New film about Leonora Carrington blends fact with fiction
A new film titled *Leonora in the Morning Light* blends fact and fiction to tell the story of British Mexican Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). Directed by Thor Klein and Lena Vurma, the non-linear narrative moves between 1950s Mexico and 1930s Paris, depicting Carrington's relationships with artist Max Ernst, patron Edward James, and Surrealist figures like André Breton and Salvador Dalí. The film draws on two novelized accounts of her life—Elena Poniatowska's *Leonora* (2011) and Michaela Carter's 2021 novel—and highlights Carrington's feminist critiques of the Surrealist movement's idealization of women. However, the article notes significant factual divergences, including the omission of Carrington's gang rape by Francoist soldiers and a misattribution of her breakdown solely to Ernst's arrest.