Graphic novel → Film · Direct adaptation

Persepolis (2007)

Marjane Satrapi co-directs the animated adaptation of her own memoir. Of the book's 38 chapters, 29 reach the screen, including Uncle Anoosh's execution and Marjane's homelessness in Vienna. The maid Mehri's storyline is cut, and the film is framed as a single day's flashback at Orly Airport.

Source

Persepolis · Graphic novel · 2000–2003 · 38 titled chapters across 2 English-collected volumes (originally 4 French volumes)

Marjane Satrapi (writer and artist)

L'Association

Adaptation

Persepolis · Film · 2007 · 1 film, released with French and English voice casts (same visual cut)

Marjane Satrapi (director and writer), Vincent Paronnaud (director and writer)

2.4.7. Films / France 3 Cinéma / The Kennedy/Marshall Company

TrueToPage 82 · Persepolis (2007 Original) · v0.3censuscatalog score

Marjane Satrapi co-wrote and co-directed this adaptation of her own graphic novel. Her creator-stance row reflects a participating adapter's account of her own choices, not a disinterested reviewer's.

Nine chapters (The Water Cell, the chapter titled 'Persepolis', Moscow, The Trip, The Cigarette, The Shabbat, Tyrol, The Vegetable, and The Satellite) were originally left at low evidence pending further research; a follow-up research pass (2026-09-02) resolved all nine against a film review (wsws.org), a detailed book-to-film comparison (hoflich.com), and the film's own content guide (Common Sense Media). Four resolved present (The Water Cell and 'Persepolis' condensed/kept; The Cigarette kept; The Vegetable condensed); five resolved omitted (Moscow, The Trip, The Shabbat, Tyrol, The Satellite) at confidence medium, since no fetched description of the film's content placed them on screen. None of this record's writers have watched the film directly; every call remains inferred from secondary written sources.

The French-language original and the English dub are the same picture edit with different voice casts, not separate cuts; this record treats them as one cut.

No live, dated interview with producer Marc-Antoine Robert could be fetched for this record; a Cineuropa interview with him exists but returned an access error, so his creator-stance row was omitted rather than sourced secondhand.

Fidelity

Higher = more of the source is still true. Fidelity is not quality.

Plot structure70The record maps all 38 chapters of the book. 19 are kept, 10 are condensed into the same structural position, and 9 are dropped: The Letter, The F-14's, The Pill, the early party-raid chapter The Wine, Moscow, The Trip, The Shabbat, Tyrol, and The Satellite. The axis is length-weighted by rough chapter weight. The school expulsion, Anoosh's execution, the Vienna collapse, the return to Iran, the marriage and divorce, and the final raided party occur in the same order as in the book, and no row is scored reordered.partial evidenceN = 38 beats, source weight 44

Character87The roster holds ten people. Marjane scores 90 on 10 traits, with one altered: her narration is restructured into a flashback frame. Ebi, the grandmother, Markus, Reza, God, and Kia each score 100. Taji scores 75, with one personality trait not confirmed on screen. Uncle Anoosh scores 75, with his Soviet-exile backstory not confirmed on screen while his execution is kept. Mehri, the family's maid, has all three of her traits cut and stays in the table at 0 as an omitted household member. Prominence-weighted (lead 3, supporting 2, cameo 1), the roster rolls up to 87.partial evidenceN = 10 people, weight 18

Dialogue & voice78Of 9 scored voice markers, 7 survive: the child's mixture of naive fervor and dark humor, the grandmother's blunt aphorisms, deadpan gallows humor around atrocity, God as a visible imagined figure, the high-contrast black-and-white graphic style, Marjane's sarcastic asides, and cigarette-smoking as a marker of childhood rebellion, which the film's own content guide lists. Two markers are altered. The book's sustained first-person direct address becomes a single flashback frame narrated from an airport. The family's political arguments are restyled into a flatter visual register for historical material. Both altered markers change how the narration reaches the audience rather than what is said.partial evidenceN = 9 voice markers

Theme & tone88Of 8 inventoried thematic claims, 7 survive: the revolution replacing one authoritarian order with another, personal rebellion as resistance, war's costs falling on the poor, the double alienation of exile, family as a moral anchor a repressive state cannot co-opt, owning one's identity as the story's endpoint, and humor as a survival strategy rather than disrespect. The film underlines the identity claim with its invented closing taxi-driver line. One claim is omitted: class privilege operating inside the family's own household, which the book carries through Mehri's storyline, and that storyline is cut.partial evidenceN = 8 thematic claims

Coverage76The mapping covers all 38 titled chapters of the book. 29 appear on screen in some form, 19 kept and 10 condensed. 9 are absent: The Letter, The F-14's, The Pill, the separate early party-raid content of The Wine, Moscow, The Trip, The Shabbat, Tyrol, and The Satellite. 29 of 38 chapters is 76%. The source is a two-volume memoir and the film runs 96 minutes.partial evidenceN = 29 of 38 source units present

Additions restraint94Against 29 present source beats, the film adds 2 invented beats with no source counterpart: the color, present-day framing device bookending the film at Orly Airport, and a scene of Marjane and her grandmother watching Godzilla together. Neither is a restaging of an existing scene. The other changes recorded in the change log are compressions and omissions rather than additions.partial evidenceN = 29 source beats, 2 invented

Ending

Side by side, in our words.

On the page · Persepolis

After her divorce, Marjane decides she cannot stay in Iran and prepares to leave for good. She visits her grandfather's and uncle's graves, and her grandmother, unable to accompany her, gives her a final piece of advice about staying true to herself. At the airport, she says goodbye to her parents, who faint on the way home. A brief epilogue notes that her grandmother died in 1996 and that Marjane never saw her again; Marjane settles in Paris.

On the screen · Persepolis

The film keeps the same sequence of events: the decision to leave, the family farewell at the airport, and the grandmother's death reported afterward. It adds a scene not in the book: as adult Marjane's taxi pulls away from Orly Airport in the present-day frame, the driver asks where she is from, and she answers 'Iran.'

The substance is the same: permanent exile, an unresolved relationship with home, and the grandmother's death marking the end of that chapter of her life. The film adds one invented beat, the taxi-driver exchange. The film therefore ends on Marjane naming her identity aloud, where the book ends on the grandmother's death.

Mapping

38 rows. Every source unit, including the ones that never appear.

Source unit	What happens there	On screen	Notes	Tag	Evidence
The Veil	Ten-year-old Marji is forced to wear a veil at school after the revolution and imagines herself as a future prophet.	Film, opening act	kept; the veil-at-school opening is documented as present at the start of the film	primary	strong
The Bicycle	Marji continues her private conversations with God and her family debates whether to join the street demonstrations against the Shah.	Film, opening act	condensed; God's visual presence and the family's protest debate both survive, folded into one early sequence		partial
The Water Cell	Marji learns her grandfather was a deposed prince turned communist who was imprisoned and tortured in a water-filled cell.	Film, revolution-era historical exposition	condensed; a published film review places the grandfather's Qajar-family origin, communist convictions, imprisonment, and torture in the film's account. The water-cell method itself is not independently confirmed		partial
Persepolis	Marji's father explains ancient Persian history and how Reza Shah rose to power with British backing.	Film, historical-exposition sequence	kept; a book-to-film comparison and the directors' own account both place the father's telling of the Shah's father seizing power in a British-backed coup on screen. The sequence uses shadow-theater-style Persian imagery in place of the book's line art		strong
The Letter	A family-history chapter following the water-cell backstory, before the revolution's early aftermath.	omitted	omitted; two independent secondary sources list this chapter among those cut for the film		strong
The Party	Political prisoners are released after the Shah's fall; Uncle Anoosh returns home as a celebrated former revolutionary.	Film, revolution act	kept; Anoosh's release and return are documented as part of the film's Anoosh arc		strong
The Heroes	Anoosh and other former prisoners describe their treatment and political convictions to the family.	Film, revolution act	condensed into the scenes that establish Anoosh's history and his bond with Marji		partial
Moscow	Anoosh recounts his years of exile and marriage in the Soviet Union before his return to Iran.	omitted	omitted; a book-to-film comparison source states this uncle's Russian-wife subplot was cut from the film, even though his general history and execution are retained elsewhere		partial
The Sheep	Anoosh is rearrested; Marji is allowed one prison visit, where he gives her a handmade swan and calls her the star of his life, before his execution, after which Marji furiously renounces God.	Film, revolution/war act	kept; the final visit and Marji's God-defiance are both independently documented as present in the film	primary	strong
The Trip	A shorter connecting chapter depicting a family or school trip during the early war period.	omitted	omitted; no fetched description of the film's plot, including detailed reviews and book-to-film comparisons covering this stretch of the story, places this chapter's embassy-takeover and family-vacation content on screen		partial
The F-14's	The Iran-Iraq War escalates; captured air-force pilots are released to fly missions for the new government.	omitted	omitted; two independent secondary sources list this chapter among those cut for the film		strong
The Jewels	Wartime rationing intensifies; the family hides jewels and other valuables as bombing raids increase.	Film, war act	condensed into the film's wartime-hardship sequence rather than staged as a distinct scene		partial
The Key	Poor teenage boys are given plastic keys said to open the gates of paradise and sent to clear minefields as human wave attacks.	Film, war act	kept; the plastic-key martyrdom sequence is documented as present in the film	primary	strong
The Wine	The family attends a forbidden mixed-gender party that is raided by the Guardians of the Revolution; they escape prosecution through bribery.	unclear	no source consulted describes a separate early party-raid scene. The film's one documented raided party is staged later, near the story's end, and this chapter's content appears folded into that later scene rather than kept as its own beat		partial
The Cigarette	Marji smokes a cigarette in defiance of her mother, declaring her independence as a child.	Film, adolescence act	kept; the film's own content guide lists Marjane smoking cigarettes as a teenager among its content, matching this chapter's rebellion beat		partial
The Passport	The family uses connections and smuggling to obtain forbidden Western goods and travel documents.	Film, adolescence act	condensed into the black-market sequence used for the Kim Wilde beat		partial
Kim Wilde	Marji acquires smuggled Kim Wilde and Iron Maiden posters and Western clothing, and is stopped and threatened by the Guardians of the Revolution for looking punk.	Film, adolescence act	kept; the Western-music/punk-fashion confrontation is independently documented as present in the film		strong
The Shabbat	A missile strikes near the family's Tehran home; a young Jewish neighbor, Neda, is killed, and Marji later finds evidence of the strike at the site.	omitted	omitted; a book-to-film comparison source states the Baba-Levy bombing was left out of the film, even though the film retains bombing and casualty imagery generally		partial
The Dowry	Marji publicly confronts a teacher over government propaganda, is expelled from school, and her parents decide to send her to Vienna for her safety.	Film, end of Iran act	kept; the expulsion and the decision to send her abroad are documented, and they lead into the film's Vienna act	primary	strong
The Soup	Marji arrives in Vienna and stays with her mother's friend's family before being placed in a Catholic boarding house.	Film, Vienna act	kept; matches the film's documented Vienna arrival and boarding-house placement		strong
Tyrol	Over a Christmas break, Marji's boarding-house roommate Lucia invites her to her family's home in the Tyrol region.	omitted	omitted; Lucia appears elsewhere as Marji's boarding-house roommate, but no fetched description of the film's Vienna sequences, including a detailed book-to-film comparison, places this Christmas ski trip on screen		partial
Pasta	A confrontation with the Mother Superior over Marji's behavior gets her expelled from the Catholic boarding school.	Film, Vienna act	kept; matches the film's documented expulsion after insulting a nun		strong
The Pill	Living communally with Julie's circle, Marji experiments with drugs and her sexuality.	omitted	omitted; two independent secondary sources single out this chapter by name as cut, one suggesting the sexual content was a factor		strong
The Vegetable	Marji's drug use deepens while living communally, damaging her health and relationships.	Film, Vienna act	condensed; two independent sources confirm the film keeps this chapter's marijuana-use beat, one describing it as played more comedically than in the book		strong
The Horse	Marji begins dating Markus; his mother accuses her of using the relationship to obtain an Austrian passport.	Film, Vienna act	kept; the Markus relationship and his mother's accusation are independently documented as present in the film		strong
Hide and Seek	Marji catches Markus cheating on her, becomes homeless for a stretch, and nearly dies of bronchitis before being hospitalized.	Film, Vienna act	kept; the infidelity, homelessness, and hospitalization are documented in the film's plot summary, though one secondary source describes the homelessness as somewhat compressed relative to the book's account	primary	partial
The Croissant	Recovering at her mother's friend's home, Marji decides, urged by her mother, to return to Iran.	Film, Vienna/return act	condensed into the film's transition out of the Vienna hospitalization and back to Iran		partial
The Veil	Marji returns to a still-fundamentalist Iran and struggles to readjust, reconnecting with family and old friends.	Film, return act	kept; matches the film's documented return-to-Iran sequence		strong
The Return	Marji processes how much both she and Iran have changed during her years away.	Film, return act	condensed; shown through her depression arc rather than as a separate reflective chapter		partial
The Joke	Marji reconnects with her disabled childhood friend Kia, who copes with his war injuries through dark humor.	Film, return act	condensed; the Kia reunion is retained. No source consulted places the specific joke exchange on screen		partial
Skiing	Depression overwhelms Marji; she attempts suicide twice before beginning a genuine recovery.	Film, return act	kept; the film's documented suicide attempt and recovery montage (set to a pop song) match this chapter, though one secondary source describes the depression material as understated relative to the book		partial
The Exam	Marji meets fellow student Reza; both pass competitive entrance examinations into art college.	Film, return act	kept; matches the film's documented university entrance and Reza introduction		strong
The Makeup	Marji and Reza date secretly; caught wearing makeup, Marji lies to authorities, falsely claiming a man harassed her.	Film, return act	kept; matches the film's documented makeup arrest and false-harassment claim		strong
The Convocation	Marji publicly challenges the university's sexist double standard over dress-code enforcement.	Film, return act	kept; matches the film's documented speech challenging the dress-code double standard		strong
The Socks	Marji and Reza are fined after being caught holding hands in public; their relationship shows early strain.	Film, return act	condensed into the beat that leads into their marriage		partial
The Wedding	Marji marries Reza against her own instincts and quickly comes to regret it.	Film, return act	kept; matches the film's documented marriage		strong
The Satellite	Access to a smuggled satellite dish opens Marji's engagement with wider history and politics.	omitted	omitted; no fetched description of the film's plot, including detailed reviews and book-to-film comparisons of the return-to-Iran material, places this satellite-dish chapter on screen		partial
The End	After her divorce, fundamentalist police raid a party Marji attends; a man, Nima, falls to his death fleeing. Marji decides to leave Iran for good, visits her grandfather's and uncle's graves, and says goodbye to her family, including her grandmother, at the airport.	Film, closing act	kept; the raid, Nima's death, and the final airport farewell are all independently documented as present in the film	primary	strong

Change log

The argument. The mapping above is the evidence.

Invented
The entire film is framed by a color, present-day sequence of adult Marjane sitting in Orly Airport, unable to board a flight to Tehran, remembering her life in flashback; the film closes with her leaving the airport by taxi.
not in the graphic novel, which narrates continuously in the first person without a present-day frame → Film, opening and closing sequences
Adds a single organizing question, whether to return, and a color code that separates present from past. The book narrates continuously in the first person and carries no such frame.
Attribution: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, per interviews describing the need for a single organizing axis for a film covering sixteen years of the book
Invented
A scene of Marjane and her grandmother watching the film Godzilla together, in which the grandmother makes a dismissive remark about Japanese cinema, does not appear in the graphic novel.
not in the graphic novel → Film, Vienna-adjacent sequence
One of the record's two invented beats. It adds no plot line and no character.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
Mehri's storyline, the family's maid who falls for a neighbor boy and is rejected once he learns her class status, is cut entirely.
Book 1, early chapters → omitted
Removes the vehicle the book uses to show class barriers inside the family's own household. The matching theme claim is recorded as omitted.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
The Letter and The F-14's, two Book 1 chapters covering family history and the war's early air campaign, are cut.
Book 1 → omitted
Drops two chapters from the historical and wartime sections. The surrounding beats in those sections are kept.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
The Pill, covering Marji's drug and early sexual experimentation in Vienna, is cut. The closely related Vegetable chapter is condensed to its marijuana-use beat.
Book 2 → omitted
Removes the drug and early sexual experimentation from the Vienna stretch. The homelessness that follows it is kept.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Condensed
The wider cast of Marjane's Vienna years (several boarding houses, the Tyrol Christmas trip, the communal apartment) is compressed into a shorter sequence built around Lucia, Julie/Momo, and Markus.
Book 2, early chapters → Film, Vienna act
Keeps the order of the Vienna events, isolation then belonging then betrayal and collapse, and drops the supporting detail around them.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Kept, unflinching
Uncle Anoosh's execution, Marjane's final prison visit with him, and her furious renunciation of God afterward are all kept.
Book 1, The Sheep → Film, revolution/war act
Keeps an on-screen execution of a family member in an animated film. The Sheep is scored kept at weight 2.
Attribution: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, participating adapters
Kept, unflinching
Marjane's suicide attempt and depression after the collapse of her relationship with Markus, and her subsequent homelessness and near-fatal bronchitis, are kept.
Book 2, Skiing and Hide and Seek → Film, Vienna/return act
Keeps the suicide attempt, the homelessness, and the near-fatal illness on screen. Skiing and Hide and Seek are both scored kept at weight 2.
Attribution: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, participating adapters
Tonal shift
Historical exposition delivered by Marjane's father is rendered in a distinct, flatter visual register described by the directors as closer to shadow theater, rather than the book's uniform line art.
Book 1, historical-exposition passages → Film, historical-exposition sequences
Keeps the content of the father's history and marks it visually as told secondhand. The record scores the matching voice marker as altered, not omitted.
Attribution: Marjane Satrapi, per ioncinema.com interview
Reordered
The story is restructured around a single flashback frame (the day at Orly Airport) instead of the book's straightforward chronological first-person narration.
throughout → Film, overall structure
Places the whole story inside one day at Orly Airport. The book narrates the same sixteen years in chronological first person.
Attribution: Marjane Satrapi, per ioncinema.com interview about needing an organizing axis for the film
Condensed
The film's one staged party raid by fundamentalist police, which ends with a man named Nima falling to his death, appears to absorb the book's separate, earlier raided-party-and-bribery scene (The Wine) rather than staging both.
Book 1 (The Wine) and Book 2 (The End) → Film, closing act
Stages one raided party instead of the book's two. The Wine is scored omitted and The End is scored kept.
Attribution: unknown / production decision
Omitted
Several minor social-circle characters and scenes, including neighbors who insult the family in a grocery store and the family Mali, do not appear.
Book 1/2, various → omitted
Narrows the book's social circle to the family and a small number of friends.
Attribution: unknown / production decision

People

Trait score = attested traits kept ÷ attested traits shown. Unstated traits are not rows.

Marjane Satrapi · Chiara Mastroianni (adult, both versions); Gabrielle Lopes (French)/Amethyste Frezignac (English) as a childleadAltered9/10 attested traits kept90

Nine of ten traits are preserved. The altered trait is structural: the book's sustained first-person address becomes a single flashback frame narrated from an airport. What she says and does is unchanged.

Appearance	A dark-haired Iranian girl who ages from ten to her early twenties over the story, drawn/animated in the same simple black-and-white likeness throughout.Book, throughout; film character design	preservedstrong
Identity	Comes from a secular, educated, politically left-leaning upper-middle-class Tehran family that supported the revolution against the Shah.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Body / ability	Survives a life-threatening bout of bronchitis after living unsheltered on the streets of Vienna for a stretch of months.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Personality	Headstrong and outspoken, repeatedly talking back to authority figures at school and later at university.GradeSaver: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Summary; GradeSaver: Persepolis 2 Summary	preservedstrong
Moral code	Willing to speak against injustice at personal risk, from confronting a teacher over propaganda to challenging a university dress-code double standard.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Relationships	Deeply attached to her grandmother, who becomes her main source of unconditional acceptance and moral guidance.GradeSaver: Persepolis 2 Summary	preservedstrong
Vocation / role	Enrolls in art college in Tehran after passing a competitive entrance exam.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Voice	Narrates her own coming-of-age directly, addressing the reader about her experience of the revolution and exile as it happens.the film restructures this into a single-day flashback narrated from Orly Airport rather than continuous first-person address · engl3084comicsgraphicnovel.blogspot.com; Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	alteredstrong
Arc	Moves from a child who imagines becoming a prophet, through two departures (Vienna, then permanent exile), to an adult who has made peace with her Iranian identity.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Plot function	Her public confrontation with a teacher and resulting expulsion is what triggers her family sending her abroad to Vienna.GradeSaver: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Summary	preservedstrong

Taji Satrapi · Catherine Deneuve (both versions)supportingAltered3/4 attested traits kept75

Three of four traits are preserved: her protectiveness, her politics, and the 'you can never come back' line. One personality trait is not independently confirmed as staged the same way on screen.

Relationships	Married to Ebi; a protective mother who repeatedly intervenes to keep Marjane safe, including arranging her departure to Vienna.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Moral code	Politically opposed to the Islamic Republic and, within limits she sets for safety, supportive of Marjane's rebelliousness.GradeSaver: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Summary	preservedpartial
Personality	Strong-willed and prone to visible emotional collapse under extreme stress.not independently confirmed as staged the same way on screen · no independent source consulted confirms this specific behavior in the film	alteredpartial
Plot function	Tells Marjane after her final return to Iran that she can never come back, which precipitates Marjane's permanent departure.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong

Ebi Satrapi · Simon Abkarian (French); Sean Penn (English)supportingSame4/4 attested traits kept100

Vocation / role	An educated professional man sympathetic to the leftist opposition, participating in the revolution's street protests.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedpartial
Relationships	A devoted husband to Taji and father to Marjane, working through personal connections to protect the family.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Moral code	Explains Iran's political history to Marjane directly, including foreign interference in installing the Shah's father.ioncinema.com: Interview: Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud	preservedpartial
Plot function	Helps arrange forged travel papers and medical-evacuation attempts through an underground network.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedpartial

Grandmother · Danielle Darrieux (French); Gena Rowlands (English)supportingSame4/4 attested traits kept100

Personality	Sharp-tongued and plainspoken, dispensing blunt moral judgments in a few words.storgy.com: Grandmother in Persepolis character analysis	preservedstrong
Moral code	Insists on personal dignity under repression, exemplified by her daily ritual of tucking jasmine flowers into her bra so she always smells nice.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film); Brattle Theatre Film Notes	preservedstrong
Relationships	Becomes Marjane's most trusted confidante, whose remembered voice Marjane hears at moments of crisis.GradeSaver: Persepolis 2 Summary	preservedstrong
Arc	Dies shortly after Marjane's final, permanent departure from Iran; Marjane never sees her again.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong

Uncle Anoosh · François Jerosme (French); Iggy Pop (English)supportingAltered3/4 attested traits kept75

Three of four traits are preserved: his convictions, his bond with Marji, and his execution. The Soviet-exile backstory the book uses to explain those convictions is not confirmed on screen.

Moral code	A committed communist and former political prisoner who keeps acting on his convictions after his release.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Relationships	Forms an unusually close bond with young Marjane, eventually calling her 'the star of his life' at their final meeting.Shmoop: Persepolis Chapter 9 Summary	preservedstrong
Plot function	Is rearrested by the new government and executed; his death is a formative loss that turns Marjane against God.Shmoop: Persepolis Chapter 9 Summary	preservedstrong
Arc	Had earlier spent years in the Soviet Union, including a failed marriage, which shaped his revolutionary convictions before his final arrest.a book-to-film comparison source states this Russian-wife subplot, the book's 'Moscow' chapter, was cut from the film. His execution is kept · hoflich.com: Persepolis - the book and the movie	alteredpartial

MarkussupportingSame4/4 attested traits kept100

Relationships	Marjane's boyfriend during her later Vienna years, drawn to her nonchalant, rebellious attitude.litcharts.com search summary: Markus Character Analysis	preservedstrong
Moral code	Betrays Marjane by cheating on her, which she discovers directly.search summary of litcharts/tvtropes coverage of the film	preservedstrong
Plot function	His mother publicly accuses Marjane of using the relationship to obtain an Austrian passport.search summary of litcharts/tvtropes coverage of the film	preservedstrong
Personality	Presented sympathetically at first, then recast as selfish once his infidelity is revealed.search summary of litcharts/tvtropes coverage of the film	preservedpartial

RezasupportingSame4/4 attested traits kept100

Relationships	A fellow art-college student Marjane dates in secret, since unmarried couples risk arrest for public affection.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Plot function	Marries Marjane, but the marriage ends in divorce about a year later.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Personality	The relationship sours over incompatible temperaments rather than any single betrayal.GradeSaver: Persepolis 2 Summary	preservedpartial
Vocation / role	A fellow student at the same Tehran art college.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong

GodcameoSame3/3 attested traits kept100

Relationships	Appears to young Marjane in her imagination as a personal, approachable figure she speaks with about her ambitions and fears.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Arc	Marjane furiously banishes Him from her life after Uncle Anoosh's execution, then reconciles with the idea of Him after a later suicide attempt, when a vision tells her she still has time to live.Shmoop: Persepolis Chapter 9 Summary; Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedstrong
Plot function	Functions across the story as a barometer of Marjane's faith and despair rather than a doctrinal figure.Wikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)	preservedpartial

KiacameoSame3/3 attested traits kept100

Relationships	A childhood friend Marjane reconnects with as an adult after her return to Iran.search summary of litcharts/Shmoop coverage of Kia	preservedpartial
Body / ability	Returns from the Iran-Iraq War severely disabled, having lost the use of a leg and an arm.search summary of litcharts/Shmoop coverage of Kia	preservedpartial
Personality	Copes with his disability through dark humor rather than self-pity.search summary of litcharts/Shmoop coverage of Kia	preservedpartial

Mehri → omittedcameoOmitted0/3 attested traits kept0

All three traits are omitted; two independent secondary sources state Mehri's storyline does not appear in the film.

Vocation / role	The Satrapi family's live-in maid, effectively raised alongside Marjane despite the class divide between them.u.osu.edu: Persepolis Film vs Graphic Novel; classicbutnew.wordpress.com	omittedstrong
Relationships	Shares a close, almost sisterly bond with young Marjane despite the household's class hierarchy.classicbutnew.wordpress.com	omittedstrong
Plot function	Falls for a neighbor boy who rejects her once he learns she is 'only' a maid, illustrating the family's own class barriers.u.osu.edu: Persepolis Film vs Graphic Novel	omittedstrong

Creator stance

Time-stamped. Co-creators are never collapsed.

Marjane Satrapi

co-writer and co-director; author of the source graphic novel

December 2007

Participating adapter

Satrapi described the adaptation process as needing to 'forget about the book' to make a new film narration using the same material, saying comics and cinema are different languages, and that the book and film are 'very similar and at the same time... very different, and that is the whole paradox.'

About:fidelitysource ↗

Vincent Paronnaud

co-writer and co-director

December 2007

Participating adapter

Paronnaud said writing the script together with Satrapi from the beginning was essential to the adaptation, and that the pair had to invent new visual 'codes' for the animation since there was no existing reference for translating the book's world into a film.

Paronnaud's remarks in this interview are translated/relayed by Satrapi.

About:fidelitysource ↗

No other adaptation of this source is catalogued.

Sources

Every score note points here. Wikipedia is a lead, not an authority.

referenceWikipedia: Persepolis (comics)
Original French publisher (L'Association) and years (2000-2003, four volumes); English publisher (Pantheon) and volume years
referenceWikipedia: Persepolis (2007 film)
Directors, runtime, studio, cast, plot summary, framing device, color/black-and-white structure
referenceGradeSaver: Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Summary
Book 1 chapter-by-chapter summaries used to build the mapping table
referenceGradeSaver: Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return Summary
Book 2 chapter-by-chapter summaries used to build the mapping table
referenceShmoop: Persepolis Table of Contents
Confirms the 38-chapter structure (Chapters 1-38) and full character list
referenceShmoop: Persepolis Chapter 9 Summary
Uncle Anoosh's arrest, final prison visit, swan gift, execution, and Marjane's renunciation of God
referenceUNT Library Catalog: The Complete Persepolis
Full chapter list by part (Part 1 and Part 2, 19 chapters each) and the four-French-volumes fact
secondaryioncinema.com: Interview: Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud - Persepolis
Creator-stance quotes from both directors on their adaptation approach
secondaryCommon Sense Media: Persepolis
Confirms the film retains executions, bombings, and other unflinching violent content; confirms the film's content includes Marjane smoking cigarettes as a teenager and marijuana/hash use, matching The Cigarette and The Vegetable chapters
secondaryclassicbutnew.wordpress.com: Persepolis Analysis
The invented Godzilla-viewing scene; the omission of Mehri and the mother's-visit subplot
secondaryu.osu.edu: Persepolis Film vs Graphic Novel
Omission of Mehri's storyline and reduction of the Vienna material
secondaryskelly58.wordpress.com: Persepolis Film Adaptation
The Letter, The F-14's, and The Pill named as chapters cut from the film; The Vegetable chapter's drug-use beat kept and played more comedically in the film
secondaryengl3084comicsgraphicnovel.blogspot.com: The Film Versus the Book
The invented airport framing device and taxi-driver ending; scenes cut from the Vienna section
secondarywsws.org: Nuance and depth needed: Persepolis
Confirms the grandfather's Qajar-family origin, communist convictions, and imprisonment and torture, and Uncle Anoosh's Soviet exile and Stalinist convictions, are part of the film's account
secondaryhoflich.com: Persepolis - the book and the movie
Confirms the father's Reza Shah historical account is kept on screen with added Persian imagery, and that the Baba-Levy bombing (The Shabbat) and Uncle Anoosh's Russian-wife subplot (Moscow) are cut from the film

Record persepolis-graphic-novel-to-2007 · schema 0.2 · scoring 0.3-census · completeness census. Fidelity is not quality; the score is not a review.