A rebellious and outspoken 9-year-old girl living in Iran, Marji (Mastroianni) begins to experience the crushing oppression of living under theocratic rule when Islamic militants come to power in the 1970s. As she grows older, her progressive mother and grandmother attempt to keep her hotheaded, independent streak in check. Out of concern for her safety, Marji's family eventually sends her to boarding school in Austria, where she experiences an even more surprising catharsis: a yearning for home.

Satrapi wowed audiences at Cannes and earned an Oscar nod for her heartbreaking, semi-autobiographical tale about coming of age in revolutionary Iran. Based on her own best-selling graphic novel, and voiced by a top international cast, "Persepolis" is a masterwork of personal storytelling and political memoir that's neither too brainy nor too culturally distant for Americans to identify with. Marji's difficulty adjusting to life in bourgeois Europe as a misunderstood punk teen will resonate with any high schooler, and her fiercely independent stance against the repressive social codes of Islamic Iran will captivate viewers of any age. "Persepolis" is truly a film to savor.