Prominent French-Iranian writer and illustrator Marjan Chatrapi, creator of the world-renowned autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, has died. He died at the age of 56 in Paris, France. Chatrapee’s family and close friends confirmed the news of his death.
According to her relatives, Marjan Satrapi died exactly one year after the death of her beloved husband Matias Ripa, unable to bear the deep grief.
Producer, actor and screenwriter Matthias Ripper died on April 8.
His classic work Persepolis was later made into an animated film and was widely acclaimed around the world. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and was nominated for an Oscar. Born in Rashad, Iran on November 22, 1969, Chatrapee was a vocal critic of his country’s conservative regime. He gained worldwide fame with the Persepolis graphic novel. The book chronicles his childhood struggles in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and growing up under the harsh restrictions of the time. At one point in his life, his parents sent him to live abroad in Europe.
Chatrapee later adapted his graphic novel into an animated film in collaboration with Vincent Pernod. It won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival along with Silent Light. The film was nominated for Best International Feature Film and Best Animated Feature Film at the 80th Academy Awards. Marjan Chatterjee became the first woman to be nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars.
Chatrapee’s other notable works include his graphic novel Chicken with Plums, of which he also directed the film version with Paranode. Ryan Reynolds’ comedy-horror The Voices and the 2019 biopic Radioactive, based on the life of two-time Nobel laureate Marie Curie, were also examples of his creativity.
Her last work was Woman, Life, Freedom, published in 2024. He was a key supporter of the cutoff protests against the death of Mahcha Amini in Iran two years ago. At that time, he commented that the women, life, freedom movement is actually a cultural revolution. In 1994, Chatrapee moved to France and became a French citizen in 2006.