Charlotte is an animated biopic that follows artist Charlotte Salomon through the most crucial years of her life as she defies incredible odds to create a timeless masterpiece. Born into a comfortable Jewish household in Berlin, Charlotte is a fiercely imaginative girl who draws and paints almost obsessively. But she is robbed of innocence early. When Charlotte is only eight, her mother dies of influenza. Her father, Albert, a respected surgeon, remarries a few years later to renown opera singer Paula Lindberg. In 1933, when Charlotte is sixteen, the Nazis seize power, and her world begins to change quickly, and dangerously. But defying authority is already Charlotte’s currency. She dreams of becoming an artist and, confronting incredible odds, applies for and wins a spot at Berlin’s prestigious Art Academy. As life is looking up, she meets and falls in love with her stepmother’s singing teacher, Alfred Wolfsohn. Despite success at the Academy, Charlotte is eventually expelled for being Jewish. Her love affair is faltering, and anti-Semitic fervour is mounting. Daily life becomes unbearable, and her parents decide she must leave Germany. Charlotte joins her maternal grandparents in the South of France where they live with other Jewish refugees in a villa belonging to wealthy American Ottilie Moore. Charlotte spends her days painting and looking after her grandparents. A nascent attraction to fellow refugee Alexander Nagler irks her grandfather who insists they leave the villa for an apartment in nearby Nice. Shortly thereafter, England and France declare war on Germany. In Nice, Charlotte’s life is dreary and difficult. Her grandmother becomes severely depressed, and her grandfather increasingly irascible. Then, turmoil turns to tragedy when her grandmother throws herself out a window, ending her life. 3 Devastated, her grandfather reveals the truth about Charlotte’s mother: that she too committed suicide, as did four other members of their family. Aggrieved, Charlotte now fears that she too may one day become suicidal. As an act of survival, she decides to do something extraordinary, and sets out to paint her life story. In less than 18 months, Charlotte completes over a thousand gouaches depicting the lives of her parents, grandparents, friends, and lovers. She paints away her demons in her extraordinary autobiography, and falls deeply in love with Alexander. She names her masterpiece Life? Or Theatre? and, through her art, Charlotte heals herself. In the midst of this fevered production, Nazi policies become law in France, and her grandfather’s health begins to decline. After being attacked by street thugs, he takes to his bed, frailer than ever. Sensing the encroaching dangers, Charlotte commits another extraordinary act, and poisons her grandfather. Despite everything, Charlotte is determined to believe that happiness runs deeper than suffering. And so, when she learns she is pregnant, she and Alexander marry, and settle into life at the villa. This happy existence is sadly short-lived. Only a few months later, Charlotte and Alexander are rounded up by the Gestapo. Charlotte’s creativity triumphs over her despair, but it does not save her life. At the age of 26, five months pregnant, Charlotte Salomon is murdered at Auschwitz. Life? Or Theatre? survives the war and becomes a testament to an extraordinary life. About Charlotte Salomon Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943) is the author of Life? Or Theatre?, an autobiographical collection of paintings that has been exhibited around the world, including London’s Royal Academy, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Life? Or Theatre? is housed the Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam, and the collection is overseen and managed by the Charlotte Salomon Foundation. Other works can be found at Israel’s Yad Vashem. Many consider Life? Or Theatre? the first graphic novel. The work has inspired a live action film (1981), a documentary feature (2011), an opera (2014), a prize-winning novel (2014), an award-winning ballet (2015), and several plays. Charlotte, starring Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game, Pirates of the Caribbean) in the English version, and Marion Cotillard (Two Days One Night, La Vie en Rose) in the French, marks the first time Salomon’s story will be brought to the wide audience it so greatly deserves. About the film The idea for making Charlotte dawned on a morning run. “I had this idea that Charlotte Salomon drew her life story, so I had to produce an animated film, a film that’s drawn, of her life story,” explains producer Julia Rosenberg (Natasha, Being Julia). As simple as that, Rosenberg ran home, and immediately emailed the Charlotte Salomon Foundation inquiring about the rights. “And then I took a shower and thought ‘What have I done?’”