Persepolis (2007) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Marjane is forced to leave Iran permanently after a police raid during a party results in her friend's death while attempting to escape. Her family fears for her safety because of her outspoken nature and previous confrontations with religious police. Combined with the collapse of her marriage and the ongoing danger from government persecution, her family determines that she must flee the country to survive.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes show Marjane facing increasing danger from the religious police for challenging the regime, including her confrontations about running to class and wearing makeup.

• iran exile
• Marjane departure
• political persecution
• friend death
• religious police

Uncle Anoush was a Communist political prisoner who had been arrested multiple times for his political beliefs. After being released from prison, he visited Marjane's family and shared stories of his evasion from government forces. However, after Islamic Fundamentalists took control, he was re-arrested and executed due to his political views. His death highlights the brutal consequences of dissent under the new regime.

Foreshadowing: Uncle Anoush's stories about escaping government forces serve as a warning about the dangers of political opposition.

• Uncle Anoush
• execution
• political prisoner
• communism
• Iran regime

Marjane's parents sent her to a boarding school in Vienna because of her increasingly defiant behavior. She was secretly listening to Western heavy metal, wearing non-conformist outfits like denim jackets, and openly challenging her teachers' fabrications about government abuses. Her parents feared for her safety due to her outspoken nature in a regime that punished dissent harshly.

Foreshadowing: Her earlier act of publicly challenging a teacher's lies about government abuses set a precedent for her dangerous defiance.

• Vienna
• boarding school
• Marjane parents
• exile
• 1983
• safety

When Marjane returns to Iran in 1993, she becomes engulfed in despair over the country's deteriorating state and her family's plight. In a dream, both God and the spirit of Karl Marx appear to her, reminding her of her values and motivation to fight for freedom. This inspirational vision reignites her determination to embrace life and continue resisting oppression, prompting her to enroll in university.

Foreshadowing: This dream connects to her earlier childhood conversations with God about justice and her uncle's political sacrifice.

• dream
• God
• Karl Marx
• Marjane inspiration
• values
• resistance

Marjane hastily married her boyfriend as a survival strategy to escape scrutiny from the religious police. She had been using tactics like falsely accusing men of harassment to avoid arrest for wearing makeup, and marriage provided a form of legal protection in the oppressive society. However, the marriage quickly crumbled, especially after the traumatic police raid that killed her friend.

Foreshadowing: Her earlier desperate tactics to avoid arrest, like falsely accusing men of harassment, foreshadow her desperate decision to marry for safety.

• marriage
• religious police
• survival
• Marjane husband
• escape

The film opens with Marjane at an airport unable to board her flight back to Iran, indicating she has been exiled from her homeland. The circular narrative structure shows this present-day scene as the frame, then reveals throughout the film why she was forced to leave permanently, her activism, her defiance against the regime, and the danger she faced as a result.

Foreshadowing: The timeline shows she ultimately leaves for good after her friend's death in the police raid.

• airport
• Iran return
• exile
• present day
• Marjane identity

During a party, religious police raided the gathering. Marjane's friend attempted to escape the police and died in the process. This tragic event, combined with the collapse of her marriage, becomes a turning point that leads to her family's decision that she must leave Iran permanently for her own safety.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes show Marjane attending secret parties and gatherings that were always at risk of police discovery.

• police raid
• friend death
• party
• religious police
• Marjane trauma

As a young girl, Marjane fantasized about becoming a prophet and emulating Bruce Lee, believing she could bring justice to the world. However, after witnessing the harsh realities of political oppression, the execution of Uncle Anoush, the brutality of the regime, and the limitations placed on her as a woman, she becomes disillusioned and turns away from her prophetic ambitions, forcing herself to adapt to the oppressive new reality.

Foreshadowing: Her early conversation with God about forgiveness and not seeking justice through her own actions hints at this eventual disillusionment.

• prophet
• Bruce Lee
• childhood dreams
• Marjane ambition
• disillusionment

At the film's conclusion, Marjane recalls her grandmother telling her how she would tuck jasmine into her brassiere, allowing her to carry a lovely scent with her every day despite the oppression surrounding her. This poignant memory represents the lasting influence of her grandmother's wisdom and resilience, symbolizing how Marjane carries her cultural identity and family heritage with her even in exile.

Foreshadowing: Earlier, the grandmother reminds Marjane of her grandfather's and uncle's sacrifices for freedom, urging her never to abandon her beliefs.

• grandmother
• jasmine
• memory
• Marjane identity
• heritage
• perfume

At the boarding school in Vienna, Marjane feels deeply alienated and judged by the nuns and peers who take their freedoms for granted. Her feelings of shame intensify when her passionate romance with a charming local man ends on her eighteenth birthday when she catches him unfaithful. This combination of cultural displacement, rejection in love, and feeling judged for her background makes her self-conscious about being Iranian.

Foreshadowing: This shame contrasts with her earlier pride in her family's political activism and her uncle's sacrifices.

• shame
• identity
• Vienna
• alienation
• boarding school
• Iranian

The outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war brings devastating realities to Marjane's life. She witnesses her father being menaced by armed teenage officials and experiences the agonizing loss of her uncle, who dies because the corrupt government denies him essential medical care. The family copes by seeking solace in secretive gatherings to enjoy forbidden alcohol. The war's destruction and the regime's brutality force Marjane to confront the realities of death and oppression firsthand.

Foreshadowing: The regime's earlier repression and execution of political dissidents set the stage for the compounding tragedies of the war years.

• Iran-Iraq war
• death
• uncle death
• family struggle
• destruction
• oppression