Blog Assignment #4: Seen Any Good Films Lately?

Pan’s labyrinth

This is a non-English speaking movie and was nominated for an Oscar for the best foreign language film in 2007.

The year is 1944 and the civil war in Spain is over. An eleven year old girl named Ofelia, who is fascinated of fairytales, travels with her pregnant mother out on to the countryside to visit her stepfather, the cruel and brutal captain Vidal. He’s a follower to Franco and has the mission to supplant the last rebels who are hiding in the forests and still fights for freedom and mankind’s equal worth. During her first night in her new home Ofelia meets a fairy that takes her to an aged overgrowned labyrinth. Here waits a faun for her and he reveals her real identity; she’s the daughter of the king from a furtively lower world kingdom. She has to carry out 3 tasks if she wants to return and meet her real father.

The movie is divided in to two. First the story about Ofelias´s tasks in the fantasy world – or is it real? Than the external world, which is no more tempting, the mother´s fragile health and the housemaid´s double life.

Pan’s labyrinth is a dark and cruel story. This changing between fantasy and historical drama are skilled balanced over the genres. The interpreting is open: is it an unusual chimerical child´s escape from the tough reality or is it happening “for real”?

The movie is extraordinary beautiful, well-played and cruel and dark but not without hope. I loved this film; it’s gripping and magical and won’t leave anyone unaffected. See it and escape in to another world for 2 hours.