French-Iranian director and writer Marjane Satrapi has died at the age of 56

Popular Iranian-French cartoonist and filmmaker Marjane Satrapi, a prominent advocate for women’s rights, has died at the age of 56, the French presidency said Thursday.

“His passing means the loss of a master of French culture and an artist dedicated to freedom, whose work has a universal message and earned him worldwide recognition,” the presidency said in a statement.

President Emmanuel Macron and his wife “honor the wonderful artist who turned Iranian childhood into a global legend,” the newspaper said.

Broadcaster BFM TV and other French media outlets reported that Satrapi “died of sadness” a year after the death of her husband, Swedish film producer and actor Mattias Ripa, according to a statement from people close to the singer.

In a statement on social media, the French Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member, expressed its deep sorrow, and paid tribute to the “passionate advocate of cinema and film education” who earlier this year created a foundation to help international students come to Paris to study film.

He refused French honors in protest

Satrapi is perhaps best known for his monochrome autobiographical comic book and film Persepolisa coming-of-age tale against the Islamic Revolution in his home country of Iran.

Persepolis won the Film Critics Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival in 2007 and the Cesar Award for best adapted screenplay in 2008, in addition to a nomination for best animated feature at the 2008 Oscars.

The film, which describes her life in Tehran as the daughter of Marxists, is a reminder that Iranians are just like everyone else, Satrapi told The Associated Press in an interview in Cannes in 2007.

“What we wanted to say is, if these people scare you, take a closer look: They have parents, they have lovers, they have hope, they have stories.”

Iranian authorities at the time objected to the film’s entry in Cannes, sending a letter to the French Embassy in Tehran.

His graphic novels include Broderies again Poulet aux pruneswhich was also adapted into a film he directed starring French actor Mathieu Amalric. He directed It is radioactivea biopic about Polish philosopher Marie Curie, portrayed by Rosamund Pike, and Wordsa dark comedy/thriller starring Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick and Gemma Atherton.

Satrapi in 2023 compiled this book Femme, vie, liberte and a group of artists and academics to show the uprising that took place in Iran after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 at the hands of the so-called moral police. The project criticizes the oppression and lack of human rights that the Iranian community, especially women, are suffering from the Iranian regime, the foundation said.

In 2024, Satrapi was offered France’s highest award, the Legion of Honor, that same year, but turned it down, arguing that France was not doing enough to support Iranian people fighting for democracy.

“Supporting the women’s revolution in Iran cannot be reduced to images or rhetoric,” she wrote in a January 2025 letter to French officials. “If people fight for democracy, we should support them.”

Satrapi was born on November 22, 1969, in Rasht, Iran, but his parents sent him to Vienna in 1983 to complete his studies because of the stability of their country following the 1979 Revolution that replaced Ayatollah Khomeini.

But Satrapi, who found Austria hostile and missed his parents, returned to Iran in 1989 to study at Tehran University, where he earned a degree in visual communications.

By the time he graduated, Satrapi decided he was finally ready to leave Iran and accept the opportunities his parents had so desperately wanted to give him ten years earlier. In 1994 he moved to France. He studied in Strasbourg and later moved to Paris.