Pan's Labyrinth

Film Review: El Laberinto del Fauno or Pan’s Labyrinth
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Starring: Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, and Ariadna Gil
Release Date: November 2006
Running Time: 119mins
Cert.: 15

ZOMGZ. OMGWTFBBQ! Askjfl! *Aneurism* *headdesk*.

Yep, it really is that good. It would be hard to explain why without giving away the plot – which is amazing and keeps you guessing right until the very end. It’s not that there are plot twists, in fact it’s a very straightforward, unconfusing, and linear plot. You just don’t expect the film to conclude in that way. You can’t believe a director would be that heartless to his audience. (Let’s just say that I wasn’t the only person blubbing like a baby as I left the cinema!)

This beautiful and imaginative film, directed by the man who gave us Hellboy, tells the story of a young girl called Ofelia who is brought by her new stepfather to his military quarters in rural . The year is 1944, and the film is set against the backdrop of a post- Spanish Civil War country. Ofelia’s stepfather, Captain Vidal, is the highest ranking officer at the quarters, and his fascist idealism is the driving force behind his character. Needless to say, Ofelia and her heavily pregnant mother are suddenly steeped in a life of horror, as the soldiers around them hunt down and kill the resistance fighters that are in the hills and forests surrounding the area. Whilst Ofelia tells fairy stories to her foetal baby brother in her mother’s womb, Captain Vidal brutally and mercilessly interrogates and tortures members of the resistance for information.

Ofelia, being a little girl, is enamoured with fairytales. So when she discovers an ancient labyrinth on the site, she begins to explore. What comes from this is essentially a symbolic and disturbing yet beautiful tale of an innocent girl’s descent into her own subconscious (or the underworld), where the horrors she encounters in real life are processed and mirrored – and eventually escaped from. Ofelia’s journey begins with the meeting of a fairy, and then an ambivalent character of the Faun (NOT Pan – the actual title of this film in Spanish is “The Labyrinth of the Faun”.) This Faun – at times kind and benevolent, at others creepy and fierce – acts as an ambassador for the underworld from which Ofelia’s soul – that of the princess of the underworld – supposedly came from, and to which it yearns to return. In order to gain access once more to the underworld, Ofelia must pass three tests.

However, the film doesn’t just focus on Ofelia’s journey in fairyland. It also follows her journey in the real world, as well as that of the figures around her – including the head maidservant Mercedes (one of the most likeable characters in the entire film), Ofelia’s mother Carmen, Captain Vidal himself, and one of my other favourite characters, the Doctor.

What Pan’s Labyrinth gives us is a stark contrast of innocence versus evil and fascist idealism. Whilst in Ofelia’s world the fairytale beings she meets are often brutal and downright scary , they are not as evil and disgusting as the real world that she now lives in. The film also works on timeless themes that many of you will recognize from the original Brothers Grimm fairytales: banquets you must not eat or drink from, child-eating monsters, descent into the Underworld, the preservation of innocence, a long-lost princess, three ordeals that must be passed. Those of you who are fairy-fanatics, folklore buffs, and lovers of fantasy that has a bit of blood, guts, and darkness, will absolutely adore this film in all its creepy, evocative, beautiful, tragic, and happy glory.

Just remember to take some tissues into the cinema with you.