July 12 movie: Persepolis. We saw this when it showed at the Carolina -- last year I think? -- and I wanted to watch it again because Iran has been so much in the news lately. It's an incredibly compelling autobiographical story about a woman growing up in Tehran. She's about my age, was a child during the 1978 revolution, lived through the religious repression of the 80s, then moved to Europe and experienced severe culture shock. It's very serious and also very funny.
It's kind of sad to admit this, but I learned way more about Iran from this movie than I ever did in school. I remember the hostage crisis when it was happening, but I don't remember learning much of any actual information about Iran. It was all the same kind of "they hate us for our freedom" bullshit being served after 9/11. I guess oversimplifying foreign conflicts and sanitizing our role in them isn't new.
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