"Persepolis" and the Transnationality of Foreign Film
With the world becoming increasingly globalised by technology and transport capability, new opportunities open up for many people to extend beyond their local surroundings, to the national and the global landscape. But as much opportunity as this transnational world allows, there are also obstacles and challenges that arise from the cultural and language barriers between nations, which can hinder the transnational from becoming truly globalised. This is evidenced by various foreign films that employ themes of internationality and one’s self of belonging in that international setting, such as the 2007 French-Iranian film Persepolis , adapted from the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane “Marji” Satrapi. The title of the animated film and the graphic novel it is adapted from is a reference to the ancient capital of the Achaemenid Empire (also referred to as the First Persian Empire). The title may have been chosen to allude to a grander past version of an Iranian ci...