to watch – and it is a little long. But it sends viewers away with questions, and a valuable reminder of terrible times.

The Revd Mark Woods is editor of The Baptist Times. Persepolis is on general release, certificate 12a

PAUL SHEPPY

cAkE OR DEATH

ALEX

The Final Word

In Memoriam

bookshelves were crammed with ancient texts and learned commentaries. He also wrote many of the service texts which found their way into the Church of England’s Common Worship. When I worked with him on the group preparing worship for the advent of the third millennium, he argued that I should be paid for what I did. The irony is that people who used to shun him now pray his prayers. They are shaped by his warm and generous spirituality, which was rooted in the scriptures and in his own faith in Christ. When we think of liturgists what do we imagine? Do we picture what Michael outrageously and selfdeprecatingly called ‘Canon lawyers in drag?’ Do we think of dusty books and people interested in dressing up?

I am encouraged to see some signs that some Baptists are prepared to use the word. But if we consider liturgy to be simply a description of what happens in worship, we have only touched the surface. Often we hear that the word liturgy means ‘work of the people’. Well, sorry, but not really. It originally meant ‘burdensome public office (or duty)’ discharged at personal expense. It then came to mean ‘public service’ in general. Only later did it take on the dimension of religious worship. Even later still was it used of Christian worship. Of course words change their meaning as language develops and different groups adopt and adapt them to new circumstances. Of course, ‘liturgy’ includes the description of what happens in worship, but

it also includes the analysis of how elements within worship act upon one another and upon the worshippers to achieve (or frustrate) the purpose for which worshippers gather. Michael was devoted to this exercise; he was such a good historical scholar that he understood well how to shape and reshape the tradition to which he belonged. At his funeral in Durham Cathedral they sang his translation of the ancient Jewish prayer for the dead, the Kaddish: Magnified and sanctified may his great name be.... The preacher at Michael’s memorial service said of him (as a liturgist) that the words ‘He being dead, yet speaketh’ were extraordinarily true. Michael’s liturgical texts stand the test of repeated use because they are rooted in scripture and tradition and are beautifully written language, tested in prayerful company with others. What a challenge!

The Baptist Times – incorporating The Baptist and The Freeman. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper. THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2008. No 8228 Vol. No. 153. Tel. Editorial, Didcot: (01235) 517670; Advertising, Abingdon: (01865) 407991; Fax, Didcot: (01235) 517678. UK subscription – £51 a year including postage. Views expressed in letters and articles are not necessarily those of the newspaper. Printed by Cumbrian Newsprint, Newspaper House, Dalston Road, Carlisle, Cumbria CA2 5UA. Published by Baptist Times Ltd, PO Box 54, 129 Broadway, Didcot, OXON, OX11 8XB.

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