[9][10] At Orly Airport in Paris, Marjane "Marji" Satrapi prepares to board a plane to Tehran, but changes her mind at the last moment.

Marji's uncle Taher suffers a heart attack and must go to England for surgery, but only those approved by the Board of Health can leave the country.

When Marji's aunt seeks permission, she finds that the hospital director is her former window washer, who is incompetent and submissive to religion.

One night, as she leaves a party where she lies about being French, Marji hears her grandmother's voice telling her to stay true to herself.

While waiting for Reza outside, Marji lies to a police officer to avoid arrest for wearing makeup, saying a man nearby who had been ogling her had made indecent comments to her.

The present-day scenes are shown in color, while sections of the historic narrative resemble a shadow theater show.

"[11] In the end, the producers followed Satrapi's wishes and focused on interpreting her life story as depicted in her novel Persepolis.

"[11] The animation team worked alongside Satrapi to gain a detailed understanding of the types of graphic images she deemed necessary for accuracy.

[12] Satrapi's vision, according to Jousset, involved a lot of focus on the characters' natural, humane physical imperfections.

[12] Applying traditional techniques as simple as paper and ink to the production allowed Satrapi to use methods she was familiar with.

From a technical point of view, you can't make any mistakes ... it shows up straight away on the large screen".

[12] With this in mind, the animators commented on the immense hardships they faced when creating each image of "1,200 shots" through Satrapi's perspective because even though "Marjane's drawings looked very simple and graphic ... they're very difficult to work on because there are so few identifying marks.

Then the 'trace' team comes in, and they work on each drawing with ... a felt pen, to ensure that they are consistent with the line that runs throughout the movie".

[12] Although it was hard to craft realistic cartoon drawings, Jousset said the biggest challenge was staying on schedule and within budget of "6 million Euros, which is reasonable for a 2D movie made in France",[12] but that "I think the culmination of the fact that it was a true story, that the main character worked with you, that an animated movie dealt with a current issue and that it was intended for adults was tremendously exciting for the team".

The website's critics consensus reads, "Persepolis is an emotionally powerful, dramatically enthralling autobiographical gem, and the film's simple black-and-white images are effective and bold.

"[14] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 90 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

[15] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, writing that although its black and white animation "may sound Spartan", it is "surprisingly involving" and that Satrapi's story is told "caringly, lovingly and with great style".

"[16] Time's Richard Corliss ranked the film sixth on his list of the "Top 10 Movies" of 2007, calling it "a coming-of-age tale that manages to be both harrowing and exuberant".

Even before its debut at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the government-connected Iran Farabi Foundation sent a letter to the French embassy in Tehran reading, "This year the Cannes Film Festival, in an unconventional and unsuitable act, has chosen a movie about Iran that has presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts.

"[20] Despite such objections, the Iranian cultural authorities relented in February 2008 and allowed limited screenings of the film in Tehran, albeit with six scenes censored due to sexual content.

Festival director Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya said, "I was invited by the Iranian embassy to discuss the matter and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown" and "It is a good movie in artistic terms, but we have to consider other issues that might arise here.

[24] Nabil Karoui, the owner of Nessma TV, faced trial in Tunis on charges of "violating sacred values" and "disturbing the public order."