Marjane Satrapi, Iranian French cartoonist and filmmaker known for
'Persepolis,' dies at 56
[June 05, 2026]
PARIS (AP) — Acclaimed Iranian French cartoonist and filmmaker
Marjane Satrapi, a prominent advocate for women's rights and author of
“Persepolis,” has died at 56, the French presidency said Thursday.
“Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure of French culture and an
artist devoted to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and
earned her immense international acclaim,” the French presidency said in
a statement.
President Emmanuel Macron and his wife “pay tribute to a remarkable
artist who transformed an Iranian childhood into a universal fable,” the
statement said.
News broadcaster BFM TV and other French media reported Satrapi “died of
sadness” a little over a year after the death of her husband, Swedish
film producer and actor Mattias Ripa, according to a statement from
people close to the artist.
The French Academy of Fine Arts, of which she was a member, expressed
its deep sadness in a social media statement, paying tribute to “a
passionate advocate for cinema and film education” who earlier this year
created a foundation to help international students come to Paris to
study film.
Satrapi is best known for her monochrome autobiographical comic book and
film “Persepolis,” a coming-of-age tale set against the Islamic
Revolution in her native Iran.
“Persepolis” won the Film Critics Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival
in 2007 and the César award for best adapted screenplay in 2008, in
addition to being nominated for best animated feature at the 2008
Oscars.
The film, which details her life in Tehran as the willful daughter of
intellectual Marxists, is a reminder that Iranians are just like
everyone else, Satrapi told The Associated Press in a 2007 interview in
Cannes.
“What we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, look closer: They
have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories," she
said.
Iranian authorities at the time protested the movie’s inclusion at
Cannes, sending a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran.
Satrapi was born on Nov. 22, 1969, in Rasht, Iran, but her parents sent
her to Vienna in 1983 to finish her studies because of the extremism in
their country following the 1979 Revolution that brought Ayatollah
Khomeini to power.
But Satrapi, who found Austria hostile and who desperately missed her
parents, returned to Iran in 1989 to attend Tehran University, where she
earned a degree in visual communications.
By the time she graduated, Satrapi decided she finally was ready to
leave Iran and accept the opportunities her parents had been so
desperate to give her a decade before. In 1994, she moved to France. She
studied in Strasbourg and later moved to Paris.
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Director, illustrator and author Marjane Satrapi poses for
photographers as she arrives to present the movie "La Bande des
Jotas" at the 7th edition of the Rome International Film Festival in
Rome, on Nov. 16, 2012. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
 Her graphic novels also include
“Broderies” (“Embroideries”) and “Poulet aux prunes” (“Chicken with
plums”), which also was adapted into a film. As a filmmaker, she has
directed several works including “La Bande des Jotas” (“The Gang of
Jotas”) and “Radioactive” (“Madame Curie”), a biography about the
Polish physicist Marie Curie.
Satrapi in 2023 coordinated the book “Femme, vie, liberté” (“Woman,
Life, Freedom”) together with a group of artists and academics to
illustrate the revolts that occurred in Iran after the death of
Mahsa Amini in 2022 at the hands of the so-called “morality police.”
The work denounces the repression and lack of human rights that
Iranian society, especially women, suffers at the hands of the
Iranian regime, the foundation said.
Satrapi was elected member of the French Academy of Fine Arts in
2024. She also was offered France's highest award, the Legion of
Honor, that same year but declined it, arguing France was not doing
enough to support Iranian people fighting for democracy.
“Supporting the women’s revolution in Iran cannot be reduced to
photos or speeches,” she wrote in a January 2025 letter to French
authorities. “When people are fighting for democracy, we should
support them.”
In 2024, Satrapi won the Princess of Asturias Foundation award in
Spain for communication and humanities. The organization said she
was “an essential voice in the defense of human rights and freedom.”
The judges described her as “a symbol of civic engagement led by
women."
Satrapi's husband died in April 2025 at 53. On her Instagram page,
only one message was left in a series of posts: “Because I have lost
the love of my life.”
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