BLOOD OF THE VIRGIN

Set primarily in Los Angeles in 1971, this story follows the journey of Seymour, a twenty-seven-year-old Iraqi-Jewish immigrant film editor working for an exploitation film production company. Sammy Harkham takes us behind the scenes in Los Angeles during a pivotal period for the film industry: the decline of the major studio system and the emergence of independent cinema.
 
Seymour, his wife, and their newborn struggle to make ends meet as he tries to break into the film industry, writing screenplays in the hope that they will be bought, while dreaming of getting behind the camera. When his boss acquires one of his scripts, titled "Blood of the Virgin," and offers him the opportunity to direct it, a surreal and tragicomic creative process begins. As Seymour's blind ambition propels the project forward, his family life becomes increasingly strained. The production of the film serves as a starting point for an exploration that extends across time and space; the result is an epic graphic novel that intertwines the themes of twentieth-century America, parenthood, sexuality, the immigrant experience, the beginnings of Hollywood cinema, and, strikingly, the Holocaust.

Graphic novel in English by Sammy Harkham.