Franco-Iranian author and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, best known globally for Persepolis, has died at the age of 56, according to a statement from a member of her close circle, who said she passed away “of sadness” a little over a year after the death of her husband, Mattias Ripa, described as “the love of her life.”
Born in 1969 in Rasht in northern Iran, Satrapi moved to France in 1994 and became a French citizen in 2006. She built an international reputation as a sharp critic of Iran’s theocratic system, using her most famous work, Persepolis, to depict her childhood in Tehran during and after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, before being sent to Europe by her family and entering exile.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to her, calling her “a great artist who turned her Iranian childhood into a universal tale.” The Cannes Film Festival also remembered her contribution to cinema and culture, with festival director Thierry Frémaux describing her as “an extraordinary artist and a charming woman who embodied the joy of creation and the sorrow of exile and painful memories.”
Persepolis, first published in 2000 and later adapted into an Oscar-nominated animated film co-directed by Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Satrapi said at the time, “Even if this is a universal film, I want to dedicate this prize to all Iranians.”
