Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, the team behind the excellent animated film “Persepolis,” are back behind the camera, this time adapting Satrapi’s illustrated novel “Chicken with Plums.”
The team’s first effort was an adaptation of Satrapi’s milestone two-part graphic novel “Persepolis,” which we called one of the best animated films of the decade.
The question of what makes a life worth living has rarely been posed with as much poignancy and ambition as it is in Satrapi’s dazzling new effort. Satrapi’s talent for distilling complex personal histories into richly evocative vignettes made Persepolis a bestseller. Here she presents us with the story of her great-uncle Nasser Ali Khan, one of Iran’s most revered musicians, who takes to bed after realizing that he’ll never be able to find an instrument to replace his beloved, broken tar. Eight days later, he’s dead. These final eight days, which we’re taken through one by one, make up the bulk of this slim volume. While waiting for death, Nasser Ali is visited by family, memories and hallucinations. Because everything is being filtered through Satrapi’s formidable imagination, we are also treated to classical Persian poetry, bits of history, folk stories, as well as an occasional flash forward into lives Nasser Ali will never have a chance to see. Each episode is illustrated with Satrapi’s characteristic, almost childlike drawings, which take on the stark expressiveness of block prints. Clear and emotive, they bring surprising force and humor to this stunning tribute to a life whose worth can be measured in the questions it leaves.
Mathieu Almaric is currently lined up for the lead role with an “A-list actress” attached for the flashback portions of the film. Given Satrapi’s dedication to exploring her culture on screen, we can expect a visually striking film and as fans of Almaric, we expect nothing less than another solid performance.
Filming is set to being this summer at Studio Babelsberg just outside Berlin. — Mark Zhuravsky
His name is Mathieu Amalric.