Combination of grippingly realistic drama and fantasy

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2007)

I'm sure like a lot of viewers, I expected the setting to be more of a backdrop than an actual reason for the fantasy itself.
However, it works beautifully as any film of its genre that I have ever seen.
A young girl who has a deathly sick mother carrying her half-brother child, with a brutal step-father who is an important military officer during the immediate aftermath of the Spanish civil war, desperately wants to believe she is the long awaited princess of a fairy tale she is reading.
The fantasy aspect trades back and forth through the movie as she moves from horror filled reality to promising make believe and back again (though the fantasy has a couple of very scary moments for her as well).
Ultimately, the point of the film is captured by the selfless act of making the right choice based on the principle that the end does NOT justify the means, a very poignant moment.
I would have loved for my 12 and 10 year old to see this, but as much as I understand the reason for it, the graphic violence is a bit too much...my sole reason for giving it a 9/10.