Fact and fiction bleed seamlessly into one another in Pan’s Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno) by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro, whose filmography includes amongst others Blade II, Hellboy and The Devil’s Backbone (El Espinazo del Diablo) masterfully creates a phantasmagorical world of magic-realism which is both credible and terrifying. The story revolves around Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero), ‘n young girl who accompanies her pregnant mother to live with her new Fascist stepfather, Captain Vidal. A magical world unfolds against the grisly backdrop of the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War – Ofelia is guided towards her fate by a faun called Pan that she meets in the forest. He gives her three tasks to perform before the moon grows full and the viewer embarks on this quest with Ofelia, destabilised by the uncertainties: Will Ofelia succeed? Can Pan be trusted? What fate awaits the characters touched by war?
What was most striking to me, was the fact that Del Toro blended fantasy and reality with such credibility and conviction. In the past, I have often watched films wherein the director tries to marry fantasy and reality, but fails miserably, and rather emphasises the seemingly “irreconcilable” differences between the two worlds. Pan’s Labyrinth flows effortlessly from fact to fiction and vice versa, whilst many other filmic attempts at magic-realism unconvincingly fragment a film and break its natural flow.
I have to admit though, that the explicit violence of the film was quite unexpected and shocking, and at times even, what I felt, unnecessary. Believe you me, Pan’s Labyrinth is not described as a fairy-tale for grown-ups without good reason. I do not believe that Del Toro uses violence as a vehicle for sensationalism in this film. I believe he uses it for a definite purpose – to emphasise the stark contrast between the imaginative world of childhood innocence and the atrocities committed by adults in reality. Sometimes fact seems stranger and more incomprehensible than fiction, especially with cruel atrocities like the Holocaust of the 1930s and 1940s or the Rwandan genocide of 1994 that plague our history.
SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT YET WATCHED THE FILM! Ofelia’s magical quest becomes an allegory for the timeless universal value: do not fight hate with hate, or evil with evil. Dissolve hate with love and evil with goodness. In this film, self-sacrifice is the key to Ofelia’s redemption and the redemption of the whole community. Ofelia becomes the “Fisher King” who is sacrificed as scapegoat to make healing possible for the nation and the land, a new history can now be written and continued through the blood she has spilled, the blood that is tied to and now lives on in her half-brother. Pan’s Labyrinth is deeply rich in imagery and symbolism – a prospect for a fruitful analytical article, thesis or study.
Genre: Fantasy / Drama / Thriller
Running time: 119 min
Country: Spain / Mexico / USA
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Writing credits: Guillermo del Toro
Producers:
Alfonso Cuarón
Guillermo del Toro
Cinematographer: Guillermo Navarro
Music: Javier Navarrete
Distributed by: Picturehouse
Main Cast:
Ofelia – Havana Baquero
Carmen Vidal – Ariadna Gil
Captain Vidal – Sergi López
Mercedes – Maribel Verdú
Pan – Doug Jones
Dr. Ferreiro – Alex Angulo
