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Gripping visual drama

The Blind

Maarten De Saeger

A group of blind people takes a daytrip into the woods. They are led by Artuur, an older, sighted guide. During a rest break they talk to, but mainly past, each other. Then Artuur suddenly turns out to have vanished, leaving the group filled with dismay. Should they wait for him? What if he doesn’t come back? They try to pass the time, but they edge closer and closer to panic.

An allegory for human existence ****
Knack

Based on a play by Belgium’s only winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Maurice Maeterlinck, ‘The Blind’ is an intriguing drama that takes place at a single location. Maarten De Saeger makes the story entirely his own and portrays the nameless characters and their surroundings in many different drawing styles, which bring to life the emotions and anxieties of the group. The sparing use of colour has been carefully devised. De Saeger creates an extraordinary, haunting atmosphere, in which nothing is predictable and much is open to interpretation. His version of the story also has an open ending, as did the original play by Maeterlinck. ‘The Blind’ is an intense visual experience.

His drawings are so expressive and depict so much fear and panic that they grab the reader by the throat. A staggeringly clever comic strip
9e kunst
De Saeger rightfully claims his place within the group of distinct and talented Flemish illustrators-storytellers.
Enola