A new animated biopic voiced by Keira Knightley, Charlotte, has a brand new trailer.
The story centers around the life of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish painter who was ultimately murdered in Auschwitz at the age of 26, Variety noted.
The trailer touts Salomon as having birthed the graphic novel when she crafted a 769-page autobiographical work of a series of water color paintings while hiding in the South of France.
Originally from Berlin, she had to flee Germany when violent mobs took to the streets to enforce anti-Semitic policies sweeping the country during World War II.
The film comes from Good Deed Entertainment, the studio behind Loving Vincent, an experimental 2017 film about the life of painter Vincent van Gogh.
Charlotte, directed by Eric Warin and Rahir Rana, also co-stars Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn, Sam Calflin, Eddie Marsan, Sophie Okonedo, Mark Strong, and Peaky Blinders star Helen McRory in one of her final roles before passing away from cancer last year.
The French version of the film stars Inception‘s Mario Cotillard giving voice to Charlotte.
In an interview with Variety, producer Julia Rosenberg said she believes the story would connect with “young creative women.”
“It’s a war story, it’s a refugee story, but it’s really a biopic of an artist who’s been overlooked. She invented the graphic memoir, she played with autofiction and did all of these conceptual things that are now widely used. She’s one of the great artists of the 20th century.”
As a historical figure, Salomon’s life is something of an enigma that sometimes gets overshadowed by her own mesmerizing work. It was revealed in 2015, from an uncovered confession she wrote, that she murdered her own grandfather by feeding him a Veronal-laced omelet after it was implied in her writing that he may have sexually abused her, according to the New Yorker. Several of Salomon’s relatives — including her mother, grandmother, and aunt — also committed suicide, leading writer Toni Bentley to conclude the abuse may have spanned generations.
