"Persepolis": The Movie Trivia Quiz

Answer: The opening frames in the airport are in color, while scenes from the past are black and white.

While the entire film is presented in animation, the events of the past are in black and white, as they are in Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novels. The color used in the opening and in two other current day scenes, one in the airport and another in a taxi, provides a transition between three-dimensional "real life" and the world of Marji's memory and her childhood perceptions.

Answer: The Islamic Revolution shifted power in Iran.

While all of these events took place in 1979, ten-year-old Marji was most directly affected by the Islamic Revolution in her homeland, Iran, which eliminated coeducational schools like the private French academy Marji had attended in Tehran. Laws also required women and girls to wear head scarves and modest clothing, with no signs of Western influence showing.

The election of Sadaam Hussein indirectly affected Marji's life, since the Iran/Iraq War would begin in September of 1980 and last until 1988; during this time, life became more dangerous for people like Marjane, who defied the rules, leading her parents to send her to school in Europe.

The other two events from 1979 are unrelated to the movie.

Answer: Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve has appeared in over a hundred films, mostly in French, but also in English, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for "Indochine" in 1993. As a model, Deneuve posed as the quintessential beauty of France as Marianne, appeared nude in "Playboy" in 1965, was the inspiration for Yves Saint Laurent, and has represented Chanel #5, L'Oreal Paris, and Louis Vuitton luggage.

In 2012, Catherine Deneuve and her daughter Chiara Mastroianni again played mother and daughter in the French musical movie drama "Beloved".

Answer: True

The movie includes a great deal of commentary on the history of Iran, which was known as Persia until Reza Shah overthrew the Qajar dynasty in 1925, and his son Mohammed Reza Shah continued to modernize and westernize Iran (named for its Aryan roots) from 1941 until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Marji's grandmother tells her that the family is descended from this former dynasty, and we see, numerous times in the film, the importance of their Marxist activism directed toward overthrowing the Shah.

In shadow puppet style, images are shown in black and white outlines, as the voices of family members explain the history to Marji and indirectly give the audience the historical context needed to understand the family's motivations.

Answer: Everyone will pray five times a day.

Marji has two ambitions in life: to become old enough to shave her legs and to become the last prophet in the galaxy (blasphemy to many people of faith but faithful to the child's imagination). Marji's rules are idealistic and compassionate, but when questioned by her grandmother about how these rules will be enforced, Marji falls back on authority.

When Marji is in charge, it will simply "be forbidden" for grandmothers to suffer.

Answer: A swan sculpture he made from bread

When they first met, Uncle Anoush had given Marji a swan he made from bread while in prison. This is touching, because it is clear that he had used the only materials available to him, perhaps going without food, to create an object of beauty and grace.

When he is in prison for the last time before his execution, Anoush gives Marji another swan and says that this one is the uncle to the first.

Answer: False

Marji's life in Austria is miserable, as she goes through all the awkwardness of adolescence without the support of people who love her. She almost dies while living on the streets after a series of moves. When she first arrives she is excited about supermarkets after the empty shelves in Iran during the war with Iraq; but just before her illness, we see her eating food she finds in the garbage.

Answer: God and Karl Marx

After her failed suicide attempt, we see Marjane's determination revive as she sings "The Eye of the Tiger" and goes back to university and otherwise gets back in shape. After a hilarious art class in which Botticelli's Venus is covered with scribbles to hide her body and life drawing class takes place with the unattractive model completely draped in clothing and head scarf, the audience sees Marjane try to find herself in an early marriage and make various attempts at resisting the changes in 1980s Iran before finally deciding to leave her homeland.

Answer: The Caspian Sea

Marji and her grandmother enjoy the scenery and gentle breezes on the shores of the Caspian Sea, the largest lake in the world, much like an ocean with its salt water and waves. Lake Bakhtegan, also landlocked, is the second largest lake in Iran, Lake Baikal is in Siberia, and the Black Sea - once part of a larger maritime sea connected to the Caspian Sea millions of years ago - is farther to the west and is not landlocked. Marji also visits the burial sites of her grandfather and her Uncle Anoush before leaving Iran.

Answer: "Freedom has a price."

In the film version - which covers the events of the graphic novels "Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood" and "Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return" - we are told during the airport farewell scene that this was the last time the narrator ever saw her grandmother (in the book, they saw each other one more time), and that "freedom has a price"; in the book, the story ends here.

However, the movie continues with a color scene where, as an adult, Marjane Satrapi leaves Orly Airport in Paris in a taxi and embraces her identity by telling the driver she is from Iran.

The movie ends in black and white, with flowers falling, along with a childhood conversation between Marji and her grandmother about putting flowers in her bra, softening the final impression and making it more positive and life-affirming.