IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

2 countries, 2 films worth a closer look

Among the deluge of films landing in multiplexes, two in particular should be required viewing for Americans: “Persepolis” and “The Kite Runner.”
/ Source: msnbc.com contributor

Among the deluge of anticipated films landing in multiplexes everywhere this holiday season, two in particular should be required viewing for Americans: “Persepolis” and “The Kite Runner.” Both are based on critically acclaimed novels — the first of the graphic variety, the latter an Oprah-approved bestseller — set in far away, little-understood lands that many Americans don’t know much about.

Although Americans are reading less these days, both of these books sold well enough to be translated into films that have the potential to take their deeply personal stories to even larger audiences. The two films each feature historic events from 1979 that continue to haunt us today: the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

As we head toward 2008 presidential election, you would think that moviegoers would line up for some of the political-themed films Hollywood has been dishing out. But instead, audiences have rejected Iraq war-themed films, such as “In the Valley of Elah” or “Lambs for Lions” or “Redacted” or last year’s “Jarhead,” en masse, and who can blame them?

To be fair, for a war film to provoke thoughtful reflection, there needs to be some distance. “Saving Private Ryan” and “The Big Red One” were made decades after D-Day, and the latter was directed by Sam Fuller, who as a member of the American ground forces that stormed those French beaches, witnessed the brutality of that battle firsthand.

A glimpse of life in IranNow, even as our political leaders tell us that war with Iran is still possible, American audiences can get a peek at what life was like before, during and after the Iranian Revolution thanks to “Persepolis,” an animated, French-language feature, co-directed by Marjane Satrapi from her brilliant two-volume graphic novel. Like the books, the film tells the story of how Satrapi grew up, a precocious, rebellious child among educated, secular parents during the revolution that saw the fall of the Shah (installed via a CIA-backed coup in 1953) and the rise of the world’s first modern Islamic Republic.

It’s one thing to hear the President talk about spreading “freedom,” but it’s quite another to see a young girl forced to cover her hair with a black veil or to be grilled by police for putting on makeup. In the West, the Bee Gees were disposable pop music-makers; in Tehran, apparently, they were dangerous. Getting caught with a bootleg copy of one of their albums was punishable by the overly strict interpretation of Islamic law. (Who knew the Bee Gees were considered dangerous to the powers-that-be in the Middle East?)

The simple line drawings that are Satrapi’s trademark are mimicked in the film, and their plainness belies the complex emotions and history that the narrative navigates so deftly. Viewers of “Persepolis,” which has garnered awards and acclaim from various international film festivals, will see, even if only in animated form, the human tragedies that occurred daily in Tehran thanks to the repressive mullahs in the government, and the price the citizens paid when neighboring Iraq (led by a U.S.-backed Saddam Hussein) invaded their country.

Celebrity Sightings

Slideshow  26 photos

Celebrity Sightings

Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr. on the "Let's Be Cops," red carpet, Selena Gomez is immortalized in wax and more.

When your connection to a country is limited to what the media portrays, you’re automatically at a disadvantage. Watching a film like “Persepolis” — France’s official representative for the Oscars (prediction: “Persepolis” will snatch the Oscar for best foreign film; you heard it here first) — or the amazing films of Iranian maestro Abbas Kiarostami (“Ten,” “Taste of Cherry”) gives you a glimpse of the lives these people are actually living.

It sounds silly to say, but I remember thinking when I saw “Leila,” a heart-wrenching Iranian film set in contemporary Tehran by Dariush Mehrjui, just how bustling Tehran was. It hardly matched my childhood memories of how it looked on TV during the hostage crisis. Seeing “Persepolis” might be one of the few means of cultural exchange between the U.S. and Iran these days.

Illuminating life in Afghanistan“The Kite Runner,” based on Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 novel, goes back and forth between America and Afghanistan. Its story spans from mid-’70s Kabul through the Russian invasion to Afghani-Americans in modern-day California and then back again to Kabul under the Taliban. “The Kite Runner,” despite its flaws (for starters, a contrived plot), still manages to illuminate every day life in Afghanistan since the first Russian tanks rolled in late 1979.

Growing up during the Cold War, I often heard how terrible life was under the Soviets in places like Czechoslovakia and East Germany. But until I read Milan Kundera’s incomparable novel, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (or watched Philip Kaufman’s serviceable 1988 film adaptation) or last year’s best foreign film winner “The Lives of Others,” I didn’t fully understand the personal stories of those affected. How could I?

We know our government funneled money to the Islamic muhjadeen fighters who opposed the Soviets in Afghanistan, but did we know what was really happening in those countries? That’s where stories like “Persepolis” and “The Kite Runner” can help illuminate and personalize history.

Maybe that’s why both books became bestsellers. Maybe, given the importance of world events beyond our shores, Americans are hungry for knowledge of the daily lives of ordinary people who they only know through political rhetoric and headlines. Perhaps that’s why Hollywood’s Iraq war films fail at the box office: people don’t want agitprop, they want human stories that they can relate to.

It is a sign of the times, and perhaps a reason for hope, in this seemingly endless political season, that these two stories have found their way into multiplexes, giving us a peek at what life is like in other parts of the world.

Like it or not, historical events define our post-9/11 World. It would serve us well to gain an understanding of the people and history of Afghanistan (where our military has been committed to since late 2001) and Iran (which the Bush Administration may still invade). If you want to learn more about these places, a good place to start might be a movie theater near you.