Persepolis

If you have started to forget about what has gone down in Iran in recent months, go watch Persepolis - the wonderful film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel.

The film follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The graphics are beautiful and the story so mesmerising you forget that you are watching animation.

Iran is one place I've always wanted to travel, and came close to it a few years ago, before it all went bad again. I'd spend hours in bookshops planning the journey which was to involve Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan and a trip over the sea to Dubai to visit friends in the desert. But it just wasn't meant to be, and we chickened out when things heated up again in the middle east.

To me, the movie Persepolis depicts Iran I had imagined and the one I am so desperate to see. The beautiful snowcapped mountains framing Tehran, the people cultured and dignified, and the woman proud and strong.

So anyway, if you don't know anything about the recent history of Iran, watch the movie and learn that the past is sometimes a mirror into the future.