Marjane Satrapi

Early life

Satrapi was born in Rasht,^[4] northwestern Iran,^[5] 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.^[6][7] 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.^[5] Satrapi has mentioned that her maternal grandfather was once the governor of Gilan. When the Iranian Revolution took place in 1979, her parents had to undergo the rule of the Islamic fundamentalists who had taken power.^[6]

During her youth, Satrapi was exposed to the growing brutalities of the various regimes. Many of her family and friends were persecuted, arrested, and murdered. She found a hero in her paternal uncle, Anoosh, who had been a political prisoner and lived in exile in the Soviet Union for a time. Satrapi greatly admired her uncle, and he in turn doted on her, treating her more as a daughter than a niece. Once back in Iran, Anoosh was arrested again and sentenced to death. Anoosh was only allowed one visitor the night before his execution, and he requested Satrapi.^[8] His body was buried in an unmarked grave in the Evin Prison.^[9]

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.^[10] 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.^[11]

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.

Graphic novel

Satrapi became famous worldwide because of her critically acclaimed autobiographical graphic novels, 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.^[12] 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.^[13][14] She has also contributed to the Op-Ed section of The New York Times.^[15]

ComicsAlliance listed Satrapi as one of 12 women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.^[16]

Satrapi prefers the term "comic books" to "graphic novels."^[17] "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."^[18]

Films

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).^[19] 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.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22]

Satrapi and Paronnaud continued their successful collaboration with a second film, a live-action adaptation of Chicken with Plums, released in late 2011.^[23][24] In 2012, Satrapi directed and acted in the comedy crime film La bande des Jotas (Gang of the Jotas), from her own screenplay.^[25][26]

In 2014, Satrapi directed the comedy-horror film The Voices, from a screenplay by Michael R. Perry.^[27] Notably, this film starred actors Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick, and Gemma Arterton.^[28]

In 2019, Satrapi directed a biopic of two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, titled Radioactive.^[29]

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.^[30]

In 2024, Satrapi directed Dear Paris (Paradis Paris) which was featured at the Torino Film Festival.^[31][32][33]

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.^[34]

In 2022, she voiced her support for the Mahsa Amini protests.^[35] 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.^[36] She believes in the Women, Life, Freedom movement as a cultural revolution.^[37] She also supports protests for freedom and rights against the regime in Iran.^[38][39] In January 2025, Satrapi refused the prestigious Légion d'honneur (France's highest official award), citing French hypocrisy towards Iran.^[40] 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."^[41]

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 2-3788-0378-8)^[49]

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 9781644214053.