Oscar-nominated Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi dies aged 56

French-Iranian author, director, illustrator and activist Marjane Satrapi, best known for her graphic novel series and film Persepolis, has died aged 56, the Élysée Palace in Paris has confirmed.

She "captivated a global audience with Persepolis", the palace said, calling her "a leading figure in French culture and an artist devoted to freedom, whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international renown".

Persepolis, first published in 2000, follows the story of a young girl who comes of age during the Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution. Eight years later it was nominated for best animated feature at the Oscars, having been co-directed by Satrapi.

News agency AFP quoted a "member of her close circle" as saying she had "died of sadness a little over a year after the death of Mattias Ripa, her husband and the love of her life".

The palace added: "With her childlike perspective, her irony, her tenderness, and her inner demons, the author created a deeply moving world with which readers identified."

Satrapi was an outspoken critic of Iran's government, and Persepolis depicts her childhood in the Iranian capital of Tehran, struggling under the rules imposed by Iran's Islamic leadership following the 1979 revolution.

It then goes on to follow her as she is sent to Europe by her parents to begin a life in exile.

The film adaptation stars Chiara Mastroianni as young Marjane and Catherine Deneuve as her mother.

Studio Canal UK posted a tribute on X, remembering the "brilliant" and "extraordinary artist and filmmaker behind Persepolis".

They noted: "Through this deeply personal and powerful film, she gave audiences a story of identity, freedom, exile and resistance that continues to resonate across the world."

Satrapi studied in Austria for four years as a teenager at the prestigious Lycée Français de Vienne.

She returned home for a period, after a serious bout of bronchitis, to find a much changed Tehran - as depicted in the second book in the Persepolis series.

She gained a master's degree in visual communication from the Islamic Azad University in Tehran, and also married but then divorced.

Her parents urged her to leave Iran and return to Europe, which she did, moving to France to further her education at the Haute School Arts Du Rhin in Strasbourg.

After more than a decade in the country, she gained French nationality in 2006, but last year refused the French legion d'honneur - the French equivalent of an OBE - over what she called her beloved adopted country's "hypocrisy" in its dealings with her home nation.