A fairy tale and the Spanish Revolution are intertwined in the Spanish language film Pan’s Labyrinth (El Labarinto del fauna), directed by Guillermo Del Toro. The fairy tale involves Ofelia (played by Ivana Baquero), who in 1944 accompanies her pregnant mother, Carmen Vidal (played by Ariadna Gil), to a Spanish military outpost in the Spanish highlands, where Capitán Vidal (played by Sergi López) seeks to root out the few remaining rebels against the regime of dictator Francisco Franco. But for the brutality and violence, the film might be entitled “A Young Person’s Introduction to the Spanish Revolution.” Ofelia enjoys reading fairy tales, much to the disapproval of her mother and the Captain, who is her stepfather. Nevertheless, she finds a secret world in the forest, including an offer from the legendary faun Pan (played by Doug Jones) for eternal life as a princess, and she even hides a baby creature under the bed where she sleeps with her mother. Early in the film, a farmer and his son are captured as suspected rebels by soldiers at the outpost. When the Captain interrogates, the farmer’s son protests that his father is an honest man; if he says that he was shooting rabbits, then he was. For his temerity in protesting, the Captain riflebutts him and kills him, and the father is shot dead as well. Later, the bag that the father was carrying contains a dead rabbit. Thereby, the film portrays the Captain as the bad guy, who later verbalizes contempt for the democratic principle of equality and expresses the opinion that his unborn son must be saved at all costs even if Carmen dies during childbirth. Battles between the rebels and the military ensue, and spies for the rebels--housekeeper Mercedes (played by Maribel Verdú) and physician Dr. Ferriero (played by Álex Angulo)--within the military encampment are identified. Voiceovers at the beginning and end set the stage for the fairy tale and recount the outcome. MH
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