Marjane Satrapi

Satrapi was born in Rasht,{{Cite web |last=Ahkami |first=Sharokh |last2=Akham |first2=Negar |date=2021 |title=An interview with Marjane Satrapi |url=https://persian-heritage.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/PH31-E.pdf |website=persian-heritage.com/}} Iran,{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/mar/29/biography|title=Simon Hattenstone interviews Marjane Satrapi, whose best-selling comic book Persepolis is now an award-winning film!|first=Simon|last=Hattenstone|date=29 March 2008|access-date=8 December 2018|work=The Guardian}} where she spent her first twenty 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.{{Cite journal |last1=Hattenstone |first1=Simon |date=29 March 2008 |title=Confessions of Miss Mischief |journal=The Guardian |url=http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/biography/story/0,,2268725,00.html |access-date=7 November 2012 }}{{cite book |last1=Keshmirshekan |first1=Hamid |title=Contemporary Art, World Cinema, and Visual Culture |date=29 March 2019 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=9781783089208 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VmyPDwAAQBAJ&dq=Lyc%C3%A9e+Razi&pg=PA62 |access-date=31 October 2021}} Both her parents were politically active and supported leftist causes against the monarchy of the last Shah. Her maternal great-grandfather, Nasser-al-Din Shah, was the Persian emperor from 1848 to 1896. 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.

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.{{Cite book |last=Satrapi |first=Marjane |title=Persepolis |date=2003 |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=978-0-375-42230-0 |edition=1st American |location=New York |page=68}} His body was buried in an unmarked grave in the Evin Prison.{{Citation |last=Satrapi |first=Marjane |title=Persepolis. 2: The story of a return |date=2005 |page=186 |place=New York |publisher=Pantheon Books |isbn=978-0-375-71466-5}}

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 fourteen, she arrived in Vienna, Austria, to attend the Lycée Français de Vienne.Bédarida, Catherine. "[http://www.lemonde.fr/cgi-bin/ACHATS/809646.html Marjane Satrapi dessine la vie de l'Iran]." Le Monde. 25 June 2003. Retrieved on 21 September 2009. 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.{{Cite book|author=Heather Lee Schroeder|title=A Reader's Guide to Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNxkRT5sWBsC&pg=PA136|access-date=6 September 2011|year=2010|publisher=Enslow Publishers, Inc.|isbn=978-0-7660-3166-1|page=136}}

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.

Satrapi was married to Swedish national Mattias Ripa until his death. {{Citation needed|date=May 2025}} She lives in Paris. Apart from her native language, Persian, she speaks French, English, Swedish, German, and Italian.{{cite web |url=http://www.ulib.csuohio.edu/cr08/author.html |title=Author Bio: Marjane Satrapi |year=2011 |publisher=Michael Schwartz Library: Cleveland State University |access-date=6 September 2011}}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/19/persepolis-battle-chicago-schools-outcry|title=Persepolis battle in Chicago schools provokes outcry|last=Flood|first=Alison|date=19 March 2013|work=The Guardian|access-date=13 March 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} 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.{{cite web | title = Les nominés d'Angoulême 2003 |language=fr| date = 10 December 2003 |publisher=ActuaBD | url =http://www.actuabd.com/spip.php?article1006 }}{{cite web | last =BDParadisio | title =32ème Festival International D'Angouleme | language =fr | url =http://www.bdparadisio.com/angou2005/angou2005.htm | access-date =28 February 2007 | archive-date =4 February 2010 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100204085800/http://www.bdparadisio.com/angou2005/angou2005.htm | url-status =dead }} She has also contributed to the Op-Ed section of The New York Times.{{Cite journal |last1=Satrapi |first1=Marjane |title=Op-Ed contributors search |journal=The New York Times |url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/contributors/?match=any&query=Satrapi&submit.x=17&submit.y=8&submit=Search |access-date=6 September 2011 }}

ComicsAlliance listed Satrapi as one of 12 women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition.{{Cite web|title=12 Women in Comics Who Deserve Lifetime Achievement Recognition |url=http://comicsalliance.com/women-lifetime-achievement-awards/ |website=ComicsAlliance |access-date=10 February 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160801110216/http://comicsalliance.com/women-lifetime-achievement-awards/ |archive-date=1 August 2016 }}

Satrapi prefers the term "comic books" to "graphic novels."{{Cite news|title = Marjane Satrapi: the Persepolis director escapes her comfort zone|url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/mar/20/marjane-satrapi-the-voices|newspaper = The Guardian|date =20 March 2015|access-date =10 February 2016|issn = 0261-3077|language = en-GB|first = Ryan|last = Gilbey}} "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."{{Cite news|title = How to film a graphic novel|url = https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/16/how-to-film-a-graphic-novel|newspaper = The Guardian|date =16 June 2011|access-date =10 February 2016|issn = 0261-3077|language = en-GB|first = Marjane|last = Satrapi}}

{{expand section | with = short descriptions of the films after Persepolis, along with their critical receptions, balancing out the subsection, representing all works fairly | small = no | date = January 2022}}

File:Marjane Satrapi mg 7536.jpg of Persepolis]]

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).{{cite web |url=http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4434938/year/2007.html |title=Festival de Cannes: Persepolis |access-date=20 December 2009|work=festival-cannes.com}} 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.{{Cite journal |title=Persepolis (2007) NYT Critics' Pick |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/351485/Persepolis/details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071205152143/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/351485/Persepolis/details |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 December 2007 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |journal=The New York Times |date=2007 |access-date=6 September 2011 }} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16126274|title=Highly Acclaimed 'Persepolis' Denounced by Iran|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=13 March 2019}} 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.Palmer, Tim (2011). Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema, Wesleyan University Press, Middleton CT. {{ISBN|0-8195-6827-9}}.

Satrapi and Paronnaud continued their successful collaboration with a second film, a live-action adaptation of Chicken with Plums, released in late 2011.{{Cite web|url=http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=136634.html|title=Poulet aux prunes|language=fr|work=AlloCiné|publisher=Tiger Global|access-date=6 September 2011}}{{Cite news |url= http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/chicken-plums-venice-film-review-231022 |title=Chicken with Plums: Venice Film Review |last = Young | first = Deborah |work=Hollywood Reporter |access-date=6 September 2011 |date=3 September 2011}} In 2012, Satrapi directed and acted in the comedy crime film La bande des Jotas (Gang of the Jotas), from her own screenplay.{{cite web|url=http://www.fangoria.com/new/qa-the-voices-director-marjane-satrapi-on-talking-animals-and-a-sympathetic-psychopath/|title=Q&A: "The Voices" Director Marjane Satrapi on Talking Animals and a Sympathetic Psychopath|website=Fangoria.com|access-date=8 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054018/http://www.fangoria.com/new/qa-the-voices-director-marjane-satrapi-on-talking-animals-and-a-sympathetic-psychopath/|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=dead}}{{Citation|title = The Gang of the Jotas|url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2459758/|date =6 February 2013|access-date =10 February 2016|first = Marjane|last = Satrapi}}

In 2014, Satrapi directed the comedy-horror film The Voices, from a screenplay by Michael R. Perry.{{Cite web|title = New Stills Hear The Voices - Dread Central|url = http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/85301/new-stills-hear-voices/|website = Dread Central| date=13 January 2015 |access-date =10 February 2016|language = en-US}}

In 2019, Satrapi directed a biopic of two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie, titled Radioactive.{{Cite web|url=https://variety.com/2018/film/global/amazon-marjane-astrapi-radioactive-marie-curie-biopic-1202704419/|title=Amazon Boards Marjane Satrapi's Marie Curie Biopic 'Radioactive' (EXCLUSIVE)|last=Keslassy|first=Elsa|date=19 February 2018|website=Variety|language=en|access-date=13 March 2019}}

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.{{Cite web|last1=Abdollahinia|first1=Mehrnaz|last2=Issaka|first2=Razahk|last3=Jamneck|first3=Celeste|last4=Liu|first4=Yi|last5=Woldehawariat|first5=Feben Elias|title=The Soloists - Animation Short Film 2021 - GOBELINS|date=October 14, 2021|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIyLRnB-eCY|publisher=YouTube}}

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.{{Cite journal |last1=Kellogg |first1=Carolyn |date=16 June 2009 |title=Iranian author Marjane Satrapi speaks out about election |journal=The Los Angeles Times |publisher=Tribune Company |url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/06/iranian-author-marjane-satrapi-speaks-out-about-election.html |access-date=6 September 2011 }}

In 2022, she voiced her support for the Mahsa Amini protests.{{Cite news |title= Protesters in Iran are 'beautiful and inspiring', says Persepolis creator|newspaper=The Guardian |date=9 October 2022 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/09/protests-iran-persepolis-graphic-novel-marjane-satrapi|last1=Sherwood |first1=Harriet |last2=Arts |first2=Harriet Sherwood }}

• 2001: Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award for Persepolis{{cite web

|last = Comic Book Awards Almanac

|title = Awards of the 2001 Angoulême International Comics Festival

|url = http://users.rcn.com/aardy/comics/awards/prixa01.shtml

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060505104232/http://users.rcn.com/aardy/comics/awards/prixa01.shtml

|archive-date = 5 May 2006

|df = dmy-all

}}

• 2002: Angoulême Prize for Scenario for Persepolis: Tome 2{{cite web

|title=Angoulême 2002: les lauréats |language=fr|date=25 January 2002 |publisher=ActuaBD |url=http://www.actuabd.com/spip.php?article143}}

• 2005: Angoulême Best Comic Book Award for Poulet aux prunes
• 2007: Jury Prize for Persepolis (tied with Silent Light), Cannes Film Festival
• 2007: Best Animation: Los Angeles Film Critics Association
• 2008: Gat Perich Award
• 2008: Lulu of the Year Award (Friends of Lulu){{cite web | url = http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/lulu.php | title = Lulu Award | publisher = Comic Book Awards Almanac | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130126234514/http://www.hahnlibrary.net/comics/awards/lulu.php | archivedate = January 26, 2013 | url-status = live}}
• 2009: Doctor honoris causa both at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Université catholique de Louvain from Belgium{{Cite web |url=http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/1344/Onderwijs/article/detail/469228/2008/10/29/KUL-en-UCL-reiken-samen-eredoctoraten-uit.dhtml |title=KUL en UCL reiken samen eredoctoraten uit |language=nl |trans-title=KUL and UCL award honorary doctorates together |year=2008 |publisher=De Morgan |access-date=6 September 2011 }}
• 2013: Noor Iranian Film Festival award for Best Animation Director, for Chicken with Plums
• 2024: Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities.{{cite web|title=Marjane Satrapi, Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities 2024|publisher=Princess of Asturias Foundation|url=https://www.fpa.es/en/princess-of-asturias-awards/laureates/2024-marjane-satrapi.html}}

• {{Cite comic|title= Persepolis |volume= 1 |url= |format= |date= 2000 |publisher= L'Association |location= Paris |id= {{ISBN|2-84414-058-0}} }}
• {{Cite comic|title= Persepolis |volume= 2 |url= |format= |date= 2001 |publisher= L'Association |id= {{ISBN|2-84414-079-3}} }}
• {{Cite comic|title= Persepolis |volume= 3 |url= |format= |date= 2002 |publisher= L'Association |id= {{ISBN|2-84414-104-8}} }}
• {{Cite comic|title= Persepolis |volume= 4 |url= |format= |date= 2003 |publisher= L'Association |id= {{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}})
• {{Cite comic|title= Poulet aux prunes |url= |format= |date= 2004 |publisher= L'Association |location= Paris |id= {{ISBN|2-84414-159-5}} }}
• Le Soupir (2004, Bréal Jeunesse, {{ISBN|2-7495-0325-6}})

• {{Cite book|volume=1 |title= Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood |date= 2003 |publisher= Pantheon Books |location= New York |isbn= 978-0-375-42230-0 }}
• {{Cite book|volume=2 |title= Persepolis: The Story of a Return |date= 2004 |publisher= Pantheon Books |location= New York |isbn= 978-0-375-42288-1 }}
• {{Cite book|title= The Complete Persepolis |date= 2007 |publisher= Pantheon Books |location= New York |isbn= 978-0-375-71483-2}}
• Embroideries (2005, Pantheon {{ISBN|978-0-375-42305-5}})
• {{Cite comic|title= Chicken with Plums |url= |format= |date= 2006 |publisher= Pantheon Books |location= New York |id= {{ISBN|978-0-375-42415-1}} }}
• Monsters Are Afraid of the Moon (2006, Bloomsbury, {{ISBN|1-58234-744-1}})
• The Sigh (2011, Archaia)
• {{Cite book|title= Woman, Life, Freedom |date= 2024 |publisher= Seven Stories Press |isbn= 9781644214053}}

{{Notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book |title=Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics |last=Chute |first=Hillary L. |year=2010 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-231-15062-0 |oclc=496610090 }}
• {{cite journal |last=Tensuan |first=Theresa M.|date=Winter 2006 |title=Comic Visions and Revisions in the work of Lynda Barry and Marjane Satrapi |journal= Modern Fiction Studies|volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=947–964 |doi=10.1353/mfs.2007.0010|s2cid=145598256}}
• Bhoori, Aisha (2014). [http://harvardpolitics.com/books-arts/reframing-axis-evil/ "Reframing the Axis of Evil"]. Harvard Political Review

{{sister project links|d=Q126633|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|s=no|wikt=no|species=no}}

• [http://www.sonyclassics.com/persepolis/ Persepolis film (2008) official website], Sony Picture Classics
• [http://www.randomhouse.com/author/43801/marjane-satrapi?sort=best_13wk_3month Marjane Satrapi, author] at Random House
• [http://lambiek.net/artists/s/satrapi_marjane.htm Marjane Satrapi biography] on Lambiek Comiclopedia
• [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/marjane-satrapi-princess-of-darkness-417932.html "Princess of Darkness"], interview by Robert Chalmers, The Independent (1 October 2006)
• [http://www.bookslut.com/features/2004_10_003261.php Marjane Satrapi interview] at Bookslut (2004)
• [http://www.powells.com/blog/interviews/marjane-satrapi-returns-by-dave/ Marjane Satrapi interview] at Powells.com (2006)
• [http://www.reviewgraveyard.com/00_interviews/08-08-18_marjane-satrapi.htm Marjane Satrapi interview] at Reviewgraveyard.com
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110708213759/http://culturatti.com/2006/09/22/bringing-iran-to-the-west-marjane-satrapis-persepolis/ "Bringing Iran To The West: Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis"] at The Culturatti
• [http://en.qantara.de/Yearnings-for-a-Lost-Homeland/17541c18094i1p169/index.html The Comic World of Marjane Satrapi: Yearnings for a Lost Homeland]
• [https://www.vogue.com/article/emma-watson-interviews-marjane-satrapi Interview with Emma Watson] at Vogue.com (2016)
• [https://www.womenofwarpod.com/episodes/episode/ac82cd62/s2e6-a-family-affair-marjane-satrapi-the-iranian-revolution-and-the-iran-iraq-war A Family Affair: Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War] by Women of War podcast

{{Marjane Satrapi}}

{{Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities}}

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Category:1969 births

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