Do not take your children! (by Tobias and Violeta)

Normally I (V) am not interested in fantasy films and I (T) am not interested in films about the Spanish civil war. Although we went to the movies together and saw the film PAN´s LABYRINTH by the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. The story takes place in post-war Spain of 1944. Ofelia, whose father died in the Civil War, and her pregnant mother remove to the country where the new husband - a fascist Group Capitan - lives and fights against remaining guerrillas. He is obsessed by the birth of his son and heir and completely indifferent towards his new wife and her daughter. Little Ofelia only bears with the Captain because she is absorbed by the magic world of the fairy-tails she reads. Her new fried is a faun who asks her difficult riddles …

The combination of fantasy and realistic drama in the film is excellent, based on the distinction between Ofelia´s world of dreams and her everyday life. And Sergi Lopez is brilliant as bestial Captain as well as the young actress Ivana Baquero as Ofelia.

BUT the film is highly brutal! Continuously! During the scenes in the underworld just as in those taking place overground!

We heard that people thought of taking their children to see that film because the female protagonist is a child and because it is a fairy tale.

It is indeed a fairy story - but for adults. And that is what the director wanted it to be… In an interview with a German newspaper we read his answer to the question: Why do adults need fairy tails much more than children?
“As soon as you start to function as an adult, the brightness of spirituality and magic disappears. We believe that reality is more powerful than our imagination. In reference to that position, fantasy-stories are the best antidote.”