"Died of sadness": goodbye to Marjane Satrapi, author of 'Persepolis', at 56 years old
The Franco-Iranian cartoonist and filmmaker had retired from the public sphere after the death of her husband
BarcelonaThe French-Iranian cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi has died at the age of 56, as announced by her family to the AFP agency. Satrapi had withdrawn from public life months ago following the death of her husband, producer and actor Mattias Ripa, who died on April 8, 2025. "Marjane Satrapi died of sadness just over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life," states the statement released by the cartoonist's family.
Born in Iran in 1969, Satrapi used her work as a cartoonist as a vehicle to denounce the restrictions and repressions of the Islamic Revolution that took place in her country in 1979. Persepolis, her most famous work, is an autobiographical account of the difficulties of growing up in a theocratic state. Awarded the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities for being "an essential voice for the defense of human rights and freedom," Satrapi revolutionized the use of historical memory in comics and never allowed herself to be constrained by trends.
Her life and that of her family were marked by the profound restrictions on freedom imposed by the Islamic Revolution of 1979. This adolescent experience was immortalized in Persepolis, her seminal autobiographical work, which in 2007 she adapted for cinema with Vincent Paronnaud. The animated film received numerous awards, including the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and the César for Best First Film and Best Adaptation, as well as an Oscar nomination in 2008 in the category of Best Animated Feature Film.
Exile led Satrapi to settle permanently in France and make Paris her base of operations, although she always kept her country of origin very present. "Iran will always be my home, even though I haven't lived there for twenty years. The sky isn't the same everywhere — the author said about the nostalgia she felt in an interview with ARA—. My past has been stolen from me, and that's why I try to reclaim it through my comics and films," she added.
Satrapi was part of the generation of cartoonists who revolutionized French comics in the nineties and early 2000s. Through Christophe Blain, she came into contact with other authors from the L'Association collective such as Joann Sfar and David B., who combined fantasy and autobiographical comics, often to explain complex family or historical situations. Among the references of these cartoonists, and also of Satrapi, was the American Art Spiegelman, the author of Maus, the comic that delved into the Holocaust from the experience of his father, who survived it. In fact, she herself admitted the impact that Maus had on her work, a corpus that besides Persepolis includes other comics also translated into Catalan such as Embroideries (2003) and Chicken with Plums (2004) and The Sigh (2004).
Despite the distance and the censorship that the Iranian regime applied to her works, Satrapi always rejected the role of victim. "I have a privileged life because I do what I want. If I dare to complain, then 95% of the population should directly commit suicide," she assured.
Satrapi was a magnetic and indomitable woman, who defended her way of life. She defined herself as a "not at all fashionable" character and with pride: "I am not a macrobiotic or an environmentalist, I don't eat yogurts with bifidus, I don't exercise, I don't plan to have surgery and I have no intention of losing weight — she explained to ARA—. I would rather die young than at 95. That way people will pity me," she assured, with her characteristic dark humor. Even so, she maintained hope in a sometimes hostile world: "What I am proud of is not having become cynical, with all that I have lived through. How do I avoid it? By believing in art, in people, in love stories."
As a filmmaker, Satrapi also directed the films The Gutsy Frog, The Voices and Madame Curie. In this last one, the author immersed herself in the diaries and letters of the Polish scientist to strip the character of patriarchal myths and show her as a tough, complex, and passionate woman, faced with the same xenophobia and sexism that continue to be prevalent today. For Satrapi, cinema had a great virtue over painting or comics: "Cinema is an emotional experience. It's a machine for creating empathy, for provoking compassion — she assured ARA. I can't change the world. I can make someone question some things for a couple of seconds, but little more," she added.