El Laberinto del Fauno (119 min)
Seen on the 28th September 2008
This is one of the most beautiful and sad films I've seen recently. I saw this for the first time over a year ago and the impact was not the same. To me it was all about mothers and fathers being in constant tension against one another and against the odds. It is also about your dreams, when they die and how they die. Mercede's dreams having come to an end a long time ago and Ofelia's mother Carmen also trying to live her dreams through Ofelia but dreams about shoes and dresses not about books and stories.
In the background there are not fathers and there is a vicious fight for very intangible reasons: God, honor, country. All of that is not valid when children suffer and lack affection. Ofelia's father has died and his surrogate father, captain Vidal does not love her but only his half-brother. Captain Vidal also lacked a father and looking at his watch is a constant reminder of this fact. Ofelia, in all this chaos is the only one able to see what really matters: your own dream and how to make them real through feeding a dead plant with milk and honey and choosing life against death even though she dies. A really imaginative and poignant film about dreams ...
