Kichka: Telling Myself
At age 67, after reaching the top of the illustration world in Israel and beyond, Michel Kichka was forced to give up his place at the Bezalel Academy in favor of the younger generation. As a cartoonist, he documented the Zionist dream and its upending: a new and enthusiastic Zionist who came from Belgium to help in the Yom Kippur War turned prophet of doom. The evolution of his cartoons reflects a general deterioration of values across Israeli society, politics, and the memory of the Holocaust. With his talent, he turned into a “rough Jerusalemite” with a Belgian accent who is not afraid to tell us the truth to our faces. To heal himself from the burden of the second generation, Kichka created a graphic novel revealing everything about his family and his father’s silence that led to a family tragedy. This work about the second generation was turned into an animated French feature film that tries to remind the younger generation of the Holocaust.