Marjane Satrapi, the French-Iranian artist, filmmaker and graphic novelist whose acclaimed memoir Persepolis reshaped international perceptions of Iran, has died at the age of 56. Family members told French news agency AFP that she had 'died of sadness' following the death of her husband, Swedish producer Mattias Ripa, last year.
Ripa died on 8 April 2023. Later that month, a series of messages on Satrapi's Instagram account included the phrase: 'For I lost the love of my life.' Tributes have been paid from across French politics and culture. President Emmanuel Macron called her 'a great artist who turned her Iranian childhood into a universal tale.'
Born in 1969 in Rasht, Iran, Satrapi was raised in Tehran. As a teenager, her parents sent her to Europe to continue her education and spare her from restrictions under the Islamic Republic. She settled in France in 1994 and became a French citizen in 2006. Throughout her life, she was a vocal opponent of Iran's clerical establishment.
In 2000, she published Persepolis, a comic book memoir that became an international phenomenon. It told the story of a rebellious young girl navigating the upheaval after the shah's overthrow in 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The memoir sold millions of copies and challenged western assumptions about Iranian society. Satrapi later co-directed the animated film adaptation, earning an Oscar nomination for best animated feature.
Satrapi also directed five feature films, including Radioactive (2019) starring Rosamund Pike. In 2024, she returned to comics to coordinate Woman, Life, Freedom, a collaborative work examining the protest movement after the death of Mahsa Amini. She said the book was 'a message to the Iranian people to say, listen, you are not alone.'
