a dark fairy tale

Rating: 8/10 (13 September 2007)

'Pan's Labyrinth' uses the format and borrows characters from the fairy tales genre, but takes it into extreme allegory territory. It is set in the Spain of year 1944, a year where Spain was just starting more than three decades of fascist rule. The principal hero is an 11 years orphaned girl, who is witnessing the tragedy in her family, the tyranny of a cruel stepfather, and the political turmoil around caused by oppression crushing the last remaining fighters of the Republican army. As many fairy tales heroes of her age she searches refuge in dream and imagination. The difference is that here the alternate reality may be as complex to cope with for the young girl and reality is.
The whole idea of the film plays on the equilibrium and interference between the two worlds. While the fantastic world is built with the imagination of a Gothic thriller author, the real world seems to be impregnated as well with an aura of mystery despite the cruel and sordid deeds happening within. Although there is a clear delimitation between good and evil in the real world, decisions in the fantastic realm seem to be more complex, and the director refuses to make it a complete balance of reality. At the end what is different is actually the artistic treatment that the two alternate worlds receive in the movie. While the fantastic scenes are full of imagination and create a complex and interesting visual composition, the real world seems schematic and too much close to the conventional and politically engaged view of the period. This lack of balance is the one that makes so that this very interesting film does not reach in my opinion the level of a real masterpiece.