Marjane Satrapi, creator of ‘Persepolis’, dies at 56

• French-Iranian author and film director Marjane Satrapi passed away on June 4. She was 56.

• She was best known for the book and film ‘Persepolis’.

• The monochrome comic book recounts her early life in Tehran, struggling with restrictions imposed by Iran’s Islamic leadership after the 1979 revolution before her parents sent her to Europe and she began a life in exile. 

• The movie version, co-directed by Vincent Paronnaud, won the Film Critics Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival in 2007 and the Cesar Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2008, in addition to being nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 2008 Oscars.

• Satrapi was born on November 22, 1969, in Rasht, Iran. Her parents sent her to Vienna, Austria, in 1983 to finish her studies because of the extremism in their country following the 1979 Revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power.

• Satrapi returned to Iran in 1989 to attend Tehran University, where she earned a degree in visual communications.

• In 1994 she moved to France. She studied in Strasbourg and later moved to Paris.

• Her graphic novels also include ‘Broderies’ (Embroideries) and ‘Poulet aux prunes’ (Chicken with plums), which also was adapted into a film. 

• As a filmmaker, she has directed several works including ‘La Bande des Jotas’ (The Gang of Jotas) and ‘Radioactive’, a biography about the Polish physicist Marie Curie.

• Satrapi coordinated the book ‘Femme, vie, liberte’ (Woman, Life, Freedom) together with a group of artists and academics to illustrate the revolts that occurred in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 at the hands of the so-called “morality police”. 

• Satrapi was elected member of the French Academy of Fine Arts in 2024.

• In 2025, she refused the French Legion of Honour over the country’s “hypocrisy” in its dealings with Iran.