Emmanuel Guibert

Didier Lefevre was a French photojournalist who was recruited by Medecins Sans Frontieres to accompany one of their missions into war-torn Afghanistan at the height of the Soviet-Afghan conflict. The mission had to cross into Afghanistan illegally, make their way through hostile and forbidding territory on foot and then set up treatment facilities in the most remote and rudimentary of surroundings. MSF doctors treated all comers, including combatants, and Lefevre caught it all on film.

This book is a posthumous tribute to Lefevre and the MSF team, combining the photos that he took with a graphic account of their journey. It's one of the most effective uses of the "graphic novel" format that I have read; the photos that Lefevre took at the time give a photojournalistic account of scene and character, and the drawings and text tell the story behind them, while also filling in the gaps where there were no photos.

It may just have been the setting, but the graphic parts of this book reminded me strongly of Tintin in Tibet. This may not be an accident, as the text refers to Tintin at one point.

This is an inspiring and dramatic story about some unsung heroes and the travails they endured to help others. The risks they took were potentially fatal and the end notes reinforce just how big those risks were.… (mais)