El Castillo de la Pureza

Arte Abierto, in collaboration with FundarqMx, presents a new edition of Arquicinema, a space where cinema and architecture converge. This edition is titled La Ciudad de México a través del cine.

During four special sessions featuring interdisciplinary talks that explore how architecture shapes cinematic narrative and how, in turn, cinema becomes a tool to observe and understand Mexico City’s urban, social, and landscape environment.

Through the analysis of selected scenes from key films—from the classics of Luis Buñuel to the contemporary gaze of Alfonso Cuarón—specialists in architecture, urban history, and visual culture will reflect on how the city’s built spaces are also narrative, symbolic, and emotional sites.

This series seeks to open an interdisciplinary dialogue and foster exchange on the role of architecture in the cinematic representation of the city. Arquicinema: La Ciudad de México a través del cine proposes looking at cinema through the lens of architecture, and vice versa, as a way of exploring the connections between built space, urban identity, and the narratives that define us.

El Castillo de la Pureza (Arturo Ripstein, 1973)

The film tells the story of a father who keeps his family locked inside their home for years, convinced he is protecting them from the outside world.

Here, architecture functions not only as a physical container but as an extension of the authoritarian father’s mind: an environment of confinement, claustrophobic and loaded with symbolism.

Luis Andrés de Palafox reflects on how built space can become an emotional prison, where the limits imposed by walls and doors embody the internal frontiers of fear, power, and repression.

Arq. Luis Andrés de Palafox

Architect, graduate of FES Acatlán. He spearheaded Mexico City’s water efficiency program and took part in the preservation of over 2,000 artistic, historic, and contemporary properties in the city’s Historic Center through both the Centro Histórico Trust and his own firm Ciudad y Patrimonio. He also serves as consultant for major architectural projects in Mexico City and is Vice President of FUNDARQMX.