Lourdes Castro – Through Shadows

Lourdes Castro (1930-2022) was one of the greatest Portuguese artists of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Fascinated by her work (as a teenager, she had seen her “shadow plays” at CAM), Catarina Mourão wanted to make a film with the artist and Through Shadows was made in the Madeiran town of Caniço, in the house that Lourdes built with her husband, the artist Manuel Zimbro, when, after many decades living in Paris and Berlin, they decided to return to Portugal. Catarina is once again fascinated by the “magic in everyday things” and films Lourdes in her space and in her stillness, tending to her plants, revisiting her family albums and artist's books. Everyday gestures, breathing. A beautiful, delicate film of great intimacy, made up of complicity and a sense of humour. At one point, Lourdes de Castro says, referring to the space around her: “This is my painting. I can't move it. It wouldn't even want to move.”