Director: Guillermo del Toro, 15, 120min
Stars: Sergi López, Ivana Baquero, Ariadna Gil, Doug Jones
The Mexican director del Toro is best known for the Hollywood comic-book adaptations Blade II and Hellboy. But he manages to mix such multiplex fare with more personal projects such as The Devil’s Backbone (2001), a ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War. His latest film can be seen as a companion piece and shows the director at his most imaginative and audacious.
It’s Franco-era Spain, 1944. The young Ofelia (Baquero) and her sick, pregnant mother move into a remote woodland barracks where her stepfather, a sadistic fascist captain, is charged with rooting out revolutionaries in the forest while the captain’s housekeeper and doctor secretly try to keep the revolt alive. Retreating from the harsh world around her, Ofelia is drawn into a labyrinth tended by a sinister faun that informs her she is the princess of a magical kingdom.
This is no Secret Garden- like story with a happy ending, but an absorbing adult fairytale. At times it’s like watching Alice in a pagan Wonderland as the always stoic Ofelia is charged with three terrifying tasks, including braving a faceless creature with eyes in its hands (above), to claim immortality. Equal weight is given to the real world as the mother struggles with her pregnancy and the captain (a horribly captivating López) devises more gruesome ways to torture his rebel captives.
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Del Toro’s great achievement is in convincingly weaving these two worlds together. The grim realities and dilemmas of war are mirrored by the Arthur Rackham-meets- Goya underworld of ghosts and mythic monsters that may offer a means of escape if Ofelia only follows orders. But as in the real world, is this the right thing to do? Whether dealing with fascists or fairies, the film intrigues and impresses. Dark, unsettling and beautiful, this is one of the most striking films of the year.