שרלוט המוכשרת והיצירתית חולמת להפוך לאמנית. אהובה הראשון מריע לכישרונה, מה שמחזק אף יותר את רצונה להגשים את חלומותיה. אך העולם מסביבה משתנה במהרה ונעשה מסוכן יותר, עובדה המגבילה את האופציות של שרלוט וממזערת את חלומה. כאשר האנטישמיות גוברת היא עוזבת את ברלין לדרום צרפת הבטוחה. שם היא מתחילה לצייר בשנית ומוצאת אהבה חדשה. אך עבודתה שוב נעצרת, הפעם עקב טרגדיה משפחתית החושפת סוד אפל עוד יותר. בעוד שרלוט מאמינה שרק כוח עליון יוכל להציל אותה, היא מתחילה את המסע האדיר של ציור סיפור חייה.
In 1939, Charlotte Salomon leaves Berlin to seek refuge at her grandparents' villa in the south of France. A little later, war breaks out, and Charlotte must, besides forgetting all she left behind, deal with her grandmother's depression, and her mother's suicide. To fight despair, Charlotte starts to paint, producing over one thousand images. "Is my life real, or is it theater?" This is the title she gives her body of work, which highlights her former life in Berlin. She finds herself though her art, but in 1943 is deported to Germany and Auschwitz.
A WWII-set film about the short and prolific life of the German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon, who died in Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 26.
A stunningly-crafted documentary that brings to life German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon in all her yearning for love and creative expression, her struggle to come to terms with her family history, and whose passion for beauty came face-to-face with the harsh reality of 1940s Europe. The title of this film comes from her remarkable 700-page painted life story in which she asks, “Where does life stop and art begin?” Director Franz Weisz masterfully weaves together interviews with people who knew her, family photographs, excerpts from a 1980 biopic, images of Charlotte’s vibrant paintings and a previously-unknown letter containing a shocking revelation.
Shortly after World War II, over 1,000 paintings were found in a cellar in southern France. The paintings were created by a young Jewish woman named Charlotte Salomon. She painted her turbulent life story in a unique creation called: ‘Life? Or Theater? – A Tri-Colored Operetta.’ Death and the Maiden unravels the story behind her creation.
Portrait of the German and Jewish painter who lived during the war in the south of France, in Villefranche-sur-Mer, where she painted 769 gouaches which recount her life, from her childhood, the suicide of her mother, her relationship to her father, to her mother-in-law, the singer Paula Lindberg, to a teacher whom she was secretly in love with, her flight to France, the reunion with her grandparents, until her arrest by the Gestapo who sent her to Auschwitz where she was assassinated in 1943.