Persepolis

Persepolis (The title being a reference to the historic city of the same name) is a 2007 French-Iranian-American animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name (That was released in 2000), the story follows a young girl named Marji as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. 

While the first Persepolis novel depicts Satrapi's childhood in Iran, the second novel depicts her in her high school years in Vienna, Austria and eventually her return to Iran, where the author herself attended college, gets married and later divorced before moving to France, where she now presently lives. Hence, this series is not only a memoir, but a Bildungsroman (AKA, the coming of age literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood).

Perhaps one of the most notable things about this animated adaptation is how the visual style follows that of the graphic novel itself, with the usage of high-contrast inking that is first seen in Satrapi's novels. The visual style definitely suits the autobiographical genre, especially when considering that this a painful recount of the author's fading memories. 

Needless to say, this is a beautifully done animated adaptation, especially during certain parts, where more textured ink blotches are used to portray the emotional intensity of certain scenes (And again that just suits the coming-of-age genre as the character clearly struggles with herself while being taken on a roller coaster of a ride through life, while also still trying to stay true to herself through it all).

"I had to remember many things that were extremely painful. Seeing my grandmother, who is dead, even in animation, walking- it's really something. So from a psychological point of view it was much more difficult to make Perspepolis. And it takes much longer. You have to be resistant." ~ Interview with Marjane Satrapi on Chicken with Plums 

To this day, autobiographical documentaries are most definitely one of the better known forms of documentary. Some however might consider this form of documentary to be a little bias (Seeing that the documentary itself is told through the eyes of one person, instead of being documented by someone who is not actually involved in anyway to the topic he or she is recording), and so there are definitely chances where certain events may be a little 'warped' than they actually appear to be. 

Still, that does not make this a completely inaccurate representation of what takes place during the Iranian Revolution. During her childhood years, Satrapi is particularly more focused upon how the Iranian Revolution actually affects her family (Which in turn affects her, especially when her western educated grandfather is imprisoned by the empire of the Shah for being a communist) as compared to what is truly happening outside. 

Despite being so young, she already begins to take a deep interest in revolutions and socialism, even though she is barred from attending protests due to her age. The first novel definitely focuses a lot more on how she begins to grow as a person, and how her communist beliefs begin to manifest and evolve as she interacts with her family.

As a documentary, Persepolis most definitely stands out as a poignant bildungsroman, seeing how easily invested the audience gets when it comes to watching how much Marji grows as she finds herself being taken from one place to another. While Persepolis is pretty much just one of many different perspectives when it comes to how the Iranian Revolution is viewed by those that have been involved in it in some way, it is definitely one of the most memorable and heartfelt recounts.