Visually and emotionally stunning

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2007)

A mother and daughter arrive at a mountain army camp in Civil War Spain. The Woman is married to it's commandant. The daughter is a reluctant visitor. Her father is dead and she has no liking for her new Step Father. We are made aware early on that the young girl either has a fanciful imagination or is in touch with an alternate reality.
While her sick mother stays in bed the girl is visited by an insect she saw in the woods, and this soon morphs into a fairy who beckons her to follow it. She is led to some ruins near by and there meets a Pan like creature, who tells her she is a long awaited Princess, and that she must perform three tasks to be able to become the Princess of the other world. Now we realize that the girl's imagination is hard at work.
The movie continues in these two layers: reality and fantastical imagination. Her Step Father turns out to be a fascist brute, whose only interest in the girl's mother is for her to deliver him a son. He is pursuing a gang of rebels hiding in the mountains and forests surrounding the camp. The camp has a mole who is the sister of the gang's leader.
The daughter's fantasy grows more and more elaborate as she uses it to escape from the loss of her father, and the mixed loyalties of her mother. Both stories grip one's attention. Brutality and heroism exist in both; sacrifices are made; and potentially fatal errors occur. There are monsters in both worlds! The cinematography is brilliant. The CGI superb. The makeup and costumes are flawless. Best of all it all comes together without jarring or disturbing juxtapositions.
While a child is the center piece of the movie, it is definitely not a movie for children. It is a violent and frightful world in both places, but it is also a place of heroic struggle between good and evil.
The ending surprised me and left me in tears. It was at the same time tragic and inspiring; depressing and uplifting.
The metaphors abound but are so well weaved that one can experience them without having to dissect them, until much later.