Part Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Danila Botha’s powerful debut graphic novel, follows young Vidal who grows up in Tiberias (Ottoman Empire and then British Mandate Palestine) and moves to Paris to pursue his art and freedom and gets trapped there during World War II. Danila Botha traces the steps of Vidal’s life through Chagallian vignettes, from his Sephardic upbringing in Tiberias to studies in the Technion in Haifa, his artistic life in Paris, his work with the underground resistance, and his ultimate arrest and time in Auschwitz.
Poignantly capturing the Sephardic Jewish experience, and Like Vidal and his family, the author’s family were fifth generation Moroccan Jews who grew up speaking both Hebrew and Arabic and coexisting with their neighbours and friends.
A rich artistic and cultural experience, Vidal brings to light the untold stories of family, hope, freedom, and what their pursuit can cost. Vidal reminds us all that it’s possible for things to be different.
This book was made with the generous support of the Manitoba Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Visit Toronto’s downtown core when Yorkville was a hippy haven, Rochdale College was a centre of the illicit drug trade and bands had names like Intercontinental Ballistic Grapefruit.
