Enough ‘Waiting’ for Persepolis’ Satrapi and Paronnaud

Looking to make the pre-sales in Berlin, Celluloid Dreams will be pitching a project without having not worry about pitching a project with voice talent as Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, the duo behind Persepolis are set to embark on their second collaboration – and this time they’ll be using the Satrapi’s graphic novel source material as the basis for a live-action film.

Going by the title of Waiting for Azrael, this is based on Satrapi’s 2006’s Chicken with Plums and judging from the official book synopsis there are four main roles: a husband and wife team who’ve grown apart, the same protagonist but this time younger with a young looking woman who got away for flashbacks and quite possibly, Sophia Loren – who in the minds of many was and perhaps still is, the ultimate fantasy. The novel appears to revolve around the notion of escapism.

We are in Tehran in 1958, and Nasser Ali Khan, one of Iran’s most revered tar players, discovers that his beloved instrument is irreparably damaged. Though he tries, he cannot find one to replace it, one whose sound speaks to him with the same power and passion with which his music speaks to others. In despair, he takes to his bed, renouncing the world and all its pleasures, closing the door on the demands and love of his wife and his four children. Over the course of the week that follows, his family and close friends attempt to change his mind, but Nasser Ali slips further and further into his own reveries: flashbacks and flash-forwards (with unexpected appearances by the likes of the Angel of Death and Sophia Loren) from his own childhood through his children’s futures. And as the pieces of his story slowly fall into place, we begin to understand the profundity of his decision to give up life.