Chichester Cinema at New Park
Pan’s Labyrinth
- El Laberinto del Fauno
Outstanding multi-award wining allegory combining fantasy and realism set against Franco’s Spain.
Part of the SURREAL FRIENDS: VIVA MEXICO & SURREALIST CINEMA
Click on the image to see all the films in the season.
In 1944, post-Civil War Spain, rebels still fight in the mountains against the fascist troops. A girl Ofelia, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother Carmen to live with her new stepfather Captain Vidal, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army.
During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the centre of the labyrinth. He tells her she is a princess but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks.
In this magical and immensely moving film, the Mexican director Del Toro presents both the narrative strands as equally real, equally plausible. There's no attempt to rationalise Ofelia's parallel universe by suggesting it's a dream or a fantasy.
In fact the two sides of the film come together to constitute an allegory about the soul and the national identity of Spain. This film brings together several relevant strands to the exhibition: visual evocation of the world of Carrington and Varo which Del Toro has quoted as his inspiration; depiction of Spanish Civil War which played key part in lives of Varo, and her lover the Surrealist poet Benjamin Peret and Kati and Jose Horna; Surrealism and magical realism. (subtitles)
Part of the SURREAL FRIENDS: VIVA MEXICO & SURREALIST CINEMA
Click on the image to see all the films in the season.
Spain · 2006 · Guillermo Del Torro · 112min
