This is an adult animated film which follows the story of a young girl, Marjane, as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian/Islamic Revolution. When Islamic Fundamentalists “win” the elections with 99.99% of the vote and start repressing Iranian society by imposing strict Islamic law, the government then forces women to dress modestly and wear headscarves, and Marjane’s friends start to get arrested and executed for their political beliefs, as well as thousands of Iranians flee the new regime to Europe or the USA. With this, Marjane gets upset that God did nothing to prevent such disasters and rejects her faith. As the regime oppresses more and more its society, Marji grows up wanting to defy it, so she secretly starts buying Western heavy metal music, wearing unorthodox clothes such as a denim jacket. Fearing that she’ll get arrested, Marjane’s parents send her to a French lycée in Vienna, Austria, where she is free and safe to express herself, but she feels like she’s surrounded by superficial people who take their freedom for granted and view her with open disdain, as she suffers from discrimination and judgement. After a period of living with difficulties, she returns to Iran with her family’s permission, hoping that the conclusion of the war will improve their quality of life, and she starts to attend university classes and parties, despite Iranian society making life as a student and a woman intolerable, Marji remains rebellious and, at some point, her family decides that she should leave the country permanently to avoid being targeted by the Iranian authorities as a political dissident.
This animated film acknowledges discrimination, gender inequality, religion, violence, oppression.
Link for IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/