Charlotte Salomon, Life and the Maiden

The extraordinary life of Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon has inspired novels, plays, operas, ballets, and even an animated film. This new documentary offers an intimate and expansive new look at the young woman who, though she was murdered in Auschwitz at age 26, completed an astounding amount of art, including some 1,300 paintings, before her deportation. These expressive paintings take up most of the screen time, accompanied by music and sound design bringing the paintings and Charlotte to life.

Narrated as though from Charlotte’s own voice, the film delves into her youth in Berlin, her escape to the south of France after the rise of the Nazis, her love affair with a music teacher, and the creative explosion that resulted in her brilliant body of multimedia work — ahead-of-their-time creations mixing gouache, text, and music. Featuring the voice of Vicky Krieps.