Already Oscar-nominated for the PERSEPOLIS film she co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi is mostly sticking to the film medium for now. The trailer and poster for a film based on her graphic novel CHICKEN WITH PLUMS is now out. Once again co-directed by Satrapi and Paronnaud (aka Winschluss), this time, instead of animation, the duo are using live action to tell the story of a violinist in 1958 Tehran:

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Since his beloved violin was broken, Nasser Ali Khan, one of the most renowned musicians of his day, has lost all taste for life. Finding no instrument worthy of replacing it, he decides to confine himself to bed to await death. As he hopes for its arrival, he plunges into deep reveries, with dreams as melancholic as they are joyous, taking him back to his youth and even to a conversation with Azrael, the Angel of Death, who reveals the future of his children. As pieces of the puzzle gradually fit together, the poignant secret of his life comes to light: a wonderful story of love which inspired his genius and his music.


The cartoonist-turned-director phenomenon has definitely taken hold in France, anyway, with Joann Sfar established as an acclaimed indie filmmaker—his biography of Serge Gainsbourg was screened here last year.

Sony Pictures Classics will release CHICKEN WITH PLUMS in the US on August 17.

Via Cartoon Brew

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