Marjane Satrapi (; ; born 22 November 1969) is a French-Iranian graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director, and children's book author. Her best-known works include the graphic novel Persepolis and its film adaptation, the graphic novel Chicken with Plums, Woman, Life, Freedom and the Marie Curie biopic Radioactive.

Biography

Early life

Satrapi was born in Rasht, northwestern Iran, where she spent her first 20 days before the family moved to Tehran, where she grew up in an upper-middle class Iranian family and attended the French-language school Lycée Razi. Both her parents were politically active and supported leftist causes against the monarchy of the last Shah. Her maternal great-grandfather, Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, was the shah of Iran from 1848 to 1896. His body was buried in an unmarked grave in the Evin Prison.

Although Satrapi's parents encouraged her to be strong-willed and defend her rights, they grew concerned for her safety. In her teens by this time, she was skirting trouble with police for disregarding modesty codes and buying music banned by the regime.

They arranged for her to live with a family friend, Zozo, to study abroad, and in 1983, at age 14, she arrived in Vienna, Austria, to attend the Lycée Français de Vienne. She stayed in Vienna through her high school years, often moving from one residence to another as situations changed, and sometimes stayed at friends' homes. Eventually, she was homeless and lived on the streets for three months, until she was hospitalized for an almost deadly bout of bronchitis.

Upon recovery, she returned to Iran. She studied visual communication, eventually obtaining a master's degree from Islamic Azad University in Tehran.

Satrapi then married Reza, a veteran of the Iran–Iraq War, when she was 21, whom she later divorced. She then moved to Strasbourg, France, to study at the Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR). Her parents told her that Iran was no longer the place for her, and encouraged her to stay in Europe permanently.

Career

Graphic novel

Satrapi became famous worldwide because of her critically acclaimed autobiographical comic books, originally published in French in four parts in 2000–2003 and in English translation in two parts in 2003 and 2004, respectively, as Persepolis and Persepolis 2, which describe her childhood in Iran and her adolescence in Europe. Persepolis won the Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award at the Angoulême International Comics Festival. In 2013, Chicago schools were ordered by the district to remove Persepolis from classrooms because of the work's graphic language and violence. This banning incited protests and controversy. Her later publication, Embroideries (Broderies), was also nominated for the Angoulême Album of the Year award in 2003, an award that her graphic novel Chicken with Plums (Poulet aux prunes) won. She has also contributed to the Op-Ed section of The New York Times.

ComicsAlliance listed Satrapi as one of 12 women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.

Satrapi prefers the term "comic books" to "graphic novels." "People are so afraid to say the word 'comic'," she told the Guardian newspaper in 2011. "It makes you think of a grown man with pimples, a ponytail and a big belly. Change it to 'graphic novel' and that disappears. No: it's all comics."

Films

thumb|Marjane Satrapi at the [[premiere of Persepolis]]

Persepolis was adapted into an animated film of the same name. It debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in May 2007 and shared a Special Jury Prize with Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light (Luz silenciosa). Co-written and co-directed by Satrapi and director Vincent Paronnaud, the French-language picture stars the voices of Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, and Simon Abkarian. The English version, starring the voices of Gena Rowlands, Sean Penn, and Iggy Pop, was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 80th Academy Awards in January 2008. Satrapi was the first woman to be nominated for the award. However, the Iranian government denounced the film and got it dropped from the Bangkok International Film Festival. Otherwise, Persepolis was a very successful film both commercially (with over a million admissions in France alone) as well as critically, winning Best First Film at the César Awards 2008. The film reflects many tendencies of first-time filmmaking in France (which makes up around 40% of all French cinema each year), notably in its focus on very intimate rites of passage, and quite ambivalently recounted coming-of-age moments.

Satrapi and Paronnaud continued their successful collaboration with a second film, a live-action adaptation of Chicken with Plums, released in late 2011. In 2012, Satrapi directed and acted in the comedy crime film La bande des Jotas (Gang of the Jotas), from her own screenplay.

In 2014, Satrapi directed the comedy-horror film The Voices, from a screenplay by Michael R. Perry. Notably, this film starred actors Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick, and Gemma Arterton.

In 2019, Satrapi directed a biopic of two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, titled Radioactive.

In 2021, Satrapi starred in the French animated short film The Soloists, voicing Ava, one of the three eponymous sisters fighting to express their musical talents in a country with blatantly sexist laws.

In 2024, Satrapi directed Dear Paris (Paradis Paris) which was featured at the Torino Film Festival.

Political activism

Following the Iranian elections in June 2009, Satrapi and Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf appeared before Green Party members in the European Parliament to present a document allegedly received from a member of the Iranian electoral commission claiming that the reform candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, had actually won the election, and that the conservative incumbent Mahmoud Ahmedinejad had received only 12% of the vote.

In 2022, she voiced her support for the Mahsa Amini protests. She continued on this path by directing and coordinating a graphic anthology documenting the uprising and its cultural context for Western audiences in solidarity with these women. She believes in the Women, Life, Freedom movement as a cultural revolution. She also supports protests for freedom and rights against the regime in Iran. In January 2025, Satrapi refused the prestigious Légion d'honneur (France's highest official award), citing French hypocrisy towards Iran. This discontent is in the form of France's lack of support for Iranian emigrants, as well as discontent with Iran. Even in rejection of this decoration, Satrapi said, "is in no way an action or a thought against France. On the contrary, I deeply love this country, which is my country."

Personal life

Satrapi was married to Swedish national Mattias Ripa until his death at the age of 53 in 2025. She lives in Paris.

Awards

  • 2001: Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award for Persepolis
  • 2002: Angoulême Prize for Scenario for Persepolis: Tome 2
  • 2005: Angoulême Best Comic Book Award for Poulet aux prunes
  • 2009: Doctor honoris causa both at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Université catholique de Louvain from Belgium
  • 2013: Noor Iranian Film Festival award for Best Feature Film Director, for Chicken with Plums
  • 2024: Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.
  • 2025: (Declined) Legion of Honour.

English

  • Embroideries (2005, Pantheon )
  • Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon (2006, Bloomsbury, )
  • The Sigh. Bloom Entertainment. 2011.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable"

|-

! Year

! Film

! Director

! Writer

! Notes

|-

| 2007

| Persepolis

|

|

| Co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud;<br>Nominated: Academy Award for Best Animated Feature<br>Nominated: BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language<br>Nominated: BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film

Won: The Cinema for Peace Award for the Most Valuable Film of the Year<br>Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film

|-

| 2011

| Chicken with Plums

|

|

| Co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud

|-

| 2012

| La bande des Jotas (Gang of the Jotas)

|

|

| Also actress

|-

| 2014

| The Voices

|

|

|

|-

| 2019

| Radioactive

|

|

|

|-

| 2021

| The Soloists

|

|

| Ava (voice)

|-

| 2024

| Dear Paris (Paradis Paris)

|

|

| Screenplay written with Marie Madinier

|-

|}

See also

  • List of Iranian women in design

Notes

References

Further reading

  • Bhoori, Aisha (2014). "Reframing the Axis of Evil" . Harvard Political Review
  • Patricia Storace: A Double Life in Black and White, The Perseopolis books and Satrapi's early life in exile, New York Review of Books, April 7, 2005
  • Persepolis film (2008) official website, Sony Picture Classics
  • Marjane Satrapi, author at Random House
  • Marjane Satrapi biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
  • "Princess of Darkness", interview by Robert Chalmers, The Independent (1 October 2006)
  • Marjane Satrapi interview at Bookslut (2004)
  • Marjane Satrapi interview at Powells.com (2006)
  • Marjane Satrapi interview at Reviewgraveyard.com
  • "Bringing Iran To The West: Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis" at The Culturatti
  • The Comic World of Marjane Satrapi: Yearnings for a Lost Homeland
  • Interview with Emma Watson at Vogue.com (2016)
  • A Family Affair: Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War by Women of War podcast