Séraphine

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2h 5m | Drama

1912. Séraphine Louis, 42, lives in Senlis, a small town fifty kilometres outside Paris. She earns a living doing household chores and cleaning. In her spare time, Séraphine paints, on anything that comes to hand (plates, furniture, small wooden panels). She works as a maid for Madame Duphot, who rents an apartment to a German art critic and dealer, Wilhelm Uhde, an enthusiastic advocate of modern and 'primitive' artists. At a dinner party given by Madama Duphot, Wilhelm comes across a small painting that Séraphine brought over a few days prior. Mesmerized, he snaps it up and insists that Séraphine show him the rest of her work. He buys it all and encourages her to continue developing her talent.

The Great War breaks out. Uhde is forced to flee France and abandon Séraphine. During the fighting, through famine, poverty and harsh winters, Séraphine never stops painting.

1927. Back in France, Wilhelm Uhde now lives in Chantilly, not far from Senlis, with his sister, Anne-Marie, and his companion, Helmut. At Anne-Marie's insistence, he visits an exhibition of amateur painters in Senlis, where, at the far end of one of the rooms, he glimpses huge, shimmering , mystical canvases. Wilhelm immediately recognizes Séraphine's style. Overcome with emotion, he decides to take the elderly woman under his wing once more.

In the next few years, Séraphine paints her most inspired works and sells many of them but gradually loses her reason. Interned in an asylum, she passes away in 1942.