Persepolis

At Orly Airport in Paris, Marjane "Marji" Satrapi prepares to board a plane to Tehran, but changes her mind at the last moment. She spends the whole day at the airport, reflecting on her life before her departure from France. During the 1979 Iranian revolution against the Shah of Iran, Marji's upper-middle-class family participates in the rallies, though she is forbidden from attending. Marji's uncle Anoosh comes to dinner upon release from prison, inspiring Marji with stories of his life on the run from the government. The Shah is deposed, and elections for a new leading power commence; Islamic fundamentalists win the elections and impose strict Islamic law, forcing women to dress "modestly" and wear headscarves. Anoosh is rearrested and executed for his political beliefs. Over time, many Iranians escape abroad. The Iran–Iraq War breaks out and the Iranian government takes away even more social freedoms. Marji's uncle Taher suffers a heart attack and must go to England for surgery, but only those approved by the Board of Health can leave the country. When Marji's aunt seeks permission, she finds that the hospital director is her former window washer, who is incompetent and submissive to religion. Marji and her father visit Khosro for a fake passport. Khosro is sheltering Niloufar, a woman wanted for her Communist beliefs. When Niloufar is caught and executed, Khosro flees. Taher dies afterward. As she grows up, Marji buys heavy metal music on the black market and wears Western clothing. When she rebuts a teacher's lies about government abuses, she is expelled. Fearing her arrest, her parents send her to a French lycée in Vienna to live with her mother's best friend. Marjane is later sent to live in a boarding house with Catholic nuns. Marji makes few friends and feels isolated. After she insults a nun, she is thrown out. She moves from house to house until she rents a room from Dr. Frau Schloss, a former teacher with an unstable personality. One night, as she leaves a party where she lies about being French, Marji hears her grandmother's voice telling her to stay true to herself. She develops a relationship with Markus, but it ends after she catches him cheating on her with another woman. Schloss accuses Marji of stealing, and Marji leaves. She spends the day on a park bench, reflecting upon her actions and realizing she has nowhere to go. After living on the street for a few months, she contracts bronchitis and almost dies. She awakens in a Viennese hospital, where she is allowed to make a phone call home. Marji returns to Iran with her family's hopes that the end of the war will improve their lives. She grows depressed, and attempts suicide by overdosing on medication. She dreams of meeting God, who insists that her time is not over. Jolted out of her depression, she attends university and starts dating fellow student Reza. While waiting for Reza outside, Marji lies to a police officer to avoid arrest for wearing makeup, saying a man nearby who had been ogling her had made indecent comments to her. Her grandmother is disappointed and tells her that both her grandfather and her uncle died for freedom and that she should never sacrifice her integrity. Marji gives a speech during class, challenging the sexist double standard in the university's forum on public morality, but both Marji's and Reza's families are fined when the two are caught holding hands in public. Marji and Reza marry, but divorce a year later. The fundamentalist police raid a party that Marji is attending. The women are detained while the men escape across the rooftops. One of them, Nima, falls to his death. Marji decides to leave Iran again. Before leaving, she visits the graves of her grandfather and uncle. Her mother forbids her from returning, and her grandmother dies soon after her departure. In the present, at Orly, Marji gets into a taxi. As it leaves the airport, the driver asks where she is coming from. She replies, "Iran". She recalls her final memory of her grandmother.

Plot from Persepolis (film)CC BY-SA 4.0