Fantasical

Rating: 9/10 (4 July 2007)

This stunning film is a bizarre blend of fantasy and the harsh reality of war. I felt the film was telling two stories, in two very different worlds yet somehow they were one. It showed me that even though there is a war going on in our lives, with people being butchered and murdered before our eyes, the innocence of a child can still escape into a place of beauty and fantasy.
Ivana Baquero was amazing. She captured the innocence of the film while Sergi López portrayed a villain that showed you the extreme opposite. Thrown into the mix is Maribel Verdú as the mother figure for Ofeila, offering a bridge between the two worlds.
I was expecting the film to explain itself as it drew to the end. Telling us that the Fawn was Mercedes, that the General was the "creature" in her second tasks, and I loved the fact that it didn't. I loved it even more with its magical, childlike ending. For me it made the film complete, the happy ending in a world that doesn't seem to have one.