I'm 17 & Middle Eastern, meaning that I've come to a point in life where my inevitable move abroad no longer feels like a promised trip to Disneyland but more like a bittersweet reality I cannot in good conscience avoid. Marjane's character resonated with me on an extreme level; our lives are alike in so many ways I am afraid that if I listed them all I would end up imprisoned.
The style is phenomenal, magical, truly original; the scenes regarding her uncle in Azerbaijan and the illustrations of the war particularly stand out to me. The transitions are so, so creative, especially those with swirling smoke, and the fact that it's a story about the Middle East told by a Middle Easterner, a story about a woman told by a woman, elevates it above a bar set so low it might as well be underground.
This lost a star because the pacing was completely off. They rushed through the events when this is a story that does not deserve to be rushed. I really, really wish they'd turned it into a tv show instead.
Overall, this movie made me really sad because it reminded me of all that we lost, all that the Middle East could've been, all of the people that have died and are still dying for liberty, for freedom. I would move heaven and earth to live in a parallel universe where the proletariat did in fact triumph.
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