Keira Knightley to voice German-Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon, who died in Auschwitz, for animated film
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Keira Knightley is lending her voice to an animated film on the story of Charlotte Salomon, a German-Jewish painter who produced hundreds of works in hiding during World War II before being deported to Auschwitz.
“Charlotte,” set for release in theaters on April 22, follows Salomon from her early years growing up in Berlin, her aspirations to become a great artist and her escape to the south of France where she lived until her deportation and death.
While in hiding with her family, she painted approximately 800 works, which became an autobiographical series titled “Life? or Theater?: A Song-play.” Amsterdam’s Jewish Historical Museum showcased them all in a 2018 exhibition, which it has kept online in digital form. (The museum previously showed many of them in 1981 as well.)
The works were inspired by her own life, which was full of tragedy before the Holocaust — several family members had committed suicide. In hiding, her grandfather turned predatorial, and she poisoned him, admitting the deed in a 35-page letter.
“Only by doing something mad can I hope to stay sane,” says an animated Salomon, voiced by the two-time Academy Award nominee Knightley, in a released clip from the film.
Her paintings were saved by family members who survived the war.
The film also stars Academy Award winner Jim Broadbent, Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn, Sam Claflin, Eddie Marsan, the late Helen McCrory, Academy Award nominee Sophie Okonedo and Mark Strong.
Read more about Salomon’s life on the Jewish Women’s Archive.
—
The post Keira Knightley to voice German-Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon, who died in Auschwitz, for animated film appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
