UK Premiere: Yo, La Peor de Todas (I, the Worst of All)
classified 15 S Sold Outpart of Restored & Rediscovered
Please note: This was screened in July 2025
17th-century Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, defies social expectations, becoming a renowned intellectual and writer during the Spanish Inquisition.
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).
With the Spanish Inquisition in full swing, Juana’s free-spirited genius with a penchant for rebellion and individual thought, spilling over with self-confidence and good humour, will suffer the consequences at the hands of misogynistic and conservative powers.
A UK premiere of the 2K restoration, made by Cinecolor Group Argentina.
Co-curated by Cinema Mentiré as part of Other Ways of Seeing, with support from BFI Awarding Funds from National Lottery as part Daring to Dare: The Films of María Luisa Bemberg (1922-1995), a celebration of the trailblazing Argentinian filmmaker on the 30th anniversary of her passing.
