FILM SYNOPSIS:

Séraphine is the true story of Séraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper, who in 1905 at age 41 began painting brilliantly colorful canvases. She was self-taught and claimed they were instigated by a guardian angel. In 1912, Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), a German art critic and collector discovered her paintings while she worked for him as a maid in his lodgings in Senlis outside Paris. Uhde became her patron and grouped her work with other naïve painters – the so-called “Sacred Heart Painters” — with acclaimed shows in Paris, elsewhere in Europe and eventually at New York’s MOMA.

Director Martin Provost builds his story around the relationship between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary cleaning lady, forging a testament to the mysteries of creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit. A sleeper hit in France, Séraphine went on to win the Best Picture and Best Actress for Yolande Moreau along with five other awards at the 2009 Cesars, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.

DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY:

Martin Provost

French writer, director, actor Martin Provost received two 2009 César awards (the French equivalent of the Oscars) on behalf of SERAPHINE: Best Director and Best Writer, the latter of which he won and shared with co-writer Marc Abdelnour two. SERAPHINE is the third feature-length film Provost has written and directed