Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French Author Of Graphic Novel ‘Persepolis’, Dies Aged 56
PARIS, June 4 (Reuters) – marjane Satrapi, an Iranian-French artist, filmmaker and author of the autobiographical graphic novel “Persepolis,” has died at the age of 56, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said Thursday.
“His death is the death of an artist passionate about French culture and freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned him enormous international fame,” the Elysee said in a statement.
In a statement made by family members to the French news agency AFP, it was stated that she died of “sadness” a little more than a year after the death of her husband, Swedish actor, producer and screenwriter Mattias Ripa. No further information was available about the cause of his death.
Born in 1969, Satrapi spent her childhood in a communist-oriented home in Tehran. His family sent him to Vienna before he returned to Iran to study fine arts, and he later settled in France and continued his education in Strasbourg.
He drew on his life of revolution, exile and return in “Persepolis,” his stark black-and-white memoir about his childhood during and after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The book was an international success and was later adapted into an animated film, winning the jury prize at Cannes and receiving an Academy Award nomination.
Satrapi’s work combines political challenge with dark humor and a stark visual style, making him one of the best-known comics of his generation. He directed films such as “Chicken with Plums”, “Voices” and “Radioactive” about the scientist Marie Sklodowska Curie.
Satrapi also designed Nine-metre woolen triptych showing athletes competing around the Eiffel Tower for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Satrapi has also become a prominent voice on the issue of exile, women’s liberation, and authoritarianism, often using her public platform to denounce repression in Iran.
According to reports in the French media, he rejected the Legion of Honor award, France’s highest order of merit, in 2025, citing France’s “hypocritical attitude” towards Iran.
“I cannot continue to see the children of Iranian oligarchs coming to spend holidays in France, even being naturalized, while young dissidents struggle to get tourist visas to see what the land of the Enlightenment and human rights is like,” he wrote at the time.
(Reporting by Hugo Lhomedet Editing by Peter Graff)
