Marjane Satrapi

"Satrapi" redirects here. For the jurisdiction of an ancient Persian governor, see Satrap.

Marjane Satrapi
Satrapi at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
Born	(1969-11-22) 22 November 1969 Rasht, Iran
Nationality	French and Iranian
Area(s)	Artist and writer
Notable works	Persepolis Embroideries Chicken with Plums
Awards	full list

Marjane Satrapi (Persian: مرجان ساتراپی‎‎) (born 22 November 1969) is an Iranian-born French graphic novelist, cartoonist, illustrator, film director, and children's book author.

Biography

Satrapi was born in Rasht and grew up in Tehran in a middle-class Iranian family. Her well-to-do parents were highly educated members of an urbanized stratum of Iranian society. Satrapi is related to the Qajar Dynasty through her maternal grandfather, a prince of the dynasty who was imprisoned for a time after his family was overthrown. Her parents were both politically active and supported Marxist causes against the monarchy of the last Shah. When the Iranian Revolution finally took place, they were dismayed and intimidated by the Muslim fundamentalists who took power.

During her youth, Marjane was constantly exposed to the growing brutalities of the various regimes. She witnessed many family friends being persecuted, arrested, and even murdered. She found a hero in her uncle, Anoosh, who had been a political prisoner and lived in exile for a time. Young Marjane adored her uncle and greatly admired him, and he in turn doted on her, treating her as if she was his own daughter. Tragically, as detailed in Satrapi's autobiography, Anoosh was arrested again and executed; his body was buried in an unmarked grave in the prison. Anoosh was only allowed one visitor before his execution, and he requested Marjane. The loss of her uncle left her deeply upset. As a young teen, Marjane began to act out, getting into trouble with the police for breaking modesty codes and buying music banned by the regime.

Her parents grew concerned that the young Marjane, a strong-willed and rambunctious teenager, would run afoul of the strict new public codes for women. They arranged for her to study abroad, and in 1983 she arrived in Vienna, Austria, to attend the Lycée Français de Vienne. According to her autobiographical graphic novel, Persepolis, she stayed in Vienna through her high school years, staying in friends' homes, but spent two months living on the streets. After an almost deadly bout of pneumonia, she returned to Iran. She studied visual communication, eventually obtaining a master's degree from Islamic Azad University in Tehran.

During this time, Satrapi went to numerous illegal parties hosted by her friends, where she met a man named Reza, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War. She married him at the age of 21, but divorced him roughly a couple years later. Satrapi then moved to Strasbourg, France.

Satrapi is married to Mattias Ripa, a Swedish national. They live in Paris. Apart from her native language Persian, she speaks French, English, Swedish, German, and Italian.

Career

Graphic novels

Satrapi's career began in earnest when she met David Beauchard, a French comics artist who became her mentor and teacher. 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. Her later publication, Embroideries (Broderies) was also nominated for the Angoulême Album of the Year award in 2003, an award which was won by her novel, Chicken with Plums (Poulet aux prunes). She has also contributed to the Op-Ed section of The New York Times.

Films

Marjane Satrapi at the premiere of Persepolis

Persepolis was adapted into an animated film of the same name which debuted at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival in May 2007 and shared a Special Jury Prize with Silent Light (Luz silenciosa) by Carlos Reygadas. 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 an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in January 2008. With this, she became the first woman to be nominated for the award.

Persepolis was a very successful film both commercially (with over a million admissions in France alone) as well as critically, winning the Best First Film at the César Awards 2008. As such 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.

Satrapi and Paronnaud continued their successful collaboration with a second film, a live-action adaptation of Chicken with Plums, released in late 2011. A year later in 2012 directed Comedy crime film Gang of the Jotas, from her own screenplay. 2014 filmed the Comedy-horror-thriller film The Voices, from a screenplay from Michael R. Perry.

Public appearances

Following the Iranian elections in June 2009, Marjane 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.

Filmography

• Persepolis (2007) (co-written and co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud)
• Chicken with Plums (2011) (co-written and co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud)
• Gang of the Jotas (film) (2012) (director)
• The Voices (2014) (director)

Works

French

• Persepolis (2000), Paris: L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-058-0
• Persepolis v2, (2001), L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-079-3
• Persepolis v3, (2002), L'Association, ISBN 2-84414-104-8
• Persepolis v4, (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)
• Adjar (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)

English

• "Persepolis" The Story of a Childhood (2003), New York: Pantheon Books, ISBN 978-0-375-42230-0
• "Persepolis" The Story of a Return v2, (2004), New York: Pantheon Books, ISBN 978-0-375-42288-1
• "Persepolis" The Complete Persepolis (2007), New York: Pantheon Books, 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 (2011, Archaia)

Awards

• 2001: Angoulême Coup de Coeur Award for Persepolis
• 2002: Angoulême Prize for Scenario for Persepolis: Tome 2
• 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: Cinema for Peace Award for "Most Valuable Movie of the Year"
• 2008: Gat Perich Award
• 2009: Doctor honoris causa both at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the Université catholique de Louvain from Belgium
• 2013: Noor Iranian Film Festival award for Best Animation Director, for Chicken with Plums

Further reading

• Bhoori, Aisha (2014). "Reframing the Axis of Evil". Harvard Political Review

External links

• Persepolis film (2008) official website, Sony Picture Classics
• Marjane Satrapi, author at Random House
• Marjane Satrapi biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia
• "Princess of Darkness", interview by Robert Chalmers, The Independent (1 October 2006)
• Marjane Satrapi interview at Bookslut (2004)
• Marjane Satrapi interview at Powells.com (2006)
• Marjane Satrapi interview at Reviewgraveyard.com
• "Bringing Iran To The West: Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis" at The Culturatti
• The Comic World of Marjane Satrapi: Yearnings for a Lost Homeland