Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Would you like to pamper yourself with a nice fantasy movie? Or are you looking for a thoughtful drama with elements of thriller mixed with mystery and war history? Then you are sure to like Pan's Labyrinth (original title "El laberinto del fauno"), the film directed by Gilliermo del Toro. This picture won a lot of professional awards during the year after its release in 2006, grossing over $83 million worldwide. Among the most noble prizes are Oscar and Cannes festival awards in 2006- 2007. The film can boast a number of nominations in fantasy genres due to it's unbelievable, breathtaking and fantastic graphic. If I were asked to describe it in two words, they would be 'excellent' and 'violent'.

The plot is divided into two parallel story lines. The first line tells us about the events taking place during World War II. The place location in Spain, 1944. The second line is shown in way of fantasies, which make the spectators guess about if the events had really taken place before or they were merely main hero's dreams. The film starts telling about young Ophelia (Ivana Baquero) who is going with her mother Carmen (Ariadna Gil) to her stepfather's camp. Ophelia's stepfather, Captain Vidal starred by Sergi Lopez,is far from being a caring person, he is rather a cruel and strict man who is looking forward to his wife to give birth to their son (he believes it will be a baby boy). His main job and apparently a pleasure is to fight with rebellions. Vidal hates Ophelia but tolerates her presence for the sake of his future son Carmen should give birth to. Ophelia treats her stepfather the same way but her life gets difficult due to her mother's hard illness. At the same time dreamy Ophelia finds out that she is a princess of the magic kingdom, where there is a king, her real father, who is looking and waiting for her return. Pan, a strange creature the girl met in the labyrinth, offered her to come with him to the kingdom but before doing this she has to undergo three trials.

The film astonishes by the feeling of unreality. Such effect is achieved due to various special effects providing the image of tricky combination of real life with war scenes and fantastic world. While watching the spectators will find themselves moving from one world full of magic, weird creatures to another one with war actions, death, destruction and sufferings. Add to this blatant sound effects and this fairy tale is likely to turn into a horror movie. However, it's not cruel, even war scenes are not bloody here. All these effects are meant to reveal the problematic issues such as hatred, people's fears hidden under external cruelty, their weak points, tough relationships especially those between stepparents and step kids, which may lead to unpredictable consequences. The viewers who do appreciate films with a message are sure to like this one.