REORIENT:

If I had thought Satrapi was cool back then, her coolness took on new and extraordinary proportions during our chat. At times, I felt as if I was talking to myself; she was taking words out of my mouth before I uttered them, and spoke with frustration about the same issues that had long been bothering me. Is she for real? I kept asking myself, trying not to lose focus at the same time; it was almost cathartic. At a time when belittling our culture and identity has become fashionable amongst so many Iranians (predominantly in the West, as I’ve witnessed), Satrapi’s words mean a lot; so much so, in fact, that I completely forgot to ask her about her upcoming star-studded film, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir. But who wants to talk about work when you can talk about ice cream and Omar Khayyam? And I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect ending to our conversation. Shortly before we said our goodbyes, we’d ended up talking about the ‘haters’ again, and I said something(I can’t remember exactly what) along the lines of , ‘I just don’t get these people …’ Her response?

‘Fuck them.’

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