Synopsis:

The painter Paula Rego reveals herself for the first time in this film, surprising her own son, the director Nick Willing. The 80 year old Rego decided to tell her story and her secrets to her youngest son. The result is a documentary packed with surprises. Willing worked without a script, letting his mother´s life guide the documentary, and combining the family archive of photographs and films with interviews that go through 60 years of his mother´s life. Her pastel and oil paintings and charcoal drawings are a glimpse of an intimate world full of demons. As a result of this revealing documentary, new paintings from her “blue period”, a very depressive time in the artist´s life, came to light. Paula Rego who was the first artist in residence at the British National Gallery, has a public museum exclusively dedicated to her work and a Damehood from the Queen. The art critic Robert Hughes once said that Rego is "the best painter of women's experience alive". Those who don´t know Paula Rego now have an excellent opportunity to do so, and those who already know her will discover new stories and secrets.