AUTHOR: Pepe Gálvez
PUBLISHER: Desfiladero Ediciones
GENRE: Graphic novel
READER’S NAME: Marshall MCcormick
DATE: June 6, 2022
El Partido de la Muerte is extremely timely. The story takes place in Ukraine. The first date mentioned is 10/8/1941, a Nazi meeting at the Berlin Sports Palace. Germany had invaded Ukraine the previous June 29, 1941. In parallel with the story is the German progress in Russia; Germany surrenders to Russia on 1/31/1943, near the end of the book, which also marks the beginning of Russian occupation of Ukraine until December 1991.
The “Death Match” is a true story (although details seem debatable). The story of a team of brave Ukrainian soccer players beating German soccer teams has on numerous occasions been written about, researched, made into movies and been the focus of Russian policy. All accounts deal with the soccer team of Kiev before the war, the “Dynamo”, original team members and what became of them; players were recruited to work at the bakery in Kiev and with the team name “Start”, matches were held. Differences exist as to the main players, regarding nationality (Kordik, the owner of the bakery turns out to be Czech, some players were of Russian origin, etc.) The facts are close to the same: an Ukrainian soccer team plays German teams during occupation, win and most players are tortured, placed in concentration camps and killed.
The story here: a soccer star exits the concentration camp, is befriended by a boy working at a bakery in Kiev, where a former Dynamo club teammate also works; the owner of the bakery is a big soccer fan. They search for other Dynamo team members, and soccer players from other Ukrainian teams (Lokomotyv). Ultimately, the new Ukrainian team (Start!) plays and beats German teams. Despite warnings, they continue winning and then end up in concentration camps and/or killed. Part of the story involves a love interest between the protagonist Alexei and a teacher Mariya who lives in Kiev.
Graphics: the artist does an excellent job depicting moves in the soccer games, with a grayscale palette for the most part with color highlights depicting Nazi emblems, fire, blood, with a couple panels imbued with pink denoting lovemaking. Panel size varies from small one-on-one conversations, to larger panels for the matches, and a single-page panel depicting the death of Alexei. Inserts in larger panels showing details are effective. Excellent details of Nazi emblems, Ukrainian starvation, and general destruction from the invasion, as well as its fields of grain. Striking are the artist’s and the story’s comparisons of soccer with an orchestra and ballet dancers. A page of black panels after violence to one soccer player renders him unconscious. Torture is accompanied by ‘krack’, ‘krunch’.
I think the combined topics of soccer and the Ukrainian people’s courage under duress would make this graphic novel popular with Americans of all ages at this moment. It captures their resilience, and provides a background to the current invasion by Russia. The dialogue which for the most part is minimum, relates to the times, when the characters were hungry, depressed, unsure of the future, but also appropriate for soccer players, where a few words suffice.
Making the story into a graphic novel, particularly for young people is particularly effective. It highlights the primary ideas: occupation, hunger, love for a sport, competition, This book would be a very good candidate for a school library, could be easily translated into English and the prologue and the piece on Operation Barbarossa by Pablo Herranz gives appropriate background on the German invasion of Russia. I think the piece regarding the movie versions of the story is of limited interest.
