LiberPress Award 2007

Marjane Satrapi, born in 1969 in a progressive Tehran family, lived through increasing restrictions on individual freedoms and the consequences in daily life of the political events of the time, particularly the Islamic revolution and the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. In 1983, at age 14, she was sent by her parents to Vienna, to get her away from the war and the Iranian regime. She returned to Iran, got married and subsequently divorced, and went into exile from her country. She studied at the Higher School of Decorative Art in Strasbourg. Currently she lives in Paris. Her first, great work, Persepolis (in four volumes), in which she recounts her life, that of her family and that of her country under the pressure of Islamic fundamentalism, in the form of a comic, using black and white and hardly any colour, enjoyed great critical and commercial success and has continued to do so. Her graphic style puts people at the forefront.

In 2003, she published Broderies, nominated in the best album category at the 2004 Angoulême Festival. Her latest book is Poulet aux prunes. She worked with Vincent Paronnaud on the adaptation of Persepolis as a full-length animation film in black and white. Presented in Cannes, it won the Jury Prize and has won awards at other festivals. It has been selected in France as an Oscar nomination for the best foreign language film. She is a brave, humanistic woman who courageously denounces injustice and hypocrisy (both those of her own country and those which are deceitfully disguised by Western culture with its alleged freedom).