ITALY PERSPECTIVE

Rome reads Satrapi through the Cannes prism — the Italian-French festival par excellence — and through the intellectual complicity that has long bound transalpine publishers to French comics. ANSA highlights the political dimension straight away: Satrapi "told the story of Iranian fundamentalism in Persepolis," a formulation that is no accident in an Italian press that usually handles the Middle East with caution. The reminder of "scenes and characters involved in the arrests and executions that followed that revolt and Khomeini's rise to power" is explicit. Internazionale (the Italian intellectual magazine publishing in translation) goes further politically: Satrapi was a "fierce opponent of the Tehran authorities" who refused the Legion of Honor in 2025 "to denounce France's hypocritical attitude toward Iran." The magazine quotes verbatim her critique of visas denied to Iranian dissidents. The Italian press also mentions Chicken with Plums (Angoulême Award 2005), Mathieu Amalric and Maria de Medeiros in the 2011 film adaptation — the French-Italian creative chain she embodied. Her 2007 Cannes dedication ("even if this film is universal, I want to dedicate this prize to all Iranians") is widely quoted. Rome reads her as an artist of resistance, no euphemisms.