French-Iranian author and illustrator Marjane Satrapi, best known for the graphic novel “Persopolis” and its 2007 film adaptation, has died in Paris at the age of 56.
Satrapi’s family and friends revealed the shocking news.
“Marjane Satrapi died of grief just over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life,” stated the press release from her loved ones.
Producer, actor and screenwriter Mattias Ripa died on 8 April 2025.
Born in Rasht, southwestern Iran, on 22 November 1969, Satrapi was an outspoken critic of Iran’s theocratic regime.
She became known worldwide for her critically acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel “Perspolis”. It recounts the story of Satrapi’s early life in Tehran, struggling under the restrictions imposed by Iran’s Islamic leadership after the 1979 revolution - before she was sent to Europe by her parents to begin a life in exile.
The comic was later adapted into an animated film, which she directed alongside Vincent Paronnaud. Persepolis premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007, where it co-won the Jury Prize alongside the film Silent Light. Persepolis was then selected as the French entry for Best International Feature at the 80th Academy Awards, where her film was also nominated for Best Animated Feature – making Satrapi the first woman to be nominated in the category.
Other celebrated works by Satrapi include her graphic novel “Chicken With Plums” (“Poulet aux prunes”), which she directed the adaptation of - also alongside Vincent Paronnaud – as well as the comedy-horror film The Voices, starring Ryan Reynolds, and Radioactive, a 2019 biopic of the two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie.
Her final comic was “Woman, Life, Freedom” in 2024. Two years prior to its publication, she voiced support for the Mahsa Amini protests, stating that the Women, Life, Freedom movement was a cultural revolution.
Satrapi arrived in France in 1994 and gained French nationality in 2006. In 2025, she refused the French legion d’honneur over the country’s “hypocrisy” in its dealings with Iran.
RIP Marjane Satrapi 1969 - 2026
