Marjane Satrapi, graphic novelist, film director, and children's book author, died today, June 4. She was 56.
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| Marjane Satrapi (photo: Mattias Ripa) |
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According to a statement issued by friends and family (via Deadline), "Marjane Satrapi died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life." (Swedish producer, actor, and screenwriter Ripa died April 8, 2025.)
Born and raised in Iran, Satrapi studied abroad for a time and then moved to France permanently in her early 20s. She was best known for her graphic novels Persepolis and Persepolis 2, which were originally published in French and then appeared in English, published by Pantheon in 2003 and 2004. The graphic novels, which Satrapi preferred to call comics, featured an autobiographical character and chronicled her difficult childhood and adolescence in the brutal Islamic Republic. The bestselling graphic novels were made into an animated film co-directed by Satrapi that was released in 2007. The film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Oscar in the best animated feature category.
French President Emmanuel Macron called Satrapi "a great artist who turned her Iranian childhood into a universal tale."
Cannes Film Festival head Thierry Fremaux said, "Marjane was an extraordinary artist and a charming woman who embodied the joy of creation and the sorrow of exile and painful memories. We mourn her this morning."
Satrapi was also well-known for her film Radioactive, a 2019 live-action biography of Marie Curie that was based on a graphic novel by Lauren Redniss and starred Rosamund Pike.
Satrapi's other work included the graphic novel Chicken with Plums, about how a musician's life falls apart after his wife destroys his violin. Chicken with Plums also was made into an animated feature.
Satrapi directed The Voices, a 2014 black comedy about a schizophrenic character who hallucinates and commits murder; Gang of Jotas (2012), which Satrapi wrote, directed, and starred in, a film that also featured her husband, Mattias Ripa; and her most recent film, Dear Paris (2024), featuring several Paris residents who have brushes with death.
Satrapi's children's books included Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon, Ajdar, and The Sigh.
Throughout her life, Satrapi remained opposed to the Islamic Republic's repressive cultural and political policies and its subjugation of women. She edited a collection of graphic stories, Woman, Life, Freedom, published in the U.S. in 2024 by Seven Stories Press.