[ponrauil]

Or El Laberinto del fauno, as it is a Spanish Film.

I watched this believing it would be some sort of another fantastic flic for kids, Narnia style... How wrong I was.

Plot: In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.

The film mixes with fluidity the historical fiction and the chimerical tale, multiplying the bridges between reality and fantasy, the magic creatures and the human monsters. You could almost call it a dark Alice in Wonderland... but it's way better than that could be... it's just an unseen before and brilliant approach of childhood, and how it was massacred by some historical tragedies.
It's a beautiful & violent, moving & frightening, brilliantly balanced like not enough films these days. The cast is great, Sergi Lopez, one of the best actors around these days, among others is just perfect.



Ponrauil

[Keeper]

I haven't seen it yet And the film was absolutely everywhere when it first opened. But I did see some of the figures used in the sets, etc. in an exhibition.

[Alex]

I've seen it about a year ago and my thoughts about the movie reflects yours, Auré. The combination of the two genres (fantasy and reality) works so well, even though they're two absolute opposites. The violence was shocking every now and then, especially in the end. Nevertheless, this movie was the best/most beautiful movie in 2006 for me.

And yes, Cristina; you really should see it!

[Arash]

it's brilliant. absolutely on my top 10 fantasy/imaginative movies ever.

[Javier]

Awesome movie!!!

[BJdavidLS]

It didn't do much for me. I can live without seeing it a second time, yet I spent quite some money on the DVD release, "had to" buy the Korean edition (the leather book) for my GF who really loves the movie. (also bought it when it came out in Italy, which was about a month before it went to the cinema here in Slovenia)

D.

[Captain Walrus]

Twas a very enjoyable film, although I agree that the advertising for it is over heavy on the fantasy front; whereas in reality it seems to be almost like "how can I actually make people come and watch a film about Franco's Spain? By throwing a fantasy subplot in of course!"

Definitely not for the squeamish either, there were bits where I was thinking "the director HAS to cut away now", but then the scene carried on ...

[Yvonne]

this was on just before christmas so i have it waiting for me to watch read the tv thing and sounded good but all your opinions are sounding like its good too, heres to thursday!

[JerseyboyUK]

Absoloutly mesmerising.
Over-advertised the 'fantasy' elements that, to be honest, didn't feature that much. But did it matter? No. The 'human' story was more engrossing that i could have imagined, and the ending was totally brilliant, really touching. I could watch it over and over again.
10/10

[Yvonne]

just out of interest, is there a version of the film that doesnt have subtitles?! yeah i'm being lazy, i just cant be bothered following a film with subtitles.