Inspired by Octavio Paz’s essay “The Traps of Faith”, the film narrates the final years of the celebrated Mexican poet and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who, at the age of twenty, secludes herself in a convent to be able to study.

Set in colonial Mexico, heavily influenced by the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church, two powers that often clashed and that shaped Sor Juana’s life: while the viceroys offer her protection, the Church disapproves of her teaching and wide-ranging intellectual pursuits (her passionate sonnets to the vicereine also raise eyebrows).

This screening will include a pre-recorded introduction by Natalia Christofoletti Barrenha, Cinema Mentiré.