Marjane Satrapi

Comics

Satrapi became famous worldwide for her autobiographical comic books, originally published in French in four parts from 2000 to 2003 and in English in two parts in 2003 and 2004, respectively, as Persepolis and Persepolis 2. They depict her childhood in Iran and adolescence in Europe following the Iranian revolution.^[18]

Satrapi preferred the term "comic book" to "graphic novel".^[19] "People are so afraid to say the word 'comic'", she told The Guardian 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."^[20]

In 2019, Persepolis ranked 47th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.^[21] In 2024, it ranked 48th on the New York Times's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.^[22]

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 its graphic language and violence. The ban incited protests and controversy.^[23] Her later publication Embroideries (Broderies) was also nominated for the Angoulême Album of the Year award in 2003, an award her graphic novel Chicken with Plums (Poulet aux prunes) won in 2005.^[24][25] She also contributed to the op-ed section of The New York Times.^[26]

ComicsAlliance listed Satrapi as one of 12 women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.^[27]

Films

Persepolis was adapted into an animated film of the same name. It debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in May and shared a Special Jury Prize with Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light (Luz silenciosa).^[28] 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.^[29] Satrapi was the first woman to be nominated for the award. The Iranian government denounced the film and got it dropped from the Bangkok International Film Festival.^[30] Persepolis was a successful film commercially (with over a million admissions in France alone) and critically, winning Best First Film at the César Awards 2008. The film reflects many tendencies of first-time filmmaking in France, such as a focus on intimate rites of passage and ambivalent recounting of coming-of-age moments.^[31]

In late 2011, Satrapi and Paronnaud continued their success with another film adaptation of one of Satrapi's graphic novels—the live-action comedy drama Chicken with Plums. It follows one of Satrapi's relatives' final days, as he has lost the will to live.^[32][33]

In 2012, Satrapi directed and acted in the comedy crime film La bande des Jotas (Gang of the Jotas), from her own screenplay.^[34][35]

In 2014, Satrapi directed the black comedy film The Voices, from a screenplay by Michael R. Perry.^[36] The film stars Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick, and Gemma Arterton,^[37] and follows a factory worker with schizophrenia whose hallucinations drive him to commit murder while conversing with his talking pets and the severed heads of his victims.^[38]

In 2019, Satrapi directed Radioactive, a biopic of two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie. It is an adaptation of a book of the same name. Initially intended to premiere in 2020, it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and later released online.^[39]

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.^[40]

In 2024, Satrapi directed another black comedy, Dear Paris (Paradis Paris), which was featured at the Torino Film Festival. It explores several interconnected stories of people's lives affected by death.^[41][42]

Political activism

After 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.^[43]

In 2022, Satrapi voiced her support for the Mahsa Amini protests.^[44] 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.^[45] She believed in the Woman, Life, Freedom movement as a cultural revolution.^[46] She also supported protests for freedom and rights against the regime in Iran.^[47][48]

In January 2025, Satrapi refused the Legion of Honour, France's highest and most prestigious award, citing French hypocrisy toward Iranian people.^[49] In an open letter addressed to the Minister of Culture, she explained her discontent regarding the visa policy of France [fr], writing, "I can't continue seeing the children of Iranian oligarchs come to spend their holidays in France, even become naturalised, while at the same time young dissidents have difficulty in obtaining a tourist visa to come to see what the country of the Enlightenment and human rights looks like."^[50] She wrote, "supporting the women's revolution in Iran cannot be reduced to photos with victims or celebrities during commemorations of the death of Mahsa Amini ... Iranians don't need communication, we need concrete actions."^[51] Satrapi emphasised that her rejection of the decoration "is in no way an action or a thought against France. On the contrary, I deeply love this country, which is my country."^[51]

French

• Persepolis, vol. 1 (2000). Paris: L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-058-0.
• Persepolis, vol. 2 (2001). L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-079-3.
• Persepolis, vol. 3 (2002). L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-104-8.
• Persepolis, vol. 4 (2003). L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-137-4.
• Sagesses et malices de la Perse (2001, with Lila Ibrahim-Ouali and Bahman Namwar-Motalg, Albin Michel, ISBN 2-226-11872-1)
• Les monstres n'aiment pas la lune (2001, Nathan Jeunesse, ISBN 2-09-282094-X)
• Ulysse au pays des fous (2001, with Jean-Pierre Duffour, Nathan Jeunesse, ISBN 2-09-210847-6)
• Ajdar (2002, Nathan Jeunesse, ISBN 2-09-211033-0)
• Broderies (2003, L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-095-5)
• Poulet aux prunes (2004). Paris: L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-159-5.
• Le Soupir (2004, Bréal Jeunesse, ISBN 2-7495-0325-6)
• Femme, vie, liberté (2023, L'Iconoclaste, ISBN 2-37880-378-8)^[70]

English

• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. Vol. 1. New York: Pantheon Books. 2003. ISBN 978-0-375-42230-0.
• Persepolis: The Story of a Return. Vol. 2. New York: Pantheon Books. 2004. ISBN 978-0-375-42288-1.
• The Complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon Books. 2007. ISBN 978-0-375-71483-2.
• Embroideries (2005, Pantheon ISBN 978-0-375-42305-5)
• Chicken with Plums (2006). New York: Pantheon Books, ISBN 978-0-375-42415-1.
• Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon (2006, Bloomsbury, ISBN 1-58234-744-1)
• The Sigh. Bloom Entertainment. 2011. ISBN 978-1-936393-46-6
• Woman, Life, Freedom. Seven Stories Press. 2024. ISBN 978-1-64421-405-3.